TARL Seminars

Seminars

ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (JCU Node) / Tropical Archaeology Research Laboratory / University of Papua New Guinea Seminar Series

Semester 1, 2024 Seminar Series Schedule

Day/Time: Fridays from 2-3pm (Local/Brisbane Time) from March 8th.

Townsville: Bebegu Yumba (Townsville) Room: 4-006
Cairns: Nguma-bada (Cairns) Room: D003-003

Watch the seminars via zoom: Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android - https://jcu.zoom.us/j/86129107536?pwd=UEN0NGNULy9ZMHhDVG1wWVdUYXhJUT09

Password: 174247

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


8 March - Distinguished Professor Michael Bird, James Cook University: "A 150,000 year record of monsoon intensity from northern Australia; The context for first arrival in Sahel."

15 March - Dr Nigel Chang, James Cook University: "When does a ditch become more than just a ditch? A new look at the pre-Angkorian site of Sai-O, Buriram Province, NE Thailand."

22 March - My Archaeology – Learning & Teaching discussion with staff, past and current students and industry professionals. Themes: What archaeology means to you?  What you would like to learn and experience during your studies?

29 March - Public Holiday, no seminars

5 April - Mid-Semester Break, no seminars

12 April - No seminar

19 April - Professor R.J. Wasson: "Incubation of the 2013 flood and landslide disaster in the Uttarakhand Himalaya, India: from the palaeo to the present".

26 April - Dafne Koutamanis – Reconstructing dietary behaviour and food webs of Pleistocene Australasian fauna through calcium and strontium isotope geochemistry

3 May - Rossella Paba – Topic TBA

10 May - Nick Roberts: Topic: Queensland Main Roads and Heritage Management

17 May - Lauren Linnenlucke: Topic: Working with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO)

24 May - Anna Willis: Topic: Stable Carbon & Oxygen Isotopes in Ancient Myanmar.

Fridays from 1-2pm (Local/Brisbane Time) from March 10th.

Townsville: Bebegu Yumba (Townsville) Room: 134-105
Cairns: Nguma-bada (Cairns) Room: D3-003 (in A001-125 for the 17th March, 5th May and 19th of May)

Watch the seminars via zoom: Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android - https://jcu.zoom.us/j/87087979927?pwd=TTFEaDBQTVZrb24zYXJjWGZLSXpaZz09

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


10 March - Wendy van Duivenvoorde, Flinders University: "Out of the Woodworks: The Interdisciplinary Study of the 1962 Batavia's Ship Remains, Its Timber and Connection to the Dutch Fine Arts."

17 March - Alice Gorman, Flinders University: "The First Archaeological Fieldwork in Space: The SQuARE Survey of the International Space Station".

24 March - Noel Hidalgo Tan, SEAMEO SPAFA, Thailand: "Technically Assisting: Recent Recording of Petroglyphs in Sainyabuli, Laos".

31 March - Tim Maloney, Melandri Vlok and India Ella Dilkes-Hall, Griffith University: "Evidence for Early Amputation 31,000 years ago in Borneo".

7 April - Public Holiday

14 April - Study Break

21 April - Frederik Saltré, Flinders University: "Interactions of past environmental changes and modern human expansion."

28 April - Krish Seetah, Stanford University: "AI, Archives, and an Archaeology of Epidemics: A Case Study from the Indian Ocean World."

5 May - Tracy Martens, La Trobe University: "Inka Interaction in Northern Chile: Evidence from Archaeological Textiles".

12 May - Emma Rehn, James Cook University: "The ABCs of Communicating Science: Reflections on Media Training with the ABC TOP 5 Science program".

Day/Time: Fridays from 1-2pm (Local/Brisbane Time) from August 4th.

Townsville: Bebegu Yumba (Townsville) Room: 134-105
Cairns: Nguma-bada (Cairns) Room: D3-003

Watch the seminars via zoom: Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android - https://jcu.zoom.us/j/87087979927?pwd=TTFEaDBQTVZrb24zYXJjWGZLSXpaZz09

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


4 August - Jarrad Kowlessar, Flinders University: "Reconstructing Red Lily Lagoon: Paleolandscape Reconstruction Using Geophysics of the East Alligator Floodplains."

11 AugustNo seminar due to  ICAZ Conference.

18 August - Mick de Ruyter, Daryl Wesley and Wendy van Duivenvoorde, Flinders University: "‘Not another rock art picture of a boat’: Implications for the Identification of Watercraft and Technology in the Rock Art of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory."

25 August - Ashleigh Rogers, Monash University and CABAH: "Terrestrial Cultural Landscapes Changed Inshore Marine Ecosystems: Eight Centuries of Shellfish Harvesting from the Kawela Mound Site, Hawaiian Islands."

1 September - Dr Clara Boulanger (National Museum of Ethnology, Japan): Coastal Adaptation and the Maritime Skills of Early Modern Humans in Island Southeast Asia from the Terminal Pleistocene to the Mid-Holocene: A Comparative Study

8 September - Jorgo Ristevski, James Cook University and the University of Queensland: "Dwarfs, Giants and Knife-Teeth: The Evolutionary History of Crocodyliforms in Australasia."

15 September - Emilie Dotte, University of Western Australia: "The Pacific Matildas Research Project: Three Years On – How We Are Putting the First Women Archaeologists of the Pacific Back on the Map."

22 September - Mirani Litster, James Cook University: "Cowries and the Monsoon: An Archaeology of Early Globalization in the Maldives."

