Australian Aboriginal artefacts
Australian Aboriginal artefacts include a variety of
Weapons
Aboriginal peoples used several different types of weapons including shields (also known as hielaman), spears, spear-throwers, boomerangs and clubs. Peoples from different regions used different weapons.[1] Some peoples, for example, would fight with boomerangs and shields, whereas in another region they would fight with clubs. Weapons could be used both for hunting game and in warfare.[2]
Weapons were of different styles in different areas. For example, a shield from Central Australia is very different from a shield from North Queensland.[3]
Spears
Aboriginal peoples used
Clubs
An Aboriginal club, otherwise known as a waddy or nulla-nulla, could be used for a variety of purposes such as for hunting, fishing, digging, for grooving tools, warfare and in ceremonies.[8][9] A fighting club, called a ‘Lil-lil’, could, with a heavy blow, break a leg, rib or skull. Clubs which could create severe trauma were made from extremely hard woods such as acacias including ironwood and mitji.[10] Many clubs were fire hardened and others had sharpened stone quartz attached to the handle with spinifex resin.[8]
Boomerangs
The boomerang is recognised by many as a significant cultural symbol of Australia.[11][12] The term 'returning boomerang' is used to distinguish between ordinary boomerangs and the small percentage which, when thrown, will return to its thrower.[13][14] The oldest wooden boomerang artefact known, excavated from the Wyrie Swamp, South Australia in 1973, is estimated to be 9,500 years old.[11]
Boomerangs could be used:
- as hunting or fighting weapons;[15]
- for digging;
- as cutting knives;[16]
- for making fire by friction;[15] and
- as percussion instruments for making music.[17]
Shields
Shields were mainly used by Aboriginal warriors to defend themselves in dispute battles, often for commodities such as territory. A shield which had not lost a battle was thought to be inherently powerful and was a prized possession. Shields were made from wood or bark and usually had carved markings or painted designs. They could also be used in ceremonies such as in corroborees.[18]
The Elemong shield is made from bark and is oval in shape. A handle is attached to the back and the shield was often painted with red and white patterns. Arragong and Tawarrang shields were carved of wood often with an outer layer of bark. Tawarrang shields were notably narrow and long and had patterns carved into the sides. This particular category of shield could also be used as a musical instrument when struck with a club, in addition to its use as a weapon.[19][20]
Shields originating from the
The shield is a form of embodied knowledge that acts as substitute for the human body – a symbol not only of the person in his entirety but also a symbol of his expanded self, that is, his relationships with others. The shield covers the entire body, protects the body, is painted by and with the body (blood) and links the body (through totemic design) to clan..
— John Hayward, "Two rare shield depictions from the Burrungkuy rock art region of Western Arnhem Land, Australia", Australian Archaeology (2020, Aug 17)
Findings
The Australian Museum |
The Australian Museum holds one of the wooden shields originating from the Kuku Yalanji people of the Daintree Rainforest on Cape York, Queensland.[22] |
The British Museum |
One of the most significant and earliest surviving Australian Aboriginal shield artefacts is widely believed |
Watercraft
Types of watercraft differed among Aboriginal communities, the most notable including bark canoes and dugout canoes which were built and used in different ways.[24] Methods of constructing canoes were passed down through word of mouth in Aboriginal communities, not written or drawn. Canoes were used for fishing, hunting and as transport.[25]
Bark canoes
Bark canoes were most commonly made from Eucalypt species including the bark of swamp she-oak Casuarina glauca, Eucalyptus botryoides, stringybark Eucalyptus agglomerata and Eucalyptus acmenoides.[26] Bark could only be successfully extracted at the right time of a wet season in order to limit the damage to the tree's growth and so that it was flexible enough to use. The bark would be cut with axes and peeled from the tree. More than one piece of bark was sometimes used.[25] "Canoe trees" can be distinguished today due to their distinctive scars.[26] The shaping was done by a combination of heating with fire and soaking with water.[25] The ends of the bark canoe would be fastened with plant-fibre string with the bow (front of canoe) fastened to a point.[26] Branches could be used to reinforce joints; and clay, mud or other resin could be used to seal them.[24] Due to the small draft and lightness of bark canoes, they were used in calmer waters such as billabongs, rivers, lakes, estuaries and bays.[27] Aboriginal men would throw spears to catch fish from the canoe, whereas women would use hooks and lines. Bark paddles could be used to propel the canoe[26] and thick leafy branches were held to catch the wind.[27]
Dugout canoes
Stone artefacts
Cutting tools made of stone and grinding or pounding stones were also used as everyday items by Aboriginal peoples.[28][29] Cutting tools were made by hammering a core stone into flakes.[29][30] Grinding stones can include millstones and mullers.[31] Quartzite is one of the main materials Aboriginal people used to create flakes but slate and other hard stone materials were also used.[29][32][33] Flakes can be used to create spear points and blades or knives.[29] Grindstones were used against grass seeds to make flour for bread, and to produce marrow from bones.[31]
Stone artefacts not only were used for a range of necessary activities such as hunting, but they also hold a special spiritual meaning.[34] Indigenous Australians describe a stone artefact as holding the spirit of an ancestor who once owned it.[34] 30,000-year-old grinding stones have been found at Cuddie Springs, NSW.[31] Leilira blades from Arnhem Land were collected between 1931 and 1948 and are as of 2021[update] held at the Australian Museum.[32]
