Lithic occurences and stratigraphic problems at Turtle Rock (Hervey Range), North Queensland

Abstract

This paper looks at a number of aspects of the knapping or reduction sequences represented amongst the substantial quantities of lithic material which were collected during three successive excavation campaigns from 1977 to 1979 at Turtle Rock (Hervey Range), North Queensland. It presents the first detailed description of this material, and it also considers the principal stratigraphic problems encountered during those and subsequent excavation campaigns in 1981 and 1983, at least as far as these problems might effect attempts at understanding the site's lithic occurrences and at reconstructing their associated human behaviours. Preliminary accounts of work on Turtle Rock have appeared in Campbell (1978a, 1982b, 1984), Campbell et al. (1982) Coventry et al. (1980) and Mardaga-Campbell et al. (1982). The excavations themselves were carried out mainly as third-year under-graduate student training exercises.