A preliminary report on archaeological findings in Aurukun Shire, western Cape York

Abstract

The following is a preliminary report on archaeological work undertaken in September and October 1985 in conjunction with an ethnographic mapping project carried out by the South Australian Museum and Arukun Shire Council. The mapping project, which has continued in some form for the past 15 years, was set up by anthropologists Peter Sutton and John von Sturmer along with the traditional owners of clan estates. As this work, and similar work in eastern Cape York, has had as one of its primary aims the elucidation of traditional patterns of land tenure, it represents a major potential resource for archaeology (Chase 1980; Sutton 1978; von Sturmer 1978).