Centre for Archaeological Science Dr Adam Brumm

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1 Centre for Archaeological Science Dr Adam Brumm ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellow Room: Phone No: abrumm@uow.edu.au Professional Profile Qualifications: BA (Hons), PhD Awards: ARC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship ( ) Key Research Interests Archaeology and lithic technology of Pleistocene Southeast Asia Palaeolithic stone tools and cognitive evolution Nature and origin of modern human behaviour Ritual and symbolism in the past Early hominin stone technology in Southeast Asia Southeast Asian research I have been involved in archaeological fieldwork and lithic analyses on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia since 2003, the same year (and field season) that Homo floresiensis was discovered in the now famous Liang Bua Cave. In this capacity, I am fortunate to be at the forefront with other CAS members of a new era of archaeological research that is providing unprecedented insights into early hominin tool making and behavioural evolution in Southeast Asia. In the previous decade, fieldwork in the Soa Basin of central Flores, and further west in the highlands around Ruteng, has yielded several large assemblages of stone tools from stratified and securely dated Pleistocene archaeological contexts and, in the case of Liang Bua, in direct association with Homo floresiensis remains. These seemingly insignificant bits of flaked stone are making an immense contribution to our knowledge of ancient hominin behaviour in the region, given the almost complete absence of equivalent, well dated lithic material from further afield in Southeast Asia. We are presently working towards expanding the scale and resolution of this record through our ongoing and planned research projects on Flores and adjacent islands of Indonesia. A major part of my research, with Indonesian and Australian colleagues, has been simply to recover, record, and make sense of this new and emerging body of lithic evidence, with a particular focus on stone artefacts from Early/Middle Pleistocene sites in the Soa Basin. The latter material, from open air sites along ancient lakeshores and riverine environments, was the subject of my PhD ( ) and is the focus of a renewed programme of research under our 5 year ARC funded Discovery project ( ), "In search of the first Asian

2 hominins" co directed by Professor Mike Morwood (CAS), Professor Fachroel Aziz (Centre for Geological Survey, Geological Agency, Bandung), and myself. As the field investigations and data collection phases proceed, we are developing a more complex understanding of early hominin lithic reduction sequences and technological evolution on Flores; the cognitive capabilities of pre modern humans as reflected by their stone tools; and the relationship between early tool making practices on the island and the better known industries of Palaeolithic Africa and western Eurasia. A resolution of these and other big picture issues, of course, is a long way off, and Flores still represents a geographically isolated source of behavioural information in the otherwise little understood Southeast Asian region. However, we are in an incomparably better position to address such fundamental research questions than previous generations of archaeologists and to take these investigations to new levels. Brumm, A. (2010). The Movius Line and the Bamboo Hypothesis: Early hominin stone technology in Southeast Asia. Lithic Technology 35, Brumm, A., Jensen, G., van den Bergh, G.D., Morwood, M.J., Kurniawan, I., Aziz, F. & Storey, M. (2010). Hominins on Flores, Indonesia, by one million years ago. Nature 464, Brumm, A., Moore, M.W., van den Bergh, G.D., Kurniawan, I., Morwood, M.J. & Aziz, F. (2010). Stone technology at the Middle Pleistocene site of Mata Menge, Flores, Indonesia. Journal of Archaeological Science 37, Moore, M.W., Sutikna, T., Jatmiko, Morwood, M.J. & Brumm, A. (2009). Continuities in stone flaking technology at Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution 57, Brumm, A., Aziz, F., Jatmiko, Morwood, M.J. & Moore, M.W. (2009). Early Pleistocene stone technology at Mata Menge, in Palaeontology and Archaeology of the Soa Basin, Central Flores, Indonesia, eds. F. Aziz, M.J. Morwood & G.D. van den Bergh, pp Bandung: Indonesian Geological Survey Institute. Moore, M.W. & Brumm, A. (2009). Homo floresiensis and the African Oldowan, in Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Oldowan, eds. E. Hovers & D.R. Braun, pp (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology Book Series). New York: Springer. Moore, M.W. & Brumm, A. (2007). Stone artifacts and hominins in island Southeast Asia: new insights from Flores, eastern Indonesia. Journal of Human Evolution 52, Brumm, A., Aziz, F. van den Bergh, G.D., Morwood, M.J., Moore, M.W., Hobbs, D.R., Kurniawan, I. & Fullagar, R. (2006). Early stone technology on Flores and its implications for Homo floresiensis. Nature 441, Left: Stone artefacts from Wolo Sege (at right) in the Soa Basin of Flores, Indonesia. These tools date to before ~1 million years ago and provide the earliest evidence for hominins on the island. (Photos: A. Brumm). Scale bars at left are in 10 mm increments.

