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The death of Kaakutja: a case of peri-mortem weapon trauma in anAboriginal man from north-western New South Wales, Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2016

Michael Westaway*
Affiliation:
Environmental Futures Research Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
Douglas Williams
Affiliation:
Access Archaeology & Heritage, PO Box 816, Moruya, NSW 2537, Australia
Richard Wright
Affiliation:
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Rachel Wood
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, 142 Mills Road, Acton, ACT 2601, Australia
Jon Olley
Affiliation:
Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
Jaime Swift
Affiliation:
College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Sarah Martin
Affiliation:
Office of Environment & Heritage, 183 Argent Street, Broken Hill, NSW 2880, Australia
Justine Kemp
Affiliation:
Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, QLD 4111, Australia
Shane Rolton
Affiliation:
Wysiwyg 3D, Unit 1, 22 Norman Street, Peakhurst, NSW 2210, Australia
William Bates
Affiliation:
Paakantji Aboriginal Cultural Group, Broken Hill, NSW, Australia
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: m.westaway@griffith.edu.au)
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Abstract

Skeletal remains from a burial in New South Wales exhibit evidence of fataltrauma, of a kind normally indicative of sharp metal weapons, yet the burialdates to the mid thirteenth century—600 years before European settlersreached the area. Could sharp-edged wooden weapons from traditionalAboriginal culture inflict injuries similar to those resulting from later,metal blades? Analysis indicates that the wooden weapons known as ‘Lil-lils’ and the fighting boomerangs (‘Wonna’) both have blades that could fit within thedimensions of the major trauma and are capable of having caused the fatalwounds.

Information

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2016 
Figure 0

Figure 1. The location of Kaakutja's burial site.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Rock art probably depicting inter-tribal conflict between different Aboriginal parties, located at Gundabooka National Park, 25km to the east of Kaakutja's burial site (image courtesy of Brooke Hendry).

Figure 2

Figure 3. The tightly flexed burial, located on the western edge of the Darling River at Toorale National Park.

Figure 3

Table 1. CRANID results. Both analyses (Linear Discriminant and Nearest Neighbour) identified that the nearest morphological neighbour for Kaakutja was Sydney Aboriginal males.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Pattern of trauma recorded on Kaakutja's skeleton.

Figure 5

Figure 5. Trauma on the frontal bone (a), including elongated, partially healed trauma (b) similar to that observed in archaeologically recorded victims of edged weapon attack (Kanz & Grossschmidt 2006: fig. 4 A08).

Figure 6

Figure 6. Frontal bone and maxilla trauma: a) flaking can be observed along the lateral edges of the wound on the frontal bone; b) note the partially exposed maxillary sinus and the exposed first molar roots where the alveolar bone has been removed by a traumatic blow affecting the frontal, zygomatic and maxilla on the right-hand side.

Figure 7

Figure 7. Superior view, showing the apparent alignment between the wound on the frontal bone and the maxilla.

Figure 8

Figure 8. Trauma to head of the right humerus showing: a) superior view with trauma present at posterior; and b) posterior view of the proximal humerus.

Figure 9

Figure 9. The pattern of trauma in ribs 4 and 5, which is in alignment with further trauma in the superior ribs 2 and 3.

Figure 10

Table 2. 14C dates, calibrated against SHCal13 (Hogg et al.2013) or Bomb 13 SH 1_2 (Hua et al. 2013) in OxCal v.4.2 (Bronk Ramsey 2009). See Table S1 in online supplementary material for details of pre-treatment, quality assurance and IRMS results. δ 13C is measured by AMS and used to correct the radiocarbon measurement for fractionation. It is not equivalent to IRMS data.

Figure 11

Figure 10. Hardwood edged weapons from south-eastern Australia (courtesy South Australian Museum): a) A5846 – length 885mm and cutting edge 100mm, b) A5548 – length 775mm and cutting edge 135mm; and c) A5553 – length 678mm and cutting edge 75mm.

Supplementary material: PDF

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