29 SeptemberStudy break

6 October - Sofia Samper Carro, The Australian National University and CABAH:  "Ozboneprot: Building Reference Sequences to Develop Australian Ancient Bone Proteomics."

13 October - Stuart Bedford, Chris Ballard, Aymeric Hermann, Shane Cronin, Sonke Stern, Robert Henderson, Edson Willie and Iarawai Phillip, The Australian National University, Max Planck, CNRS and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre: "Living with Cataclysmic Events: Volcanic Activity in Vanuatu with Particular Focus on Kuwae."

20 October - Anna  Florin, University of Cambridge: Title to be confirmed.

27 October -  Tracy Ireland, The University of Canberra and ICOMOS Australia: "Everything, Everywhere, Everyday: the undisciplining of archaeology and heritage".

Fridays, 1-2pm
Cairns: D003-003
Townsville: 134-105

Watch the seminars via zoom: Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/81197101870?pwd=bklYRnMxbjFpM2xCek5LWXl6K0lkUT09
Password: 201585

International numbers available: https://jcu.zoom.us/u/kq3Bb2Qnn

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


25 February - Joshua Connelly, James Cook University: “Investigating the constructed Indigenous seascapes of Jiigurru/ the Lizard Island Group, far North Queensland”

4 March - Dr Katarina Jerbić, Everick Heritage: “The 6000-year-old submerged pile-dwelling in Zambratija Bay, Croatia.”

11 March - Dr John McCarthy, Flinders University: "VR and digital reconstruction for Maritime Archaeology".

18 March - Sophie Price, Museum of Tropical Queensland: “Decolonising’ practices within museums and trialling methods of community engagement.”

25 March - Dr Peter Hobbins, Australian National Maritime Museum: “Building up or bunkering down? Rethinking coastal fortifications.”

1 April - Dr Ariana Lambrides, James Cook University: “Foraging variability and the archaeology of small islands in American Samoa.”

8 April - Dr Carly Monks, University of Western Australia: “Why do students enrol in archaeology at Australian universities? Understanding pre-enrolment experiences, motivations, and career expectations.”

29 April - Dr Chris Jazwa, University of Nevada, Reno: "Population Mobility, Resource Transportation, and Defence in Interior Santa Rosa Island, California."

6 May - Dr Patrick Faulkner, University of Sydney: “From the Rainforest to the Coast: Archaeomalacology and long-term human environment interactions in Sri Lanka.”

13 May - Associate Professor Alison Crowther, University of Queensland: “The archaeology of the westward Austronesian expansion.”

20 May - Dr Mirani Litster, James Cook University: “Unravelling the Northern Australian Glass Bead Record.”

27 May - Professor Bob Wasson, A.K. Singhvi, S. Garnett, James Cook University: “Long-lived TermItaria in the Top End – ecology, paleoclimate and palaeohydrology.”

3 June - Associate Professor Wendy Van Duivenvoorde, Flinders University: “Out of the Woodworks: The interdisciplinary study of the 1962 Batavia's ship remains, its timber and connection to the Dutch fine arts.”

Fridays, 1-2pm
Cairns: D003-003 (9 September in D004-F001)
Townsville: 145-030 (29 July in 039-252)

Watch the seminars via zoom: Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/86733583982?pwd=OA_5e0BvLq_jiFL9UqUIBseRMlGnS7.1
Password: 735468

International numbers available: https://jcu.zoom.us/u/kc7DYzBKO

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


29 July - Associate Professor Theresa Petray, James Cook University: “Indigenous Nation-Building and Economic Development as Self-Determination”

5 August - Dr Ariana Lambrides, James Cook University, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage: “Foraging variability and the archaeology of small islands in American Samoa”

12 August - Dr Dave Steinberg, Northern Territory Government: “Japanese pearling and the wreck of the Sanyo Maru: implications for Contact Archaeology in northern Australia”

19 August - Erika Gress, James Cook University: “Bridging Marine Biology and Maritime Archaeology - The SS Yongala case study”

26 August - Dr Matthew Meredith-Williams, La Trobe University: “Early desert settlement of Arabia following out-of-Africa dispersals”

2 September - Dr Colin Pardoe, Australian National University: 'Villages and small-bodied fish: settlement patterns and conservation in the Murray Darling Basin'.

9 September - Dr Magdalena Bunbury, James Cook University, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage: “A new chronology for the Māori settlement of Aotearoa (New Zealand)”

16 September - Dr Iain McKechnie, University of Victoria, British Columbia: “Environmental Archaeology and Ecological Legacies of Indigenous Peoples on the Pacific Northwest Coast”

23 September - Dr Anna Willis, James Cook University: "Living on the edge: insights into the diet of inhabitants from ancient Myanmar".