3 Palaeolithic stone tools and imposed form One of my principal research interests is assessing current views of the most enigmatic of all Palaeolithic stone tools, the Acheulean handaxe. My PhD research ( ) looked at early hominin stone tools on Flores from the perspective of the Movius Line, the decadesold boundary between the handaxe technologies of Palaeolithic Africa and western Eurasia and the core and flake industries of East and Southeast Asia. My current ARC funded fellowship project ( ) expands the geographical scope of this work into western Eurasia, with a particular focus on Lower Palaeolithic industries of Britain. I am specifically interested in the relationship between handaxes and cores and other bifacially reduced artefacts in these assemblages. Do handaxes represent imposed form or a technological continuum with the latter types? Brumm, A. & McLaren, A. accepted. Scraper reduction and imposed form at the Lower Palaeolithic site of High Lodge, England. Journal of Human Evolution. Acheulean handaxes from Hoxne (at left) and High Lodge (at right), Lower Palaeolithic England. (Courtesy of the British Museum, London). Scale bar 10 mm. Social and symbolic aspects of ancient stone technology I am interested in all aspects of human symbolic behaviour and its expression in the archaeological record. This includes social and symbolic aspects of stone tools and other material culture in recent human societies and the origin of such practices in our evolutionary past (see below). Stone tools, in particular, are notoriously reticent when it comes to inferring non utilitarian dimensions, but there is much that can be learned from ethnographic accounts of tool use and various innovative approaches to lithic analysis. A particular focus on my research is the integration of technological and ideational concerns in the manufacture and exchange of stone tools (especially axes) in Australia; an issue I have also examined in Neolithic south India. Evidence for symbolic use of lithic materials in these and other contexts suggests that conventional archaeological models may often overstate the importance of functional and economic considerations in decisions made by past stoneworkers. Brumm, A.R., in press. Power tools: symbolic considerations of stone axe production and exchange in 19th century south eastern Australia, in Stone Axe Studies, Volume 3, eds. V. Davis & M. Edmonds. York: Council for British Archaeology. Brumm, A. (2010). The falling sky : symbolic and cosmological associations of the Mt William greenstone axe quarry, central Victoria, Australia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 20, Boivin, N., Brumm, A.R., Lewis, H., Robinson, D. & Korisettar, R. (2007). Sensual, material and technological understanding: exploring prehistoric soundscapes in south India. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 13, Brumm, A.R., Boivin, N. & Fullagar, R.L. (2006). Signs of life: engraved stone artefacts from Neolithic south India. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 16,

4 Brumm, A. R. (2004). An axe to grind: symbolic considerations of stone axe use in ancient Australia, in Soils, Stones and Symbols: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives on the Mineral World, eds. N. Boivin & M. A. Owoc, pp London: University College London Press. Left: Dispersal of stone axes from Mt William quarry and other greenstone sources in Victoria. Previous research highlighted the symbolic importance of Mt William stone based on the unusual distribution patterns of axes from this source (after McBryde 1984); right: Stone biface with engraved geometric pattern from Neolithic south India. The artefact was recovered from a bifacial axe workshop and illuminates symbolic practices in this early stone flaking industry. (Photo: M.W. Moore). Scale 50 mm. Nature and origin of symbolic behaviour The origin in deep time of modern human symbolic behaviour is a fundamental research problem that is rapidly gaining momentum. When did our closest human ancestors begin to think and act in ways we would recognise today as symbolically mediated? It is commonly argued that such behaviour emerged rather suddenly among Homo sapiens in Africa and western Eurasia 50,000 years ago before spreading to other parts of the Pleistocene Old World, including Australia. However, it is increasingly recognised that earlier forms of symbolic behaviour found expression among Middle Stone Age groups in South Africa, and potentially among late surviving Neanderthal populations in western Europe. This raises the complex problem of how to define modern human behaviour and the nature of its archaeological signatures. The early archaeological record of Australia and the wider Southeast Asian region has a crucial role to play here, as behaviourally modern people colonised these areas but left only scant evidence of symbolic activity. One of my key research interests is making sense of this record and evaluating existing accounts of human behavioural evolution from an Australasian perspective. Szabó, K.A., Brumm, A.R. & Bellwood, P. (2007). Shell artefact production at 32,000 28,000 BP in island Southeast Asia: thinking across media? Current Anthropology 48, Brumm, A.R. & Moore, M.W. (2005). Symbolic revolutions and the Australian archaeological record. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 15, Brumm, A. R. (2003). State of origins: art, cognition and the uncertain mindedness of the first Australians. Comment on Robert G. Bednarik s The Earliest Evidence of Palaeoart. Rock Art Research 20, Searchable Publication List: from 2005 Research Projects My research focuses on two key areas: 1. early hominin evolution and behaviour on Flores, eastern Indonesia; and 2. Palaeolithic stone tools and imposed form.

5 Current major projects In search of the first Asian hominins (ARC Discovery Project, ) A reassessment of early human stone technology from a Southeast Asian perspective (ARC Discovery Project, ) Potential Honours and PhD topics Indonesia: Early and Middle Pleistocene lithic technology in the Soa Basin Australia/Southeast Asia: Evidence and origin of modern human behaviour Britain: Cognitive aspects of Lower Palaeolithic stone technology Australia/General: Socio symbolic dimensions of stone tools