The University of New England has a well-earned reputation as one of Australia's great teaching, training and research universities. Through its leading role in the provision of distance education, UNE has contributed to the nation's development over more than half a century. Today, UNE is extending its global reach through the adoption of the latest communication technologies, and is recognised as an innovator in flexible online education.
Archaeology at UNE has a national and international reputation for research and teaching across a diverse range of areas. These include the discovery and description of the ‘hobbit’ (Homo floresiensis) in Indonesia, research into stone tool ‘design space’ and cognitive evolution, analysis of the history of commensal and domesticated animals, patterns of exchange in the Bronze Age of southern Arabia and the Near East, and the landscapes of global colonialism reflected in the 19th Century convict system in Australia.
Our program has a strong materials orientation involving artefact-based research in our general and specialist laboratories and analytical facilities, including an on-campus open-air field laboratory dedicated to experimental archaeology. We have a vibrant graduate and post-doctoral cohort with ongoing support from the Australian Research Council and international sources.
Experimental archaeology at UNE focuses on the nexus between experimental and experiential approaches to investigation the past. In our Experimental Archaeology unit, ARPA307/507, students explores the theory behind experimental archaeology through case studies covering a diversity of ancient technologies, including stone, bone, ceramic, and metal, and a variety of processes than can affect archaeological assemblages. Students explore these issues while making hafted stone knives, bone tools and open-fired ceramics, and applying these skills in preparing and cooking food using a variety of methods. We have particular expertise in experiment-based approaches to reconstructing stone tool manufacture, and UNE hosts the Australasian Flintknappers Guild and the Stone Tools & Cognition Hub.
Recent Publications in Experimental Archaeology
Fillios, M. 2016. Food for thought: Using game cameras to better understand the movement of bones by scavengers in archaeological faunal assemblages. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 8(2), 317-328.
Moore, M.W., and Y. Perston. 2016. Experimental insights into the cognitive significance of early stone tools. PLoS One 11(7), art no. E0158803.
Moore, M.W. 2015. Bifacial flintknapping in the Northwest Kimberley, Western Australia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 22:913-951.
Fillios, M. 2011. Testing the impact of environmental zone on experimental faunal models. Environmental Archaeology 16(2): 111-121.
