Tin Mining and Sediment Supply to the Ringarooma River,Tasmania, 1875–1979

Tin mining, based largely on alluvial tin deposited along the line of the ancestral Ringarooma, began in 1875 and reached a peak in the period 1905-9. Output declined thereafter and, following a brief recovery during the Second World War, had virtually ceased by 1981. Neither the methods, location nor level of production remained constant during the mining era. The widespread use of hydraulic sluicing and the proximity of many mines to the main river were major factors contributing to the high rate of sediment supply, with the Briseis mine at Derby being the dominant source. Based on data from published and unpublished papers, and mine records, the variable nature of that supply was estimated using a procedure which takes account of the effects of storage and changing practices. Many input points supplied material but the overall pattern is one in which downstream reaches made later starts and reached later peaks, suggesting that they will continue to experience the effects of an increased sediment load for some time.     

The logic of the herd: A computer simulation of archaeological herd structure

The advent of new techniques of dental ageing has permitted inferences about the age-structures of ancient animal populations on the basis of faunal remains. Unfortunately, inference from archaeological populations of faunal elements to the age-structure of ancient herds is fraught with both sampling problems and logical difficulties. The relationship between a living herd—a dynamic system characterized by growth—and a static archaeological population is more complex than that assumed by current models based on kill-off patterns and survivorship curves. Using a computer simulation, these logical relationships are explored, and the effects of herd growth on the composition of live and death populations are evaluated. By employing the simulation within a deductive framework, constrained by ethnographically derived criteria for reproduction, mortality, and economic viability in the Near East, it is possible to determine whether certain archaeological kill-off patterns could represent viable herding systems. Examples were found to vary widely in terms of both demographic plausibility and economic viability. Some implications for the possible course of ova-caprine domestication in the Near East are discussed.     

Book reviews

In Search of Khayyam. By Ali Dashti (translated by L. P. Elwell‐Sutton). New York: Columbia University Press, 1972. 276pp. $11.00.

The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernization, 1880–1946. By Vartan Gregorian. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969. 398pp. $17.50.