Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Marjorie Sullivan; Philip Hughes; Amy Way; Nigel Spooner

doi:10.1002/arco.5022

Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Marjorie Sullivan, Philip Hughes, Amy Way, Nigel Spooner

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A site in the Olympic Dam area, recorded during archaeological surveying as a silcrete quarry, was investigated. Hand-excavated squares and subsequent machine-excavated trenches revealed an ancient "mine" rather than a simple surface quarry. Blocks of high-quality silcrete were levered from below the ground surface and many were knapped in the immediate area. Rubble in the pit backfills included large numbers of flakes. Single-grain optical dates from sediments in the backfilled pits demonstrate that the silcrete "mining" occurred during a short period in the late Holocene.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	43-55
Number of pages	13
Journal	Archaeology in Oceania
Volume	49
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/arco.5022
Publication status	Published - Apr 2014

Keywords

Holocene
Optical dating
Prehistoric mining
Silcrete

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10.1002/arco.5022

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AU - Way, Amy

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AB - A site in the Olympic Dam area, recorded during archaeological surveying as a silcrete quarry, was investigated. Hand-excavated squares and subsequent machine-excavated trenches revealed an ancient "mine" rather than a simple surface quarry. Blocks of high-quality silcrete were levered from below the ground surface and many were knapped in the immediate area. Rubble in the pit backfills included large numbers of flakes. Single-grain optical dates from sediments in the backfilled pits demonstrate that the silcrete "mining" occurred during a short period in the late Holocene.

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KW - Prehistoric mining

KW - Silcrete

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JF - Archaeology in Oceania

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ER -

Prehistoric mining at Olympic Dam in arid South Australia

Abstract

Keywords

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