Fiona Hook
@fionahook.bsky.social
Australian Archaeologist | CEO, Archae-aus | Archaeomalacology, Island & coastal archaeology, worked shell experiments | Researching Australia’s oldest Aboriginal marine invertebrate use (51 ka) | Desert People Project & Adjunct Lecturer, UWA
This is what I was doing in the lab this week — working through the MNI counts for chitons as part of my reanalysis of the marine invertebrate assemblage from Haynes Cave. Applying a method that is more accurate. #archaeomalacology #zooarchaeology #chiton #australianarchaeology #MontebelloIslands
Using archaeological, ethnographic & experimental datasets, we establish a full chaîne opératoire for Melo shell knives—proving manufacture began 46,000 years ago in northern Australia. doi.org/10.1016/j.ja... #zooarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
The reduction sequence of a juvenile Melo into a knife followed a set process. The same as technique observed by Tindale in the 1960s in the gulf of Carpentaria. Which is 2,452 km away from Boodie Cave! #archaeomalacology #experimentalarchaeology #australianarchaeology #shelltools
Part of my PhD research looked at shell knives from Boodie Cave, Barrow Island (Hook et al. 2024). We found a 46,000-year tradition of Melo shell knife production—some of the earliest known shell tools made by Homo sapiens. #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
Been a bit quiet—waiting on TO approval for my final PhD paper. I’ve moved into my own lab in the Peter Veth Arch Lab + kicked off archaeomalacological reanalysis of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene Haynes + Noala Caves, Montebello Islands, 1980s digs #shellfish #uwa #australianarchaeology
New article on rock art in the Kimberley #australianarchaeology #rockart #kimberley #westenaustralia
Australian Archaeology@austarchj.bsky.social · 2y agoNew article by Motta and colleagues introduces a new Mid-to-Late Holocene rock art style - Linear Naturalistic Figures - from the Kimberly, suggesting a change in how people perceive their landscape and interpreted it through art. 🔓🔑🔽 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New postdoc in Australian archaeology from Sydney University #auatralianarchaeology #coastalarchaeology #archaeomalacology
School of Humanities@usyd-humanities.bsky.social · 2y agoA #USyd postgraduate research scholarship in Archaeology A scholarship to support a PhD student to undertake research on the coastal archaeology of GunaiKurnai Country (Gippsland, Victoria) www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships...
Rethinking Australian archaeology narratives: WA’s Aboriginal Heritage Act once centred Aboriginal perspectives, but science now dominates. Using Ingold’s taskscape, we reconnect sites, stories & significance in Nyiyaparli Country. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1... #taskscape #Aboriginalsites
Tracing pathways: writing archaeology in Nyiyaparli country
The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) uniquely placed Aboriginal perspectives at the heart of assessing significance and protecting Aboriginal places, alongside “historical, anthropological, archaeol...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
It’s the way you tell the story - 2 perspectives on rockshelter CB08-500: one sees a typical Pilbara site, the other brings it to life with Nyiyaparli heritage and imagined past events. A fresh take on how we value and interpret Australian archaeological sites. www.archae-aus.com.au/perch/resour...
archae-aus.com.au
A new study in Australian archaeology combines Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung cultural insights with evidence from Jacksons Creek (biik wurrdha) to explore Aboriginal earth rings, revealing insights into fire, tool use, and movement by Woi-wurrung ancestors. #australianarchaeology doi.org/10.1080/0312...
New braided knowledge understandings of an Aboriginal earth ring and biik wurrdha (Jacksons Creek, Sunbury) on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, southeastern Australia
Aboriginal rings are circular, earth (or rock) features that are preserved at increasingly fewer locations across eastern Australia today. While previous studies indicate these rings are sacred loc...
doi.org
Island archaeology through the lens of archaeological science - EAA session this year
Dr Maja Mise@majamise.bsky.social · 2y ago🚨 CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS 🌍 Session #150: Finding the Way – Exploring Island Archaeology through Archaeological Sciences 🔑 Keynote: Cyprian Broodbank (University of Cambridge) We invite insights on how scientific methods are enriching our knowledge of 🏝️ societies #archaeology 🗓️ 6 Feb 2025
Great new paper on Western Australian archaeology and maritime archaeology.
