Risk Minimization and a Late Holocene Increase in Mobility at Roonka Flat, South Australia: An Analysis of Lower Limb Bone Diaphyseal Shape

摘要

ObjectivesThe strengthening of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the mid-Holocene caused significant changes in climate, vegetation, and faunal assemblages in South Australia. The appearance of a light, flexible backed-artifact toolkit approximate to 4 kya has been interpreted as evidence for changes in foraging behavior in response to this event. Optimal foraging theory supports a risk minimization strategy for South Australian hunter-gatherers in which increased mobility was used to cope with effects of a dryer, unstable environment in the late Holocene. Whether this event caused changes in foraging mobility will be tested by examining lower limb external diaphyseal shape between pre-ENSO and post-ENSO skeletons from Roonka Flat, South Australia.