Fiona Hook
@fionahook.bsky.social
Australian Archaeologist | CEO, Archae-aus | Archaeomalacology, Island & coastal archaeology, worked shell experiments | Researching Australia’s oldest Aboriginal marine invertebrate use (51 ka) | Desert People Project & Adjunct Lecturer, UWA
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Fiona Hook
@fionahook.bsky.social
· Nov 15
Late Pleistocene scaphopod beads from Boodie Cave and deep time traditions of personal ornamentation in northwest Australia
Tubular segments of Scaphopoda (tusk shell) were traditionally used by Aboriginal peoples in the manufacture of ornate bead necklaces across northwest Australia. Twenty-seven scaphopod shell beads ...
doi.org
My latest PhD paper is now out on the late Pleistocene tusk shell beads from Boodie Cave, Barrow Island, northwest Australia. The paper also includes discussion of usewear analysis and experimental archaeology.
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
This is what I was doing in the lab this week — working through the MNI counts for chitons as part of my reanalysis of the marine invertebrate assemblage from Haynes Cave. Applying a method that is more accurate.
#archaeomalacology #zooarchaeology #chiton #australianarchaeology #MontebelloIslands
#archaeomalacology #zooarchaeology #chiton #australianarchaeology #MontebelloIslands
April 19, 2025 at 3:48 AM
This is what I was doing in the lab this week — working through the MNI counts for chitons as part of my reanalysis of the marine invertebrate assemblage from Haynes Cave. Applying a method that is more accurate.
#archaeomalacology #zooarchaeology #chiton #australianarchaeology #MontebelloIslands
#archaeomalacology #zooarchaeology #chiton #australianarchaeology #MontebelloIslands
Using archaeological, ethnographic & experimental datasets, we establish a full chaîne opératoire for Melo shell knives—proving manufacture began 46,000 years ago in northern Australia. doi.org/10.1016/j.ja... #zooarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
April 17, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Using archaeological, ethnographic & experimental datasets, we establish a full chaîne opératoire for Melo shell knives—proving manufacture began 46,000 years ago in northern Australia. doi.org/10.1016/j.ja... #zooarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
The reduction sequence of a juvenile Melo into a knife followed a set process. The same as technique observed by Tindale in the 1960s in the gulf of Carpentaria. Which is 2,452 km away from Boodie Cave! #archaeomalacology #experimentalarchaeology #australianarchaeology #shelltools
April 13, 2025 at 3:15 PM
The reduction sequence of a juvenile Melo into a knife followed a set process. The same as technique observed by Tindale in the 1960s in the gulf of Carpentaria. Which is 2,452 km away from Boodie Cave! #archaeomalacology #experimentalarchaeology #australianarchaeology #shelltools
Part of my PhD research looked at shell knives from Boodie Cave, Barrow Island (Hook et al. 2024). We found a 46,000-year tradition of Melo shell knife production—some of the earliest known shell tools made by Homo sapiens.
#archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
#archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
April 13, 2025 at 1:42 AM
Part of my PhD research looked at shell knives from Boodie Cave, Barrow Island (Hook et al. 2024). We found a 46,000-year tradition of Melo shell knife production—some of the earliest known shell tools made by Homo sapiens.
#archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
#archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology #experimentalarchaeology
Been a bit quiet—waiting on TO approval for my final PhD paper. I’ve moved into my own lab in the Peter Veth Arch Lab + kicked off archaeomalacological reanalysis of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene Haynes + Noala Caves, Montebello Islands, 1980s digs
#shellfish #uwa #australianarchaeology
#shellfish #uwa #australianarchaeology
April 3, 2025 at 11:47 PM
Been a bit quiet—waiting on TO approval for my final PhD paper. I’ve moved into my own lab in the Peter Veth Arch Lab + kicked off archaeomalacological reanalysis of the late Pleistocene and early Holocene Haynes + Noala Caves, Montebello Islands, 1980s digs
#shellfish #uwa #australianarchaeology
#shellfish #uwa #australianarchaeology
New article on rock art in the Kimberley #australianarchaeology #rockart #kimberley #westenaustralia
New article by Motta and colleagues introduces a new Mid-to-Late Holocene rock art style - Linear Naturalistic Figures - from the Kimberly, suggesting a change in how people perceive their landscape and interpreted it through art. 🔓🔑🔽
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
March 2, 2025 at 1:09 AM
New article on rock art in the Kimberley #australianarchaeology #rockart #kimberley #westenaustralia
New postdoc in Australian archaeology from Sydney University
#auatralianarchaeology #coastalarchaeology #archaeomalacology
#auatralianarchaeology #coastalarchaeology #archaeomalacology
A #USyd postgraduate research scholarship in Archaeology
A scholarship to support a PhD student to undertake research on the coastal archaeology of GunaiKurnai Country (Gippsland, Victoria)
www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships...
