Kartan industry is the archaeological production, probably more than 10,000 years ago, of a large quantity of exceptionally large stone tools that were found on Karta, known since 1802 as Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
Archaeology of Karta
editAn island mystery
editKartan culture archaeology presents a puzzle, according to historian Rebe Taylor, who quotes the archaeologist Ronald Lampert: "The problem had all the characteristics of a classic mystery story: a large offshore island without people [today], separated .. nearly 10,000 years ago, yet with abundant evidence of human population."[1] Indeed, Lampert called his book The great Kartan mystery.[2]
Heavy stone tools
editJames Kohen, in his book Aboriginal Environmental Impacts,[3] describes the Aboriginal stone tool assemblage of Karta as "heavy core tools and pebble choppers".[4] Such Kartan tools are also, writes Kohen, found on the South Australian coast, the Flinders Ranges, and at Lime Springs in New South Wales.[4]
According to Kohen, "the Kartan industry consists almost exclusively of large core tools, unifacially flaked pebble tools and hammerstones".[4] The tools are very heavy, averaging around 900 grams, "perhaps ten times the average of any other assemblage".[5]
Some of the Kartan tools are "horsehoof" cores, defined by Josephine Flood as having a "flat base, an overhanging, step-flaked edge, and a high, domed shape like a horse's hoof"; their function is unexplained, and while they might have been used as choppers, they could simply be waste cores from the production of flake tools.[6]
Over 120 Kartan sites have been found, yielding thousands of pebble choppers and hundreds of hammerstones.[5] Most of the Kartan tools from Kangaroo island itself are composed of Quartzite brought into the sites from as far as 35 kilometres away.[5]
Use of large game animals
editFew Kartan flakes have been found, but Kohen reports one find by Draper on Kangaroo Island, in a site dated to 7000 years ago, "a chopper which may well have been used to butcher sea lions";[4] sea lion bones were found with the pebble tool.[7] However, Kohen cautions, the possible link between Kartan industry and "butchering of large game" does not prove that large animals "were actively hunted".[8]
Likely age
editJosephine Flood, writing in her Archaeology of the Dreamtime, suggests that "the Kartan choppers are the earliest tools in Australia", most likely more than 16000 years old.[9]
See also
editReferences
editBibliography
edit- James L. Kohen. Aboriginal Environmental Impacts. University of New South Wales Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0-86840-301-4 Google books
- R. V. S. Wright. Stone Tools as Cultural Markers: change, evolution, and complexity. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1977. ISBN 978-0-391-00835-9 Google books
- Derek John Mulvaney and Johan Kamminga. Prehistory of Australia. Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999. ISBN 978-1-56098-804-5 Google books
- Josephine Flood. Archaeology of the Dreamtime. University of Hawaii Press/Angus and Robertson. 2nd Edition, 1995. ISBN 978-0-207-18448-2 Google books
- Ronald John Lampert. The great Kartan mystery. Books Australia, 1981. ISBN 978-0-909596-62-0 Google books
- Rebe Taylor. Unearthed: The Aboriginal Tasmanians of Kangaroo Island. Wakefield Press. Illustrated edition, 2002. ISBN 978-1-86254-552-6 Google books