ABSTRACT Both the Tasmanian devil ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) and the Tasmanian tiger ( Thylacinus cynocephalus ) are believed to have become extinct on the Australian mainland about 3000 years ago. However, until now there were only 23 known rock art depictions of the Tasmanian devil and about 150 Tasmanian tiger paintings and petroglyphs, mostly at rock art sites in northern Australia. In this article, we report recently documented images of these species from two locations in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, including two previously undescribed Tasmanian devil paintings in different styles and several thylacines. We then consider reasons why there are so many more depictions of Tasmanian tigers than devils in Australian rock art and whether either species became extinct in Arnhem Land more recently than previously thought.

ABSTRACT There has been a dearth of archaeological research on atolls in the central‐eastern Caroline Islands of Micronesia. This has limited our understanding of pre‐contact subsistence and settlement strategies in these more marginal and remote environments, particularly in regards to zooarchaeological data. Here, we present the first analysis of faunal material recovered from Mwoakilloa (Mokil) atoll with occupation dating between ca. 1700 calBP to the present. The sample comprises nearly 6000 specimens across 53 families, representing both vertebrates and invertebrates, and is dominated by molluscs. Overall results indicate that bivalves declined over time, while gastropods increased slightly. The most prominent families include mesodesmatids, cone snails, true conchs, and ceriths. Fish, particularly parrotfish, wrasses, and groupers, were intensively harvested between 1550 – 910 calBP. Rats also first appeared around the same time, while birds and dogs were found earlier, ca. 1700 – 1400 calBP. Neither rat nor dog are represented in the earliest layers, suggesting that these species, often considered part of the “transported landscape” were not initially introduced when the island was settled.

ABSTRACT This comment addresses a substantive error appearing in “Links between climatic histories and the rise and fall of a Pacific chiefdom” in PNAS Nexus . The conclusions that article draws about causal connections among changing sea levels, sociopolitical developments, and oral traditions on Pohnpei are misleading and mistaken.

ABSTRACT Human settlement in much of the Pacific Islands, including Micronesia, is closely associated with littoral or coastal environments. From an ethnographic perspective, crossing the land‐sea boundary is a habitual and necessary act of existence for people who inhabit both volcanic and coral islands. Fishing, marine hunting, intertidal foraging, and the cultivation of plants have been integral to subsistence economies in this region. Coastal and intertidal sites are an ideal setting for exploring concepts of boundaries, liminality, and middle ground. Here, we take a multi‐site approach to understanding the importance of this environment, drawing on case studies from the volcanic island of Pohnpei and the coral atoll of Pingelap. Engaging with archaeobotanical (phytolith and plant macroremain) and excavation datasets, we explore the creation of sites on the water's edge. Specifically, we are interested in how littoral zones have been used in the Micronesian past, and the ways in which these environments function as liminal spaces – that is to say, culturally distinctive thresholds between the land and sea.

ABSTRACTPre‐Christian religious sites of the Fijian Archipelago have been seldom studied and even less often mapped by archaeologists. This is especially the case for the enigmatic Nanaga enclosures, whose functioning has remained poorly documented by the first ethnographers of the 19th century. This paper describes one of these sites, located near Labasa town in the northwestern plain of the large island of Vanua Levu. After presenting one of the oral traditions associated with some of the uprights of this Nanaga, exemplifying long‐distance chiefly networks, we describe the different elements of the double alignment of low platforms and related structures. These data are discussed in the wider context of anthropological and archaeological information published about the Nanaga sites and the rituals associated with them.

Abstract The ancestors of the dingo were brought to mainland Australia around 4000 years ago by people who arrived by boat. The identity of these voyagers from the north, however, and the nature of their interactions with the Aboriginal population of Australia, are unknown. Here, we propose that Indigenous flood narratives from the Kimberley contain evidence for contact between Aboriginal people and early Asian seafarers in the form of the “thunder complex”. The latter is a very specific repertoire of taboos, rituals and stories that occurs widely among ethnographically known societies of Indonesia, the Philippines and peninsular Malaysia, but has not previously been identified in Australia. Among Southeast Asian groups, this cultural complex revolves around the idea that certain prohibited acts perpetrated against animals – especially “mocking” them by treating them as though they were human – precipitate a punitive storm and/or flooding. We show that in some oral traditions of the Kimberley region animal mockery is similarly held to be the causative agent behind disastrous flooding events that took place in the past creationary epoch. We contend that this localised Aboriginal variant of the thunder complex reflects an episode of close interaction with early Austronesian‐speaking voyagers who introduced ancestral dingoes to mainland Australia, apparently via the Kimberley coast.

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a collaboration between Wilyakali Indigenous Custodians and a group of archaeologists. This collaboration has generated a shared and integrated understanding of the cultural landscape, Ancestral Creation Histories, and archaeology of the Broken Hill region of western New South Wales. The Broken Hill landscape is ancient beyond imagination, and complex geological processes/Creation Histories have resulted in distinctive landscape features and resources including quartz suitable for stone artefact manufacture. Wilyakali stone knappers employed specialised and varied technological processes to overcome the diverse and sometimes intractable nature of the quartz material, resulting in efficient use of this local stone resource. Wilyakali interpret the Country through their knowledge of the travelling sacred Bronzewing Pigeon and its creation of landscape features and resources such as quartz and water. Empirical archaeological data complement traditional knowledge, with the two ways of knowing coming together to reconstruct a nuanced interpretation of the cultural landscape. This shared narrative has had ongoing and inter‐generational benefits to the Wilyakali people, with knowledge communicated to younger generations by Elders, enabling them to interpret both the archaeology and Ancestral Creation Histories with confidence. This paper also highlights the inconsistent recognition of Indigenous ways of knowing and connection in Aboriginal cultural heritage assessments in the region.