A scholarship to support a PhD student to undertake research on the coastal archaeology of GunaiKurnai Country (Gippsland, Victoria)
www.sydney.edu.au/scholarships...
Postgraduate Research Scholarship in Coastal Archaeology
www.sydney.edu.au
February 15, 2025 at 12:21 AM
New postdoc in Australian archaeology from Sydney University
#auatralianarchaeology #coastalarchaeology #archaeomalacology
#auatralianarchaeology #coastalarchaeology #archaeomalacology
Rethinking Australian archaeology narratives: WA’s Aboriginal Heritage Act once centred Aboriginal perspectives, but science now dominates. Using Ingold’s taskscape, we reconnect sites, stories & significance in Nyiyaparli Country.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#taskscape #Aboriginalsites
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#taskscape #Aboriginalsites
Tracing pathways: writing archaeology in Nyiyaparli country
The Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) uniquely placed Aboriginal perspectives at the heart of assessing significance and protecting Aboriginal places, alongside “historical, anthropological, archaeol...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
January 13, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Rethinking Australian archaeology narratives: WA’s Aboriginal Heritage Act once centred Aboriginal perspectives, but science now dominates. Using Ingold’s taskscape, we reconnect sites, stories & significance in Nyiyaparli Country.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#taskscape #Aboriginalsites
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
#taskscape #Aboriginalsites
It’s the way you tell the story - 2 perspectives on rockshelter CB08-500: one sees a typical Pilbara site, the other brings it to life with Nyiyaparli heritage and imagined past events. A fresh take on how we value and interpret Australian archaeological sites.
www.archae-aus.com.au/perch/resour...
www.archae-aus.com.au/perch/resour...
www.archae-aus.com.au
January 8, 2025 at 7:37 AM
It’s the way you tell the story - 2 perspectives on rockshelter CB08-500: one sees a typical Pilbara site, the other brings it to life with Nyiyaparli heritage and imagined past events. A fresh take on how we value and interpret Australian archaeological sites.
www.archae-aus.com.au/perch/resour...
www.archae-aus.com.au/perch/resour...
A new study in Australian archaeology combines Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung cultural insights with evidence from Jacksons Creek (biik wurrdha) to explore Aboriginal earth rings, revealing insights into fire, tool use, and movement by Woi-wurrung ancestors. #australianarchaeology
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
New braided knowledge understandings of an Aboriginal earth ring and biik wurrdha (Jacksons Creek, Sunbury) on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, southeastern Australia
Aboriginal rings are circular, earth (or rock) features that are preserved at increasingly fewer locations across eastern Australia today. While previous studies indicate these rings are sacred loc...
doi.org
January 8, 2025 at 2:07 AM
A new study in Australian archaeology combines Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung cultural insights with evidence from Jacksons Creek (biik wurrdha) to explore Aboriginal earth rings, revealing insights into fire, tool use, and movement by Woi-wurrung ancestors. #australianarchaeology
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
Island archaeology through the lens of archaeological science - EAA session this year
🚨 CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
🌍 Session #150:
Finding the Way – Exploring Island Archaeology through Archaeological Sciences
🔑 Keynote: Cyprian Broodbank (University of Cambridge)
We invite insights on how scientific methods are enriching our knowledge of 🏝️ societies
#archaeology
🗓️ 6 Feb 2025
🌍 Session #150:
Finding the Way – Exploring Island Archaeology through Archaeological Sciences
🔑 Keynote: Cyprian Broodbank (University of Cambridge)
We invite insights on how scientific methods are enriching our knowledge of 🏝️ societies
#archaeology
🗓️ 6 Feb 2025
January 7, 2025 at 10:34 AM
Island archaeology through the lens of archaeological science - EAA session this year
Great new paper on Western Australian archaeology and maritime archaeology.
