Paper short abstract:

Archaeological evidence for innovations in spear technology in northern Australia comes from archaeology and rock art studies. Analysis of the Thomson collection of spears held at Museum Victoria reveals further dimensions of innovation and challenges the currently available picture of technological change derived from archaeology.

Paper long abstract:

Archaeological evidence for spear technology in northern Australia is limited to the hard evidence of stone projectile points. This is modified somewhat by the information contained in rock art, where at certain periods, Aboriginal artists choose to emphasise material culture elements in the art, particularly spears, spearthrowers and bodily decoration. Both lines of evidence have been used to produce sequences of changes in spear technology where forms replace each other , with an assumption of increasing efficiency over time. A material culture study of the spears and spearthrowers in the Thomson collection at Museum Victoria, however, suggests that change in these technologies was additive rather than substitutive. The paper concludes with a discussion of the continuing importance of ethnographic and material culture studies to archaeological interpretation in northern australia and elsewhere.