7 October - Professor Dana Lepofsky, Simon Fraser University: “The Clam Garden Network:  Exploring the Social-ecological Contexts of Clam Management in the Past, Present, and Future”

14 October - Dr James Flexner, University of Sydney: “A Community-Led Approach to the Historical Archaeology of Australian South Sea Islanders”

21 October - Professor Amy Roberts, Flinders University: “Exploring the longue durée of Aboriginal connection to country in South Australia’s Riverland region”

28 October - Professor Koen Stapelbroek, James Cook University: “Anglo-Dutch free port competition and Indo-Pacific trade networks in the 1820/30s”

Fridays, 1-2pm
Cairns: D3-063
Townsville: 004-132

Zoom: Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/83949437783?pwd=M2x2dTI5cExLQ1NYTnFMYTQxMEFpQT09 Password: 526802

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 5 February - 1-2pm, Room: CNS B001-107. Owen Ray - PhD candidature confirmation seminar: The rise and fall of a North Queensland mining town: The cultural landscape of Mungana and its associated mines. Zoom link: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/82223428296?pwd=TiszbmlyNXB1M3NuQlg1dFdweDVaUT09
  • 26 February - Joshua Connelly - Holocene technological organisation on the eastern Hamersley Plateau, Western Australia.
  • 5 March - Geraldine Mate & Sean Ulm, Australian Archaeology in Profile: Summary results of the 2020 survey.
  • 12 March - Sarah Collins - Old Smithfield Township: The research story so far.
  • 19 March - Michael Bird - A global survey of the state isotope composition of human bone collagen.
  • 26 March - Bob Wasson - Almost everything is history: how the past can be used for the future.
  • 2 April - No seminar -  Easter Friday
  • 9 April - No seminar -  Semester Break
  • 16 April - Cassandra Rowe - An introduction to Marura.
  • 23 April - Nigel Chang - Archaeometallurgy, Environment, and Landscape in Upland Laos: Its Impact on 'WorldViews' during the Transition from the Bronze Age to Early States in SE Asia.
  • 30 April - Katherine Cameron - People and Pots at Vilabouly: finding people in pottery.
  • 4 May - 9-10.30am, Room: CNS D3.054. Sarah Slater - PhD candidature confirmation seminar: Understanding Kwokkunum Shell Mounds as Landscape Engineering: A Spatial and Temporal Archaeological approach. Zoom link: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/89646620130?pwd=Y3pDT1hLRkFCU1UvQy9YdUEwTmdndz09
  • 7 May - Daniel England - 'For A Few Horses More: The Role of Domesticated Livestock in the Development of North Queensland. Tate Devantier-Thomas - Shaping the Stone: An experimental approach to the Plain of Jars megaliths.
  • 14 May - Jason Kariwiga - Trade and Mobility: Creating a Strontium isoscape of the Papuan Coast.
  • 21 May - Chris Wurster - Indigenous impacts on north Australian savanna fire regimes over the Holocene.
  • 28 May - 9.30-11.30am, Room: TSV 004-006, CNS D003-063. AR4006 Honours Thesis confirmation seminars:
    Georgina Skelly - Sea Level Change and Paleolandscapes: Investigating Submerged Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in Trinity Bay, Far North Queensland
    Cailey Maclaurin - Investigating human-marine interactions and feedbacks across the mid-to-late Holocene using morphometric analyses of shellfish in the Lizard Island Group
    Jessica Hurst - Skeletons in boxes: osteobiographies of two teaching skeletons with discussion on the ethics of using human skeletal remains for research and teaching.
    Zachary Callahan - Finding Harry. A re-examination of the skeletal remains from the Pandora shipwreck
    Zoom link: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/87550561246?pwd=S2dtam9WbXBNZ01WaThWd013U3lzZz09
  • 28 May - Bryce Barker - Pathways Through Sahul: The Archaeology of the Great Papuan Plateau.

Fridays, 1-2pm
Cairns: D3-063
Townsville: 004-132

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/85388083959?pwd=b3JYZmd6eVRDaVl2RURjbzMvUTBCZz09

Password: 98​1045

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


30 July - Jessica Cook, Hale Gray & Pape/The University of Georgia: "Submerged Landscape Archaeology and the Peopling of the Western Hemisphere: a review of the history of the topic, the competing hypotheses, and the inherently messy politics of it all."

6 August - Daryl Wesley, Flinders University: "The Archaeology of Indigenous engagement during World War II in the Northern Territory, Australia."

13 August - Duncan Wright, Australian National University: "The Archaeology of Waiat’s Saga in Torres Strait, far north Australia."

20 August - Jillian Huntley, Griffith University: "How climate change is impacting on some of the world’s earliest rock art."

27 August - Natasha Heap, James Cook University: "Living apart but connected. Tooth agenesis and population connections in mainland Southeast Asia."

3 September - Amy Diedrich, James Cook University: "New pathways for small-scale fisheries livelihoods in the Pacific – Sportfishing Tourism in PNG and beyond."

10 September - Lauren Linnenlucke, James Cook University: "Chronologically modelling the Torres Strait: Using chronometric quality assurance frameworks to re-evaluate archaeological sites."

17 September - Sally May, Griffith University: "Investigating ‘silences’ in Australian rock art."

24 September - Seppi Lehner, The University of Sydney: "How industry drove social and environmental change in ancient Arabia."

8 October - Rainy Comley, James Cook University: "A reconstruction of the Holocene fire and environmental history from Kinrara Swamp, north Queensland."

15 October - Maddy McAllister, Museum of Tropical Queensland/James Cook University: "Mystery Shipwrecks – clues to the Kenn Reef unidentified sites."

22 October - Chelsea Wiseman, Flinders University: "Solving for the Unknown: methodological approaches to submerged landscape archaeology."

29 October - Sam Lin, University of Wollongong: "Developing hypotheses of hominin mobility and lithic procurement at Liang Bua: A simulation approach."