In the news: Archaeologists find evidence of wrecked Dutch East India Company ship along shore of Western #Australia
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-bad-weather-dutch-east-india.html#google_vignette
#archaeology
#EastIndiaTradingCompany
https://phys.org/news/2024-12-bad-weather-dutch-east-india.html#google_vignette
#archaeology
#EastIndiaTradingCompany
Bad weather led Dutch East India Company ship into Western Australian coast, archaeologists find
The Dutch East India Company ship, the Zuytdorp, likely crashed into the shore of Western Australia in 1712 due to a storm and not bad navigation, new research has found.
phys.org
January 6, 2025 at 9:21 AM
Great new paper on Western Australian archaeology and maritime archaeology.
Want all your Australian archaeology posts in one place? Here is a feed - like it and add it to your Bluesky Feeds. It captures any post in the last 7 days with the words ‘Australian archaeology’ and archaeology in Australia’.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
bsky.app/profile/did:...
January 6, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Want all your Australian archaeology posts in one place? Here is a feed - like it and add it to your Bluesky Feeds. It captures any post in the last 7 days with the words ‘Australian archaeology’ and archaeology in Australia’.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
bsky.app/profile/did:...
Fabulous new paper in Australian Archaeology: Australia’s Overland Telegraph Line, built 50 years pre-Federation, linked the continent to the world. A cybernetic lens shows its interdependent technical, social, and ecological systems. #IndustrialArchaeology #Cybernetics
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
One complete system? Telegraphy, cybernetics and industrial archaeology
Telegraph systems laid the groundwork for the first global digital systems. In Australia, 50 years before Federation, the continental-scale telegraph system linked to the wider world using submarin...
doi.org
January 6, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Fabulous new paper in Australian Archaeology: Australia’s Overland Telegraph Line, built 50 years pre-Federation, linked the continent to the world. A cybernetic lens shows its interdependent technical, social, and ecological systems. #IndustrialArchaeology #Cybernetics
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
doi.org/10.1080/0312...
Reposted by Fiona Hook
No better way to start the new #research year than with a new paper! Enjoy our review on #isotope #sclerochronology on #molluscs led by Andy Johnson! 🥳🍾
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Molluscan isotope sclerochronology in marine palaeoclimatology: Taxa, technique and timespan issues
Study of the accretionary biomineralised hardparts of organisms (sclerochronology) can make a useful contribution to palaeoclimatology. Ontogenetic se…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 3, 2025 at 7:39 AM
No better way to start the new #research year than with a new paper! Enjoy our review on #isotope #sclerochronology on #molluscs led by Andy Johnson! 🥳🍾
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Latest archaeomalacology newsletter now out
Issue 40 of the (open access) Archaeo+Malacology Newsletter is now available archaeomalacology.wordpress.com/wp-content/u...
archaeomalacology.wordpress.com
January 2, 2025 at 4:59 AM
Latest archaeomalacology newsletter now out
Reposted by Fiona Hook
Already 460 respondents to our Australian Archaeology in Profile 2025: A Survey of Working Archaeologists!
1/3 indicate that they worked for more than 1 employer in 2024.
QLD, SA & ACT are still poorly represented.
Please complete the survey at:
surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...
1/3 indicate that they worked for more than 1 employer in 2024.
QLD, SA & ACT are still poorly represented.
Please complete the survey at:
surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...
December 16, 2024 at 4:11 AM
Already 460 respondents to our Australian Archaeology in Profile 2025: A Survey of Working Archaeologists!
1/3 indicate that they worked for more than 1 employer in 2024.
QLD, SA & ACT are still poorly represented.
Please complete the survey at:
surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...
1/3 indicate that they worked for more than 1 employer in 2024.
QLD, SA & ACT are still poorly represented.
Please complete the survey at:
surveymonkey.com/r/profiling2...
The use wear experiments showed that the Boodie Cave beads were strung with their narrower apical ends and wide ends alternating against each other, rather than nested in concatenated style as seen in historical examples.
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #ancientbeads
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #ancientbeads
December 16, 2024 at 8:13 AM
The use wear experiments showed that the Boodie Cave beads were strung with their narrower apical ends and wide ends alternating against each other, rather than nested in concatenated style as seen in historical examples.
