Westell, Craig, Roberts, Amy, Morley, Mike W., Moffat, Ian, Hernandez, Vito C., Spooner, Nigel, McDonnell, Kathryn, Rudd, Rachel, Petchey, Fiona, and River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation (2025) Life beyond the lakes: An analysis and implications of a Pleistocene combustion feature on the Pike River in South Australia. Journal of Archaeological Science, 180. 106264.

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Abstract

The Pike River is an anabranch and palaeochannel of the Murray River located in South Australia's Riverland region, in the southwestern part of the Murray-Darling Basin. The floodplain contains abundant and varied archaeological evidence of Aboriginal life, including extensive deposits of shell midden exposed along the high cliff-line bounding the southeastern margin of the floodplain. The oldest of these deposits has been securely dated, so far, to ∼29 ka cal BP. This article presents the results of chronological, micromorphological and sedimentary analyses of a combustion feature also located on this cliff-line. Based on our analysis and interpretation of the feature's stratigraphic context, in combination with 14C and OSL dating, we argue that the feature is ∼43 ka old. Whilst the combustion feature contains no associated cultural material (e.g. stone artefacts or faunal remains) we argue that a cultural origin is, nonetheless, supported given the feature's geometry, sedimentary structures, geochemistry and magnetic response. As such, we argue that the feature provides a rare glimpse into the earliest peopling of the Murray River corridor. Further, the feature is amongst some of the earliest pieces of evidence for human pyrotechnology in the Australasian region and only one of a few examples from an open-air site that is microstratigraphically (micromorphologically) contextualised. The preservation of combustion features of this antiquity in open-context sites is extremely rare, both in this region and globally.

Item ID:	86349
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1095-9238
Keywords:	Aboriginal archaeology; Combustion feature; Geochronology; Geoarchaeology; Murray-Darling Basin
Copyright Information:	© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Funders:	Australian Research Council
Projects and Grants:	ARC Linkage Grant (LP200200803), ARC Linkage Grant (LP170100479)
Date Deposited:	23 Jul 2025 22:46
FoR Codes:	45 INDIGENOUS STUDIES > 4501 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, language and history > 450101 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander archaeology @ 50% 43 HISTORY, HERITAGE AND ARCHAEOLOGY > 4301 Archaeology > 430101 Archaeological science @ 50%
SEO Codes:	21 INDIGENOUS > 2104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture > 210401 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artefacts @ 50% 21 INDIGENOUS > 2104 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture > 210402 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connection to land and environment @ 25% 13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1307 Understanding past societies > 130703 Understanding Australia’s past @ 25%
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