New insights into survival of ancient Western Desert peoples

Date:
June 7, 2021
Source:
University of Adelaide
Summary:
Researchers have used more than two decades of satellite-derived
environmental data to form hypotheses about the possible foraging
habitats of pre-contact Aboriginal peoples living in Australia's
Western Desert.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at the University of Adelaide have used more than two decades
of satellite-derived environmental data to form hypotheses about the
possible foraging habitats of pre-contact Aboriginal peoples living in Australia's Western Desert.


==========================================================================
As one of the most arid and geographically remote regions of Australia,
the Western Desert has always presented severe challenges for human
survival. Yet despite the harsh conditions, Aboriginal peoples have
maintained an enduring presence, continuously adapting to environmental variations through complex socioeconomic strategies.

In the study published in Scientific Reports, the researchers used Earth Observation data to model the most suitable habitats for traditional
foraging activities, identifying where surface water was most abundant
and vegetation was greenest to infer which areas of the landscape past Aboriginal peoples were likely to have utilised. The study also drew on previous research into traditional subsistence and settlement practices, enabling researchers to estimate daily foraging range in proximity
to water.

Lead author of the study, Postdoctoral Researcher Dr Wallace Boone Law,
says the fine scale of the satellite model developed enabled the team to
depict the highly variable nature of environmental and hence potential
foraging habitats in the Western Desert.

"Where earlier studies depicted the Western Desert as a relatively uniform environment, our study shows the region to be highly dynamic and variable,
both in its environmental conditions and foraging potential," Dr Law said.

"For example, desert dunefields were once thought to have been a periodic barrier to occupation, but our work shows this is not true for all
sandridge deserts. Some dunefield areas offer good foraging habitats, particularly amongst interdunal swale areas.

"However, we also found that there are large, impoverished regions of the Western Desert that would have been extremely challenging for survival,
based on terrain ruggedness and access to food and water resources.

"We believe it is likely that some of these poorly-suited foraging
areas would have been difficult for survival for the past 21,000 years,
and because Aboriginal peoples were highly knowledgeable about the
distribution of resources across the Western Desert, we hypothesise
those locations would have been rarely used in the past. And further,
we predict that the archaeological record of these difficult habitats
will point to ephemeral episodes of occupation.

"We suggest that some low-ranked areas of habitat suitability were
resource- poor and not economically attractive to foraging activities,
even in the best environmental circumstances," said Dr Law.

The researchers hope that archaeologists can use the study to explore
many large areas of the Western Desert that have yet to be thoroughly investigated.

"Our findings highlight how future models of forager land use can
be integrated with Earth Observation data to better comprehend the environmental complexity and fine scale of resource variability in these
vast, remote and diverse places," said Dr Law.

"We hope our research into the changing environment in
pre-contact Australia will assist with fostering a new era
of research in partnership with Indigenous communities to
provide further understanding of the industrious, versatile
and resilient Aboriginal peoples of the Western Desert." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Adelaide. Original
written by Kelly Brown.

Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. W. Boone Law, Peter Hiscock, Bertram Ostendorf, Megan Lewis. Using
satellite imagery to evaluate precontact Aboriginal foraging
habitats in the Australian Western Desert. Scientific Reports,
2021; 11 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-89642-1 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210607110243.htm

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