The temporality of cultural material on a deflated dune system at Abbot Point, Central Queensland coast

Abstract

Abbott Point on the central Queensland coast has long been recognised as an area of cultural heritage significance but has essentially been ignored in terms of research archaeology because of the lack of stratified integrity of the cultural material nearly all of which sits on deflated dune surfaces. Because of the problems associated with preservation of open sites in coastal tropical environments (see Bird 1992) most of the archaeological reconstructions in the region has been based on rockshelter excavation even though it is clear that open coastal sites such as Abbott Point and Upstart Bay to the north were probably more intensively used with evidence of a much greater range of generalised hunter-gatherer activity in comparison to the more specialised rock shelter sites (Brayshaw 1990, Bird 1992, Barker 1994, 2004). Thus, given the evidence of intensive use of this site and its central location within a system of other clearly linked sites within the region it was felt that an attempt should be made to include this site within the wider framework of regional site patterning and use and that in this context an attempt should be made to establish its temporality.