RADIOCARBON DATES FOR BEESWAX FIGURES IN THE PREHISTORIC ROCK ART OF NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon ages have been taken for a test suite of small samples of material removed from some of the ‘beeswax’art figures found in rock shelters in northern Australia. The results indicate that we can reliably date this unique form of rock art with no noticeable damage. We had not expected to find figures of any great antiquity, and so we were surprised to find that the ages obtained spanned the time period from the recent past to about 4000 BP.     

Random Time Sampling

Random Time Sampling is an innovative data collection method which has potential for adaptation and use by geographers. Individual pocket-sized programmable beepers were used in a pilot study of the uses of time by older households and older people's attitudes to different activities. Random beeps were used to prompt individuals living in eleven Melbourne suburbs to record time use data in diaries over a period of a week. The method proved extremely effective and reliable, and many participants reporting that they enjoyed the exercise.     

Reviews

“JINNAH: CREATOR OF PAKISTAN.” by Hector Bolitho. John Murray. London, 7954. Pp. x and 244, illus.

“WANTED: AN ASIAN POLICY,” by Edwin O. Reisehauer. New York: Knopf, 7955. Pp. 256.     

The Enisei River of Central Siberia in the Late Pleistocene

Recent Paleolithic work along the middle Enisei River of central Siberia has revealed a long history of occupation that almost certainly begins in the Middle Pleistocene. Although the evidence for the Lower Paleolithic is somewhat tentative, there is good reason to believe that hunter-gatherers had periodically occupied the middle Enisei before the last interglacial. The steppe environment of the region during the Upper Pleistocene was relatively bountiful; more than 200 Upper Paleolithic sites, both before and after the Last Glacial Maximum, have been located. The region appears to have been abandoned during the Last Glacial Maximum. Most of Soviet and Russian archaeological work has been guided by a cultural–historical orientation, but recently there has been increased interest in developing adaptationist and ecological research strategies. The middle Enisei and the wider central Siberian region are key to understanding early adaptations to the north and the dimensions of Paleolithic population movements.