Coolamons and carriers
Coolamons are Aboriginal vessels, generally used to carry water, food, and to cradle babies.[35] Coolamons could be made from a variety of materials including wood, bark, animal skin, stems, seed stalks, stolons, leaves and hair.[36] When travelling long distances, coolamons were carried on the head. Akartne was placed underneath the coolamon to support its weight. They could be made from possum hair, feathers, or twisted grass.[35]
Findings
Australian Museum |
The Australian Museum holds a bark water carrying vessel originating from Flinders Island, Queensland in 1905. This coolamon is made from the bark shell of a eucalyptus tree trunk that has been burnt and smoothed with stone and shells in order to hold and store water. A water bag made from kangaroo skin was acquired by the Australian Museum in 1893. It originates from the Urania people of North-West, Queensland.[35] |
South Australian Museum | The South Australian Museum holds a wooden coolamon collected in 1971 by Robert Edwards. The British Museum holds a bark water carrying vessel originating from the North-Western Australia.[36]
|
Message sticks
Message sticks, also known as "talking-sticks", were used in Aboriginal communities to communicate invitations, declarations of war, news of death and so forth.[37][38] They were made of wood and were usually flat with motifs engraved on all sides to express a message. The type of wood and shape of a message stick could be a part of the message. Special messengers would carry message sticks over long distances and were able to travel through tribal borders without harm. After the message had been received, generally the message stick would be burned.[39]
Findings
Australian Museum |
The Australian Museum holds 230 message sticks in its collection.[37] |
South Australian Museum | The South Australian Museum holds 283 message sticks in its collection.[37] |
British Museum | The British Museum holds 74 message sticks in its collection.[37] |
National Museum of Australia | The National Museum of Australia holds 53 message sticks in its collection.[37] |
Pitt Rivers Museum | The Pitt Rivers Museum holds a message stick from the 19th century made of Acacia homalophylla which originates from Queensland. Originally sent by a Yagalingu man to a Wadjalang man, it is an invitation to hunt emu and wallaby. Zig-zagged symbols carved into the wood represent ‘emu’ and the cross-hatching represent ‘wallaby’. The British Museum holds a Kalkatungu message stick, collected by Charles Handley in 1900, created to communicate the death of three children through a combination of diamond-shaped engravings.[37] |
Ornamental artefacts
Some Aboriginal peoples used materials such as teeth and bone to make ornamental objects such as necklaces and headbands.[40]
Teeth ornaments
The most common teeth ornaments consisted of lower incisors of macropods such as kangaroos or wallabies. One of the most fascinating discoveries was a necklace made from 178 Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) teeth recovered from Lake Nitchie in New South Wales in 1969. Forehead ornaments have also been found to use porpoise and dolphin teeth from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Crocodile teeth were used mainly in Arnhem Land.[40]
Bone ornaments
Bones were often used for ornamental purposes, especially necklaces and
Pearl shells
Riji are the pearl shells traditionally worn by Aboriginal men in the north-west part of Australia, around present day Broome. The word riji is from the Bardi language. Another word for it is jakuli. Before being decorated, the pearl shell is known as guwan. Lines known as ramu, often in a sacred pattern or depicting a traditional story, are carved onto the guwan, at which point it becomes a riji. Ochre is sometimes applied to the incisions, for colour. Riji are associated with water, as well as spiritual or healing powers, and life.[42]
Clothing
Possum-skin cloak
Buka cloak
Kopis
The Kopi
Other names for the Kopi were widow's cap, korno, mulya, mung-warro, pa-ta, and yúgarda.[44]
Children's toys
Children's toys made by Aboriginal peoples were not only to entertain but also to educate.[45] Toys were made from different materials depending on location and materials available.[46]
Dolls
"Dolls" could be made from cassia nemophila, with its branches assembled with string and grass. Features were often painted with clay to represent a baby.[47] Dolls made from Xanthorrhoea are called Kamma dolls and are from Keppel Island. Shell dolls could also be made from conical shells and were often wrapped in fabric to distinguish age or status.[48][40]
Rattles
Bags and baskets
In Arnhem Land, the Gulf region of Queensland and Cape York, children’s bags and baskets were made from fibre twine.[47]
Toy spears and shields
Play spears, which were often blunt wooden spears, were used by boys in mock battles and throwing games.[50]
Collections
Australian Museum | 370 toys collected between 1885 and 1990 are currently held at the Australian Museum.[46] In 1899 Walter Roth found and collected three rattles (Strombus campbelli, Cyroea subviridis and Arca pilula) from Mapoon, Batavia River and Cape York Peninsula. Three dolls made of curved stick and fabric date back to the early 1900s from North Queensland.[48] |
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery | Three wooden dolls from Mornington Island are held by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.[47] |
Sacred items
Artefacts sometimes regarded as sacred items and/or used in ceremonies include
Art
Most Aboriginal art is not considered artefact, but often the designs in Aboriginal art are similar designs to those originally on sacred artefacts.[51][52]
Keeping Places
A Keeping Place (usually capitalised) is an Aboriginal community-managed place for the safekeeping of repatriated cultural material
See also
- Australian Aboriginal culture
- Indigenous Collection (Miles District Historical Village)
- Lizard Island#Mangrove Beach, a 2024 pottery finding
References
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