The Archaeology of Portable Art

Michelle C. Langley is a DECRA Research Fellow in the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia. Her research revolves around issues of human behavioural evolution in both Neanderthals and Modern Humans, and specialises in the traceology of hunter-gatherer technologies. Mirani Litster is a Research Officer in the Department of Archaeology and Natural History at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on the archaeology of past globalisation and interaction in the Indian Ocean and Australasia. Duncan Wright is a Senior Lecturer at the Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, specialising in Australian Indigenous archaeology. Since completing a doctorate at Monash University in 2010 he has conducted extensive fieldwork in Australia-Pacific and Europe. A principal focus of his research is understanding the long-term human story of places that retain significance for contemporary communities. Sally K. May is a Senior Research Fellow with the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit, Griffith University, Australia. As an archaeologist and anthropologist her research focuses on relationships between people, landscapes, material culture and imagery, with inspiration drawn primarily from fieldwork in northern Australia.

Section 1: Southeast Asia 2. The Contribution of Southeast Asian Material to a Global Understanding of Portable Art 3. The Ubiquity of Light Coloured Disk Beads: Insights from the Comparison of Pleistocene Marine Shell, Ostrich Eggshell, Bone, Ivory, and Stone Disk Beads 4. Shell Keepsakes and Ornaments from the Niah Caves, Northwest Borneo: A Scalar Understanding of Value and Meaning 5. Glass Beads in Early Historic Mainland Southeast Asia: Mortuary Ritual and Meaning? 6. Beads: Small Artefacts as Evidence for Understanding Filipino Prehistory 7. A Small Greenstone Jewellery Workshop in the Tabon Caves Section 2: Pacific 8. Portable Artefacts in the Pacific - Approaches and Directions 9. Pendants of Stone, Shell, and Tooth from Southern Vanuatu 10. Modified Canines: Circular Pig’s Tusks in the Pacific and Beyond 11. Te Whakapapa o Te Mahi Taonga o Aotearoa: Understanding the Portable Art of New Zealand within an Indigenous Archaeology Framework 12. Cypraea Shell Ornament Use in the Marianas, Remote Oceania 13. Dissecting ‘Value’: Theory, Method, and Fijian Chiefly Breastplates Section 3: Australia 14. The Estoric and Decorative Use of Bone, Shell, and Teeth in Australia 15. Beads and Boundaries 16. Maker’s Marks: Identifying Master Shield Makers from Aboriginal south-east Australia 17. An Object of Desire: Tales of a Fat-Tailed Macropod 18. Marine Shell Ornaments in North Western Australian Archaeological Sites: Different Meanings over Time and Space 19. Portable Art in Australia’s Western Desert 20. Developing Approaches for Studying Past Australian Indigenous Use of Glass Beads 21. Lithics as Portable Art 22. Future Directions for Asian-Pacific Portable Art Research.