Fridays, 1-2pm

Cairns: D003- 063
Townsville: 004-132

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 4 February - 9-10am, TSV room 039-252; CNS room A1.129 Richard Wright Recovering Australian War Dead from North Eastern France, Fromelles
  • 28 February - TSV room change: 145-030 Daniel Derouet An Archaeological Analysis of Cultural Sequences Dated to 1877-739 at Caution Bay, Papua New Guinea: Investigating Changing Settlement Patterns and Social Cohesion Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 2-4 March - Hilton Cairns Luke Godwin CABAH RT&E: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural Heritage Management: Plotting a Course; Knowing Your Tools and How to Use Them
  • 5 March - Hilton Cairns Michael Bird, Chris Wurster, Jennifer Whan CABAH RT&E: Stable Isotopes in Archaeological and Quaternary Research [You must be registered for this course to attend]
  • 6 March - CNS D3-063  Michael Bird, Chris Wurster, Jennifer Whan CABAH RT&E: Stable Isotopes in Archaeological and Quaternary Research [You must be registered for this course to attend]
  • 13 March Nigel Chang Archaeology, Communities and Landscape Transformation in the 2020s in Thailand Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 20 March Matthew Leavesley The Papuan Pasts Project: A Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Investigating the Peopling of PNG Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 1 May  Lauren Linnenlucke Applying Chronometric Quality Standards to Evaluate the Reliability of Data from Archaeological Sites in the Torres Strait Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 15 May  Olivia Arnold Dingaal Lizard Island Rock Art Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 22 May Anna Kreij Characterising Fire Technologies on Kaiadilt Country using Satellite Data Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 29 May Fiona Hook, Sean Ulm, Kim Akerman, Richard Fullagar Baler Shell Knives in Northern Australia: A Comparative Study of Archaeological, Experimental and Ethnographic Data Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725

Fridays, 1-2pm

Cairns: D003- 054
Townsville: 145-030

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 31 July - Helen Ball: Early States and their Pottery in Northeast Thailand (AD 300-800). Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 7 August - Cassandra Rowe: Girraween Pollen Sequence. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 14 August - Redbird Ferguson: Grinding Tools and Specialised Toolkits during Late-Lapita Settlement on Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 21 August - Owen Ray: The Cultural Landscape of Mungana, Chillagoe, 1900-1958. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 28 August - Patrick Moss: People, Sea Levels and Salt Marsh – Environmental Change for the Last Millennia from the Coastal Salt Marshes of South East Australia. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 4 September - Maria Rivera Araya: Multi-Proxy Evidence of Long-Term Environmental Change in Northern Australia's Tropical Savannas. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 11 September - Bob Wasson: Palaeofloods for Mine Site Rehabilitation in Kakadu National Park, NT. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 18 September - Ting Li: Climatological Inference from Geochemical Signatures (TOC, C/N ratio and δ13C) of Bulk Organic Matter at Lake Barrine, Australia. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 25 September - Pauline O’Keeffe and Jan Wegner: Using the Cairns Historical Society Image and Document Collections for Research. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 9 October - Ben Shaw: New Evidence for Lapita Settlement of the Massim Islands in Eastern New Guinea: Chronology, Extent and Implications for Regional Cultural Developments. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 16 October - Katie Woo: Shifting Palaeoeconomies in the East Alligator River Region. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 23 October - Roxanne Tsang: Current Rock Art Themes in Papua New Guinea. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725
  • 30 October - Jonathan Benjamin: Deep History of Sea Country. Join via Zoom: https://jcu.zoom.us/j/181937725

Fridays, 1-2pm

Cairns: A3-001
Townsville: 134-102

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 22 February - Bronwen Forster and Claire Ovaska: Effective Library Research Methods in the Social Sciences [CNS: B1.104 / TSV: 2-102]
  • 1 March - Nigel Chang: Individual, family, site, ‘community’ or region? – thinking across spatial & social scale in prehistoric Laos & Thailand
  • 14 March - Anna Kreij: Making Kaiadilt Country: Investigating Long-Term Landscape Transformation [CNS: D003-063, TSV: 134-102]
  • 15 March - Rebecca Bliege Bird: We make country, and country makes us: Fire and the shaping of hunter gatherer social organization
  • 22 March - Ted Brandi and John Edgar: Townsville City Council Involvement with recent Archaeological Discoveries
  • 29 March - Johnny Murison and Alice Buhrich: The life and death of a rainforest dendroglyph
  • 5 April - Michael Bird & Sean Ulm: 'The Filling of the Continent': Modelling the Peopling of Sahul
  • 12 April - Russell Singleton: The rise and fall of Mega-Lake Eyre
  • 16 April 2019 - Mojca Zega: Deep sand time capsules: past environmental records from sediments surrounding Gledswood Shelter 1, Northwest Queensland, Australia [10 am, CNS: E2-113, TSV: 134-102]
  • 26 April - Geoff Bailey: Coastal Colonisation and Australia:  Key Questions in World Prehistory
  • 3 May - Robert Wasson: Palaeofloods, complexity and risk
  • 10 May - Ariana Lambrides: Zooarchaeological meta-analysis of Queensland’s Holocene Indigenous fisheries
  • 17 May - Kate Domett: The Bioarchaeology of Non Ban Jak, and Iron Age community in northeast Thailand
  • 24 May - Honours Confirmation and Exit seminars: Starting from 10am until 3pm, tentatively CAS B1-107 and TSV 040-105
  • 31 May - Xennophon Hadeen: Climate Reconstruction in Northern Australia using biomarkers (alkanes)