The Archaeological Conservancy@thearchcons.org · 2y agoIn the news: Archaeologists find evidence of wrecked Dutch East India Company ship along shore of Western #Australia https://phys.org/news/2024-12-bad-weather-dutch-east-india.html#google_vignette #archaeology #EastIndiaTradingCompany
Want all your Australian archaeology posts in one place? Here is a feed - like it and add it to your Bluesky Feeds. It captures any post in the last 7 days with the words ‘Australian archaeology’ and archaeology in Australia’. bsky.app/profile/did:...
Fabulous new paper in Australian Archaeology: Australia’s Overland Telegraph Line, built 50 years pre-Federation, linked the continent to the world. A cybernetic lens shows its interdependent technical, social, and ecological systems. #IndustrialArchaeology #Cybernetics doi.org/10.1080/0312...
One complete system? Telegraphy, cybernetics and industrial archaeology
Telegraph systems laid the groundwork for the first global digital systems. In Australia, 50 years before Federation, the continental-scale telegraph system linked to the wider world using submarin...
doi.org
No better way to start the new #research year than with a new paper! Enjoy our review on #isotope #sclerochronology on #molluscs led by Andy Johnson! 🥳🍾 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Molluscan isotope sclerochronology in marine palaeoclimatology: Taxa, technique and timespan issues
Study of the accretionary biomineralised hardparts of organisms (sclerochronology) can make a useful contribution to palaeoclimatology. Ontogenetic se…
sciencedirect.com
Already 460 respondents to our Australian Archaeology in Profile 2025: A Survey of Working Archaeologists! 1/3 indicate that they worked for more than 1 employer in 2024. QLD, SA & ACT are still poorly represented. Please complete the survey at: surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...
The use wear experiments showed that the Boodie Cave beads were strung with their narrower apical ends and wide ends alternating against each other, rather than nested in concatenated style as seen in historical examples. #experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #ancientbeads
My latest paper details how tusk shell beads were strung and tested on a wear machine simulating 10 hours of vigorous wear: 300 RPM, 1.5 agitations/sec, totaling 54,000 agitations—like wearing a necklace during intense activity. #experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology
I keep wanting different lists of everyone’s archaeology posts. So I’ve created a Coastal archaeology feed. Come and add it to your feeds. bsky.app/profile/did:... #coastalarchaeology #islandarchaeology #maritimearchaeology #submergedlandscapes #marinezooarchaeology #archaeomalacology
In 2005, Scott Fitzpatrick and I started as founding coeditors of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology. In 2025, under Scott’s continued leadership, JICA will publish its 20th volume! Still going strong, with more than 8,000 pages on our deep entanglement with island & coastal ecosystems.
Based on experimental archaeology, we’ve shown that 11,000-year-old scaphopod shell bead production from Boodie Cave (NW Australia) matches how Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley make them today! This the first study of its kind in Australian archaeology. #archaeomalacology #iceage
It’s now officially officially Dr Hook! Graduated my PhD last night at UWA in Australian archaeology. Thesis is titled Early archaeology of the mangrove highway: 50,000 years of Aboriginal marine adaptations from Barrow Island, northwest Australia. #archaeomalacology #experimentalarchaeology
New feed for archaeomalacologists on BlueSky. 🐚 The feed is searching for any posts with the following words: archaeomalacology, sclerochronology, shellfish archaeology, shell archaeology, shell midden, shell bead, shell tool. Let me know what else I can add :) 🐚
An amazing 244 respondents already to our Australian Archaeology in Profile 2025: A Survey of Working Archaeologists! BUT only 12 from South Australia and 4 from the ACT! Where are you????? Please complete the survey at: www.surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2... #AustralianArchaeology
Tomorrow I’ll be presenting my PhD results at the Australian Archaeology Conference in Cairns, showing the consistent harvesting of subtidal sea grass shellfish from 51-36 to 18-6.5 ka at Boodie Cave #australianarchaeology #archaeomalacology #iceage #pleistocene #ancientmaritimity #zooarchaeology
Australian archaeologists please fill this survey out ! :)
Sean Ulm@seanulm.bsky.social · 2y agoAustralian Archaeology in Profile 2025: A Survey of Working Archaeologists Help us build a profile of professional archaeology in Australia! Now in its 20th year, this survey develops an understanding of our discipline and how it is changing. www.surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...