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #ancientbeads
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #ancientbeads
My latest paper details how tusk shell beads were strung and tested on a wear machine simulating 10 hours of vigorous wear: 300 RPM, 1.5 agitations/sec, totaling 54,000 agitations—like wearing a necklace during intense activity.
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology
December 16, 2024 at 8:03 AM
My latest paper details how tusk shell beads were strung and tested on a wear machine simulating 10 hours of vigorous wear: 300 RPM, 1.5 agitations/sec, totaling 54,000 agitations—like wearing a necklace during intense activity.
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology
#experimentalarchaeology #archaeomalacology #australianarchaeology
I keep wanting different lists of everyone’s archaeology posts. So I’ve created a Coastal archaeology feed. Come and add it to your feeds.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
#coastalarchaeology #islandarchaeology #maritimearchaeology #submergedlandscapes #marinezooarchaeology #archaeomalacology
bsky.app/profile/did:...
#coastalarchaeology #islandarchaeology #maritimearchaeology #submergedlandscapes #marinezooarchaeology #archaeomalacology
December 15, 2024 at 4:53 AM
I keep wanting different lists of everyone’s archaeology posts. So I’ve created a Coastal archaeology feed. Come and add it to your feeds.
bsky.app/profile/did:...
#coastalarchaeology #islandarchaeology #maritimearchaeology #submergedlandscapes #marinezooarchaeology #archaeomalacology
bsky.app/profile/did:...
#coastalarchaeology #islandarchaeology #maritimearchaeology #submergedlandscapes #marinezooarchaeology #archaeomalacology
Reposted by Fiona Hook
In 2005, Scott Fitzpatrick and I started as founding coeditors of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology. In 2025, under Scott’s continued leadership, JICA will publish its 20th volume! Still going strong, with more than 8,000 pages on our deep entanglement with island & coastal ecosystems.
December 11, 2024 at 1:59 AM
In 2005, Scott Fitzpatrick and I started as founding coeditors of the Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology. In 2025, under Scott’s continued leadership, JICA will publish its 20th volume! Still going strong, with more than 8,000 pages on our deep entanglement with island & coastal ecosystems.
Reposted by Fiona Hook
Based on experimental archaeology, we’ve shown that 11,000-year-old scaphopod shell bead production from Boodie Cave (NW Australia) matches how Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley make them today! This the first study of its kind in Australian archaeology. #archaeomalacology #iceage
December 15, 2024 at 1:27 AM
Based on experimental archaeology, we’ve shown that 11,000-year-old scaphopod shell bead production from Boodie Cave (NW Australia) matches how Aboriginal communities in the Kimberley make them today! This the first study of its kind in Australian archaeology. #archaeomalacology #iceage
It’s now officially officially Dr Hook! Graduated my PhD last night at UWA in Australian archaeology. Thesis is titled Early archaeology of the mangrove highway: 50,000 years of Aboriginal marine adaptations from Barrow Island, northwest Australia. #archaeomalacology #experimentalarchaeology
December 13, 2024 at 11:48 PM
It’s now officially officially Dr Hook! Graduated my PhD last night at UWA in Australian archaeology. Thesis is titled Early archaeology of the mangrove highway: 50,000 years of Aboriginal marine adaptations from Barrow Island, northwest Australia. #archaeomalacology #experimentalarchaeology
New feed for archaeomalacologists on BlueSky.
🐚 The feed is searching for any posts with the following words: archaeomalacology, sclerochronology, shellfish archaeology, shell archaeology, shell midden, shell bead, shell tool.
Let me know what else I can add :) 🐚
🐚 The feed is searching for any posts with the following words: archaeomalacology, sclerochronology, shellfish archaeology, shell archaeology, shell midden, shell bead, shell tool.
Let me know what else I can add :) 🐚
December 8, 2024 at 6:08 AM
New feed for archaeomalacologists on BlueSky.
🐚 The feed is searching for any posts with the following words: archaeomalacology, sclerochronology, shellfish archaeology, shell archaeology, shell midden, shell bead, shell tool.
Let me know what else I can add :) 🐚
🐚 The feed is searching for any posts with the following words: archaeomalacology, sclerochronology, shellfish archaeology, shell archaeology, shell midden, shell bead, shell tool.
Let me know what else I can add :) 🐚