Fridays, 1-2pm

Cairns: A3-002
Townsville: 134-102

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 2 August - Madeline McAlister: Seeing is Believing: image-based interpretation the problem of ‘digital realism’ in underwater archaeology
  • 9 August - TSV room change: 142-033 Gavin Singleton: Bulmba-wu maminga-lum - bio-cultural and heritage management through a Yirrganydji lens
  • 16 August - Kelly Wiltshire: Excavating Archaeology: Using Archival Film Footage to Ethnographically Study the Cultural Practice of Archaeology
  • 23 August - Madeline McAlister: Seeing is Believing: image-based interpretation the problem of ‘digital realism’ in underwater archaeology
  • 30 August - TSV room change: 142-033 - Jonathan Benjamin: Prospecting for Submerged Archaeology on Australia's Continental Shelf: The Deep History of Sea Country
  • 2 September - Lucy Pedersen: PhD CONFIRMATION SEMINAR: Chronological metamorphosis: An evaluation and revision of age-at-death estimation methods for human skeletal remains from a Southeast Asia population. 11.30am - 1pm TSV: 39-201 CNS: D1.123
  • 6 September - Sarah Slater: Archaeological Mud Shell (Geloina expansa) on Kaiadilt Country, South Wellesley Islands
  • 13 September - Garth Abercrombie: Excavating an early Cycladic Marine Sanctuary in the Aegean: Keros Field School 2017
  • 20 September - Das Sourav: An algorithm for characterization of a landslide
  • 27 September - Jon Nott:Grey swan tropical cyclones, palaeo-records and coastal planning and management
  • 11 October - Theodora Moutsiou and Christian Reepmeyer: Finding Palaeolithic sites on Cyprus
  • 18 October - Anna Willis: Unrecovered War Casualties - Army - Finding the Fallen
  • 25 October - Emma Rehn: Fire and Environmental Change in Northern Australia during the Late Holocene
  • 1 November - Michael Slack: Australian Archaeological Association Reconciliation Action Plan Workshop

Fridays, 1-2pm

Cairns: D3-063
Townsville: 009-002

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 21 February - Michael Bird: TESS Seminar: Introducing the ARC Centre for Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) [NB: 4-5pm, Room D3.054 (CNS) with a live video link to Townsville ATSIP Theatre 145.030]
  • 23 February - Chris Wurster: Barriers and Bridges: The biogeographic theatre of SE Asia and its ever-changing stage
  • 2 March - Niels Munksgaard: Stable isotopes in precipitation and paleoclimatic archives in tropical areas to improve regional hydrological and climatic impact models - an IAEA program
  • 9 March - Costijn Zwart: There is more to rainfall isotopic variability than rainfall amount
  • 21 March - Zenobia Jacobs: TESS Seminar: Human occupation of Sahul by 65,000 years ago: Excavations, context and construction of the timeline for human occupation [NB: 4-5pm, Room D3.054 (CNS) with a live video link to Townsville ATSIP Theatre 145.030]
  • 23 March - Sarah Collins, Geraldine Mate & Sean Ulm: Scratched Surfaces: Dialogic Remains of Tangible and Ephemeral European Inscription across the Palimpsest Landscape of Sweers
  • 6 April - Nigel Chang: Big Test Pits: looking for the Neolithic at Non Ban Jak, a (mostly) Iron Age site in NE Thailand
  • 13 April - Simon Haberle: Sago production, human impacts, climate change, and ecological dynamics at Lake Kutubu: A new palaeoecological record from the humid tropics of southern Papua New Guinea
  • 20 April - Jim O'Connell and Jim Allen: (Lecture recess) On the purported 65 ka archaeological date from Madjedbebe (formerly Malakunanja II)
  • 27 April - Lauren Linnenlucke: Single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene human occupation sites in the Dhofar region of Oman
  • 4 May - Anna Hayes: Heritage Lost: The Destruction of Old Kashgar
  • 11 May - Ariana Lambrides: Archaeological tuna records and the implications for assessing ENSO variability in the western and central Pacific Ocean: a case study from the Marshall Islands, Micronesia
  • 18 May - Graeme Cotter: Experimental Archaeology: An Evaluation of the Impact of Human Trampling on an Archaeological Deposit
  • 25 May - Nathan Woolford: Our Genomes, Our Heritage

Fridays, 1-2pm

Cairns: D3-063
Townsville: 301-007 (Except September where we have room 142-033)

NB: Archaeology-related events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 3 August - Maddy Fowler: UNESCO 2001 Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage: Highlights from the 2018 Meetings
  • 10 August - Robert Wasson: Time and Quaternary Studies: Convergence or Emergence?
  • 24 August - Kate Domett: Trauma at Ban Non Wat: A Bioarchaeological Synthesis
  • 31 August - Keith Fifield: An Introduction to Cosmogenic Isotopes – Principles and Practice
  • 7 September - Maria Rivera Araya: Highlights of the National Lacustrine Core Facility (LacCore) Summer Institute 2018 (TSV room 142-033)
  • 14 September - Katherine Cameron: Potters and Miners: Investigating the Prehistoric Ceramics of the Vilabouly Complex of Ancient Copper Mining Sites (Sepon), Lao PDR (TSV room 142-033)
  • 21 September - Graeme Cotter: The Enigma of Irvinebank Mining: A Study in Cultural Ecology (TSV room 142-033)
  • 24 September - Sean Ulm & Ian McNiven: An Update on the Lizard Island Archaeological Project: Investigating Dingaal Seascapes on the Great Barrier Reef in Far North Queensland (CNS D3-150)
  • 5 October - Daryl Killin: The Burning Question of Savanna
  • 12 October - Texas Nagel: Using UAVs, Photogrammetry and GIS to Investigate Kaiadilt Aboriginal Stone-Walled Intertidal Fish Traps in the South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria
  • 19 October - Mojca Zega: The Impact of Human Activities on Dolines (Sinkholes) on Karst and Possibilities of their Preservation
  • 26 October - Martin Nakata: Tagai STEM Project

