Kurturniaiak (Badu) and the archaeology of villages in Torres Strait
01st December 2006
Bruno David and Marshall Weisler
Despite more than 30 years of archaeological research, not a single detailed site report has ever been published for a village site in Torres Strait. This paper presents the results of small-scale excavations at the 700 year old village of Kurturniaiwak on Badu island in mid-western Torres Strait. It represents the first in an ongoing series of systematic excavations of village sites in this part of Torres Strait. Initial results support conclusions of major socio-cultural change for the region as recently proposed by McNiven, and indicate that a major reconfiguration of settlement-subsistence-ritual systems probably took place in western Torres Strait sometime between 600 and 800 years ago.
Image caption: The site of Kurturniaiwak viewed from the south (published in Australian Archaeology 63:22). Bruno David and Marshall WeislerKurturniaiak (Badu) and the archaeology of villages in Torres Strait
December 2006
63
21-34
Article
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