Landscape and Creation of Persistent Places

The Murray River basin of southeastern Australia spans some 300,000km2 and is comprised of the southern half of the Murray-Darling River systems. To the east of the central region of the Murray River lies the Hay Plain traversed by the Lachlan, Murumbidgee and Murray Rivers and their tributaries and anabranches. To the west, the single river course of the Murray River narrows and flows through the surrounding Aeolian features, or landforms created by wind (Allen and Littleton 2007). The image below outlines the Murray Darling Basin and it’s rivers, tributaries and anabranches.

Location of the Murray Darling Basin in relation to the continent of Australia and the outline of the major rivers and their tributaries and anabranches that comprise the Murray Darling Basin. Image credit:  http://www.millennium-ark.net/NEWS/09_Food_Water/090217.drought.AU.foodbowl.html 

The central region of the Murray River, including the Hay Plain and Murray corridor, is the focus point of our case study as it encompasses the many sites in which Australian Aboriginal burial evidence has been discovered. This burial evidence proves the attachment that Australian Aboriginal hunter-gatherer’s had to particular pieces of land and the subsequent creation of persistent places based on interpretation of multiple burials in close proximity to one another (Allen and Littleton 2007). In Figure II, seen below, the names and locations of the various hunter-gatherer burial sites are shown. There is a clear relationship between the location of burial sites and their proximity to water.

Location of the larger various hunter-gatherer burial sites as evident through the archaeological record in south-eastern Australia. Image credit:

Littleton, J. "From the perspective of time: hunter-gatherer burials in south-eastern Australia." Antiquity. 81 (2007): 1013 - 1028. Print.

Australian Aboriginal burials are attracted to particular landscapes. Nutrient rich land, situated near water was occupied not based on its previous and continuous usage and occupation but because of its available sustainable resources (Littleton 2007). This suggests that hunter-gatherers valued stationary places as they offered a dependable supply of natural resources. Early explorers claim that there was a high population density in the region, made possible by the predictable riverine resources (Littleton and Allen 2007). The river provided a permanent water supply and was a natural resource from which Aboriginal populations were able to gather a wide variety of plant and animal foods including, reptiles, fish, crustaceans, mollusks and water birds (O’ Neill 1994). As suggested by Pardoe, the Central Murray region represented a predictable, stable and productive riverine environment capable of supporting large and dense populations (Allen and Littleton 2007). Hunter-gatherer burial sites are found throughout the central Murray River region along the banks of both rivers and lakes (Allen and Littleton 2007), which represents the strong attachment to particular pieces of land and their recurrent use as places of interment. Pardoe argues that the Central Murray region was,

“Occupied by highly territorial, endogamous groups with well-defended boundaries. The biological outcome of this is an increased genetic distance between neighboring groups and he suggest that this was reflected in a mortuary practice that included cemeteries as visual symbols of land ownership. These processes operate in contrast to surrounding groups of the arid and semi-arid country who occupied the country at low density and formed exogamous populations with large inclusive social networks, the mortuary corollary of this being individual isolated burials (Allen and Littleton 2007).”

The river and the abundance of resources it provided for hunter-gatherers was the key component of the strong relationship that existed between landscape and the creation of persistent places. The river encouraged sedentism and the use of multiple burials symbolized land ownership (Littleton 2007).

As suggested by Pardoe, cemeteries are only found in areas that possess permanent but finite resources.  These resources help to shape a persistent place, which in turn is used as a continual resting place for the dead. The importance of place in the landscape persists while the importance of people does not (Littleton 2007). It is argued that burials are not randomly situated in the landscape. They occur in specific places based on the surrounding landscape with the majority being found close to water sources (Littleton 2007).