Fridays, 4-5pm

Cairns: B001-107
Townsville: Week 1: 009-001; Week 2 onwards: ATSIP room 145-030

NB: Events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 10 February - Shimona Kealey: Views from Shores Past: Palaeogeographic Reconstructions as an Aid for Interpreting the Movement of Early Modern Humans on and Between the Islands of Wallacea [NB: 3pm, Room B1-107 (CNS), TBA (TSV)
  • 24 February - Tahnee Innes: PhD CONFIRMATION SEMINAR: Curating Country: Storied Artefacts and Aboriginal Collecting [NB: 2-3pm, Room A4.002 (CNS) / 4-006 (TNS)]
  • 24 February - Maddy Fowler: "Maritime" Archaeology at Point Pearce Aboriginal Mission/Burgiyana
  • 28 February - Texas Nagel: PhD CONFIRMATION SEMINAR: Engineered Land and Seascapes: Using UAVs and Photogrammetry to Investigate Kaiadilt Aboriginal Stone-Walled Intertidal Fish Traps in the South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria [NB: 10-11am, Room D3.003 (CNS) / 134-105 (TNS)] 
  • 3 March - Sam Aird: Lightning Strikes and Green Ant Nests: 5 Months Searching for Archaeological Sites in the Remote Lizard Island Group, Great Barrier Reef
  • 10 March - Redbird Ferguson and Christian Reepmeyer: A Tonga Fieldwork Update
  • 17 March - Nigel Chang and friends: Do I have to start getting interested in these damn pottery sherds....?
  • 21 March - Sam Aird: PhD CONFIRMATION SEMINAR: Long-Term Aboriginal Marine Resource Use on the Great Barrier Reef: An Archaeozoological Approach to Characterising Impacts [NB: 10-11am, Room D3.063 (CNS) / 134-102 (TNS)] 
  • 24 March - Emma Rehn: Fire and Environmental Change in Northern Australia during the Late Holocene
  • 7 April - Paul Dirks and Eric Roberts: Difficulties and pitfalls of dating hominin fossils in caves
  • 21 April - Nick Roberts: Bridging the Divide in Heritage: Cultural Heritage Management at the Sepon Gold and Copper Mine, Lao PDR.
  • 28 April - Robin Torrence: 'Excavating' Ethnographic Collections to Reconstruct Indigenous Perspectives on Colonialism
  • 5 May - Texas Nagel: Stones in the Sea: Using UAVs and Photogrammetry to Investigate Kaiadilt Aboriginal Stone-Walled Intertidal Fish Traps in the South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria
  • 12 May - Michael Bird: A Geologist's View of Human Dispersal Routes to Sahul
  • 19 May - Anna Willis: An Osteobiography of an Individual from the Bronze Age Site of Nyaung’gan, Myanmar
  • 26 May - Cailey Maclaurin: Magic Molluscs: Illuminating Mollusc Pigment Patterning Using Ultraviolet Fluorescence.

Fridays, 4-5pm

Cairns: B001-107
Townsville: 004-006

NB: Events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 2 August  - Michael Bird: Getting into Print in the Sciences >[NB: 12pm-2pm, Room D3-063 (CNS) / 145-030 (TSV)]
  • 2 August - Sean Ulm: Getting into Print in the Humanities and Social Sciences [NB: 2pm-4pm, Room D3-063 (CNS) / 145-030 (TSV)]
  • 4 August - Paul Dirks & Eric Roberts: Homo naledi’s surprisingly young age and its implications for human evolution
  • 11 August - Sandra Boswell: Analysis of 17th and 18th Century Laos Pottery Motifs
  • 18 August - Maria Jose Rivera Araya: Assessing Stable Isotope Data from Archaeological White-Tailed Deer Remains as a Palaeoenvironmental Proxy at the Site of La Joyanca, Northwestern Peten, Yucatan Peninsula
  • 25 August - Michael Bird & Sean Ulm: Transforming our Understanding of Australia's Indigenous Heritage and Environmental Past: Introducing the New ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
  • 1 September - Sean Ulm & Ian McNiven: An Update on the Lizard Island Archaeological Project: Investigating Dingaal Seascapes on the Great Barrier Reef, Far North Queensland
  • 15 September - Fiona Petchey: Dating the First Settlement of Remote Oceania
  • 20 September - Peter Veth: TESS Seminar: The Archaeology of Barrow Island: The Atlantis of the Northern Australia [NB: 4-5pm, Room D3.054 (CNS) with a live video link to Townsville ATSIP Theatre 145.030]
  • 22 September - Jo McDonald: Murujuga: Dynamics of the Dreaming
  • 6 October - Cassandra Rowe: Sinkholes, swamps and savanna: a palaeoecological update.
  • 20 October  - Theodora Moutsiou: Raw Material Movement in Early Holocene Mediterranean Seascapes: the view from Cyprus.

