Lorblanchet, Michel, and Rhys Jones, 2018. The first excavations at Dampier (Western Australia), and their place in Australian archaeology (with addendum on radiocarbon dating of Skew Valley midden). Chapter 2, part II
Abstract
Lorblanchet, Michel, and Rhys Jones, 2018. The first excavations at Dampier (Western Australia), and their place in Australian archaeology (with addendum on radiocarbon dating of Skew Valley midden). In Archaeology and Petroglyphs of Dampier (Western Australia), an Archaeological Investigation of Skew Valley and Gum Tree Valley, ed. Graeme K. Ward and Ken Mulvaney, chapter 2 (part II), pp. 163–190. Technical Reports of the Australian Museum, Online 27: 1–690.
[Conclusion] The Terebralia midden spans a period of as much as 7600–6800 years ago (two-sigma cal BP ranges), and the Anadara midden from about 4400–2200 (two-sigma cal BP ranges). Anadara gathering stopped probably more than two millennia ago, but the excavation showed a discrete and intermittent use of the site up to the contact period. There is a gap between the two midden components of about two-and-one-half millennia (roughly between less than 7000 and more than 4000 BP) during which the shell gathering stopped, but it is impossible to know if the site was completely abandoned. New excavations of other middens (for example of the large midden in the centre of Gum Tree Valley) are necessary to date more precisely the human occupation of the area (since it is not possible to date directly the petroglyphs).
