Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 17.5. Mesolithic and Neolithic stone tools from Adrar Bous, south-central
Sahara.
evidence of an episodically wetter climate associated with the inception of a regu-
larElNino climatic regime (Sandweiss et al.,
2001
), a theory that is scrutinised in
Chapter 23
. In certain shell middens along the south-east coast of Australia, there is
some evidence of growing pressure on local marine resources, with a decrease in the
size of shells collected. Combined with other signs of increasing pressure on local
natural resources, such as the consumption of food items from progressively lower
trophic levels, local faunal extinctions, skeletal signs of malnutrition and movement
into more marginal environments (Cohen,
1977
), a case may be made for a late Holo-
cene intensification of prehistoric human occupation in south-east Australia, possibly
associated with the arrival of a wave of new immigrants from Indonesia who brought
with them the dingo some 5,000 years ago (Mulvaney and Kamminga,
1999
).
17.5 Prehistoric butchery sites, fire and faunal extinctions
The inception of stone tool-making appears to be associated with a deliberate increase
in meat-eating. The presence of butchery sites in presently arid regions such as the
hyper-arid Afar Desert is a useful guide to the former presence of humans in such