Fridays, 2-3pm

Cairns: A21.002
Townsville: 009-002


DatePresenterTitle
26 February 2016Michelle RichardsUnderstanding the Distribution and Popularity of Pacific 'Greenstone' Adzes
2 March 2016Helene PeckPhD PRE-COMPLETION SEMINAR: The Application of Ecological Models and Trophic Analyses to Archaeological Marine Fauna Assemblages: Towards Improved Understandings of Prehistoric Marine Fisheries and Ecosystems in Tropical Australia [NB: Room A21-001 (CNS) / 009-001 (TNS)
4 March 2016Luke Godwin and Ian McNivenStrands of Connection: Darumbal Native Title and the Management of Marine Resources
11 March 2016Clair DaveyAn Examination of the Lithic Assemblages of Dhaba, India (78-22kya): Evidence for Lithic Continuity in Pre- and Post-Toba Environments
18 March 2016Galiina (Kal) EllwoodAboriginal Miner-Prospectors: Continuity, Choice and Technology Transfer in North Queensland Mining Provinces
25 March 2016NO MEETINGNO MEETING – GOOD FRIDAY
1 April 2016Geoff ClarkHuman Colonisation of Oceanic Islands in Prehistory: A Trans-Oceanic Analysis
8 April 2016Emilie Dotte'From the Pilbara to Tahiti with a Microscope (and a Saw)': Developing Anthracology in Oceania: Recent Projects Conducted in Australia and the Pacific
15 April 2016Noelene ColeNational Heritage Listing of Quinkan Rock Art: An Archaeological Perspective
22 April 2016NO MEETINGNO MEETING – MID-SEMESTER BREAK
29 April 2016James MoloneyGIS and Remote Sensing in Archaeology and Resource Management in Northeast Thailand
6 May 2016Michael WestawayHuman Evolution in Sunda and Sahul
12 May 2016Catherine LivingstonPhD CONFIRMATION SEMINAR: Who were the People of Prehistoric Vilabouly? Exploring Origins and Relationships through Archaeometallurgy [NB: Room 004-006 (TVS) / B1-107 (CNS)
13 May 2016Greg Siepen and Alice BuhrichProfessional Workshop on Aboriginal Scarred Trees: Significance, Conservation and Management of Veteran Eucalypts in the Landscape (All Day Event)
20 May 2016Jan Wegner

Mining Remains in Queensland, 1870s-1920s: What's the Story?

27 May 2016Michael BirdHumans, Megafauna and Environmental Change in Tropical Australia
30 June 2016Puangtip KerdsapPhD PRE-COMPLETION SEMINAR: Everyday Life in Prehistoric Thailand: What can the Spindle Whorls tell us? [NB: Room B1-031 (CNS) / 009-001 (TNS)

Fridays, 2-3pm

Cairns: A21.002
Townsville: 009-002

NB: Events that are not part of the Friday TARL Seminar Series are in italics.


  • 12 July - PhD PRE-COMPLETION SEMINAR: A Novel Application of Sclerochronology and Scleroisotope Analysis: Forging New Understandings of Aboriginal Occupation in the South Wellesley Archipelago, Gulf of Carpentaria [NB: 9:30am-10:30am, Room A21-002 (CNS) / 009-001 (TNS)]
  • 29 July - Lynley Wallis: Investigating the Painted Rock Art of the Central Pilbara
  • 5 August - Christa Placzek: An Update on Archaeological and Palaeoenvironmental Research on Barrow Island, Northwest Australia
  • 10 August - Gordon Stenhouse: PhD PRE-COMPLETION SEMINAR: Zooarchaeological Analysis of Animal Resources in the Upper Mun River Valley, Northeast Thailand: A Shift from Wild to Domestic [NB: 2-3pm, Room A21-002 (CNS) / 145-030 (TNS)]
  • 10 August - Jim O'Connell: TESS Seminar: The Restaurant Revisited: More on Modeling the Human Colonization of Pleistocene Sahul [NB: 4-5pm, Room A3.2 (CNS) with a live video link to the Townsville Audiovisual Services Room 002 (9-002)]
  • 12 August - Christian Reepmeyer: The Potential of QEMSCAN and GEOBIA (Object Based Image Analysis) for the Identification of Temper Grains in Ceramics
  • 19 August - Matthew Felgate: Studying Change through Time AD1400-AD1720, at  Tamaki, Auckland, NZ: Radiocarbon Calibration, or why Never to believe an Archaeologist
  • 26 August - Redbird Ferguson: An AINSE Winter School Experience
  • 2 September - Collin Storlie: How the eResearch Centre and Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation can Power-Up Archaeological Research
  • 9 September - Rainer Grün Direct Dating of Human Fossils [NB: 1-2pm, Room 145-030 (TVS) / A21.001 (CNS)]
  • 9 September - Nikki Winn Boundaries, Connections and Cultural Heritage Management Challenges: The Rock Art of the Chillagoe-Mungana Limestone Belt, North Queensland
  • 16 September - Texas Nagel: Engineered Land and Seascapes: Using UAVs and Photogrammetry to Investigate Kaiadilt Aboriginal Stone-Walled Intertidal Fish traps in the South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria
  • 21 September - Mike Rowland: TESS Seminar: Confessions of an 'Environmental Determinist' (sic) [NB: 4-5pm, Room A3.2 (CNS) with a live video link to the Townsville Audiovisual Services Room 002 (9-002)]
  • 23 September - Mike Rowland: 'Crows', Swimming Logs and Auditory Exostoses: Aboriginal Occupation of the Keppel Islands, Central Queensland Coast
  • 5 October - Alan Williams: TESS Seminar: Population and Mobility of Prehistoric Australia – Developing a Regional Framework for Archaeological and Palaeo-Climatic Correlations [NB: 4-5pm, Room A3.2 (CNS) with a live video link to the Townsville Audiovisual Services Room 002 (9-002)]
  • 6 October - Sean Ulm: Inaugural Professorial Lecture: The Deep History of Sea Country: Colonisation, Submerged Landscapes and the Archaeology of Australia's Coasts [NB: 6-8pm, Pullman Cairns International]
  • 14 October - Karen Joyce: Trials and Tribulations of using Drones and Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring
  • 21 October - Nigel Chang and Friends: Updates on JCU Archaeology in Laos: Two and a Half Projects
  • 26 October - Selene Kenady: PhD PRE-COMPLETION SEMINAR: Geophysical Explorations of Archaeological Shell Matrix Sites: Evaluating Geophysical Techniques in Determining the Boundaries, Structure and Volume of Buried Shell Deposits [NB: 1-2pm, Room D3-003 (CNS) / 134-105 (TNS)]
  • 28 October - Theodora Moutsiou: The Obsidian Evidence for the Scale of Social Life during the Palaeolithic
  • 10 November - Alice Buhrich: PhD PRE-COMPLETION SEMINAR: Art and Identity: Aboriginal Rock Art and Dendroglyphs of Queensland's Wet Tropics [NB: 10-11am, Room A21-002 (CNS) / 9-001 (TNS)]
  • 14 November - Jonathan Walz: An Archaeology of Africa-Indian Ocean Entanglement Inland of the Swahili Coast, Tanzania, c.AD 750-1350 [NB: 3-4pm, Room A21.002 (CNS) / 009.001 (TNS)]

Fridays, 3-4pm

Cairns: A21.002*
Townsville: Audio Visual Services room 001 (9-001)*

* Room changes for special events noted below.


  • 27 February - Sean Ulm: Introduction to TARL
  • 6 March - Nigel Chang: Archaeology on the 'Plain of Jars', Lao PDR: New Sites, New Sources of Support and New Opportunities for JCU Students
  • 13 March - Sean Ulm: Naïve Island Landscapes: Recent Research in the South Wellesley Archipelago, Southern Gulf of Carpentaria
  • 20 March - Alison Fitzpatrick: Stone Arrangements in the Lizard Island Group: Results from a Study of Indigenous Seascapes in Northeastern Australia
  • 27 March - Marianne Clarkson: The Ceramics from Hervey Range: An Assessment of Gentility 10 April 2015 Shelley Greer - 'Sense & Sensibility': Heritage in the Australian Tropics
  • 17 April - Kate Cameron: Through the Looking Glass: Unlocking the Secrets of an Ancient Mining Society through Ceramic Studies
  • 24 April - Kate Domett: A Synthesis of Bioarchaeological Research in Cambodia: Regional Significance
  • 8 May - Clair Davey: Technological Changes during the Pleistocene in South Asia
  • 15 May - Cassandra Rowe: Weipa's Water and Woodlands: A Palaeoenvironmental History of Big Willum Swamp
  • 22 May - Paul Dirks: Hominin Distribution and the Evolving Landscape in Southern Africa
  • 23 May - Clair Davey: Workshop: Advanced Stone Artefact Analysis Workshop. * Room A4.204
  • 27 May - Christian Reepmeyer: TESS Seminar: Climate Change in the Abandonment of Islands: Understanding Human Responses and Population Dynamics in Palau, Micronesia. * A3.2 (Cairns) / 9-002 (Townsville)
  • 29 May - Christian Reepmeyer: An Update on Island Southeast Asian and Pacific Archaeology: Current Projects and Perspectives
  • 30 May - Selene Kenady: Workshop: Excavating and Constructing a Geophysical Test Plot at JCU Cairns

Fridays, 3-4pm

Cairns: B1.107
Townsville: Education Central, Room 102


  • 31 July - Sean Ulm: Naïve Island Landscapes: Recent Research in the South Wellesley Archipelago, Southern Gulf of Carpentaria
  • 7 August - Belinda Duke: Applying Social Memory in the Interpretations of Social and Environmental Change at the Mound Site Ban Non Wat, Northeast Thailand
  • 14 August - Åsa Ferrier: Journeys into the Rainforest: Archaeology, Ethnography and Palaeoecology on the Atherton/Evelyn Tableland, Far North Queensland
  • 21 August - Geraldine Mate & Sean Ulm: Professional Archaeology as a Shifting Mosaic: Results of the 2015 Australian Archaeology in Profile Survey
  • 28 August - Christian Reepmeyer: The Talasiu site on Tongatapu, Kingdom of Tonga: Investigating the Ancestral Polynesian Society
  • 4 September - Robin Twaddle: Using Polymesoda coaxans for Radiocarbon Dating and as an Environmental Proxy in Tropical Northern Australia
  • 11 September - Sam Aird & Redbird Ferguson: Reflecting on Attending the 8th International Lapita Conference, Port Vila, Vanuatu: A Pathway to Analysing the Arapus Shellfish Assemblage and Community Engagement
  • 18 September - Nigel Chang: New Research in Thailand and Lao 25 September 2015 Lucy Pedersen Evidence for Conflict in Prehistoric Southeast Asia: A Life of Conflict or Peace?
  • 9 October - Gordon Grimwade: Battlegrounds of the Southern Torres Strait: Archaeology and Conservation
  • 16 October - Anna Kreij High Resolution UAS Photogrammetry of Indigenous Stone-Walled Tidal Fishtraps in Northern Australia – Behind the Scenes
  • 23 October - Paul Dirks: Discovering Homo naledi
  • 30 October - René Vellanoweth: Integrating Technology, Economy, Exchange, and Religion: Understanding Native American Sites on the California Channel Islands