Archaeology at UWA

19/10/2026

UWA ARCY1002 Experimenting with Archaeology Replica Festival!

The grand finale of our Experimenting with Archaeology Unit has over 100 replicas from all time periods and places submitted! Amazing work. We have roman die, oil lamps and moulds, bone flutes, felted hats and bird, Otzi’s leather belt and tools, arrows, taap and kodj, shell beads and murals - we even have bread and the clay vessel it was baked in!

All replicas are the result of a scaffolded approach to learning, enduring cultural safety and verisimilitude. Each replica is accompanied by a ‘process report’ documenting how it was made. In other words it is about process rather than product. If you used authentic materials and methods, that will always beat modern short-cuts – how else did our ancestors make these?!

Thanks to all participants for their thought, effort and energising presence. Thanks especially to expert Tutors Niamh Shulmeister and Lohrrin Foley, with Elly Famlonga providing vital weekly prep and materials. And to Reegan Jackson from School of Design and Fiona Walsh from UWA Archaeology /CIEHF for their vital value adds to the unit!

If you are on campus, these marvels are on view in Social Sciences 1.93 (the FishBowl)

07/10/2026

UWA ARCY1002 Experimenting with Archaeology Feasts!

What other university units lays on a big outdoor feast at a table with flowers creatively redirected from UWA gardens, for its students? ARCY1002 and team does!

Today was our last Tute and we shared food and recipes that everyone brough from the same time period as the replica artefacts they are making. Neanderthal nibbles with nuts and such, deer with nuts and jam, garlic cheese and flat bread from ancient Rome, pre-agricultural risotto from China, Coto Makassar (with a Tolean twist..) and so on!

Next week we have no Tute but a Grand Finale Lecture on emerging directions in experimental archaeology, featuring a goodly selection of UWA undergraduate, honours, postgrads and staff projects.

And while there is no Tute) – but there is the much-anticipated replica artefact submission – we will share pics then!

Thank you to this year’s clas s- amazing energy and diversity- students from across UWA and internationally – very energising.

07/10/2026

Sylvie Brassard's work in the spotlight! (with the Pacific Matildas project)
By centering these overlooked strategies and constraints, this research not only recasts the history of French anthropology but also invites reflection on the enduring tensions between mobility, respectability, and scientific authority that continue to shape women’s place in the field—literally and figuratively.

HAR is pleased to announce one of the latest releases from Encyclopédie Bérose des histoires de l’anthropologie: an article (in English) on women ethnographers at the Musée d’ethnog…

23/09/2026

UWA ARCY1002 Experimenting with Archaeology Weaves and Braids Archaeology Anthropology and Biology Together

Enormous thanks to the multi-talented Dr. Fiona Walsh for a straight 8 hours of hands-on session guiding students through a multi-scaffolded process of weaving (using fibres dyed last week) with technical proficiency but socially grounded. Which meant sitting in circles on tarps working, gently interviewing each other to practice FPICC principles, and ground the craft in a social matrix. Lots of laughter, and people discovering a skill they never knew they had.

Congrats to Mya, Jaya, Gabriel, Juniper and Monet for getting the most shells in the people's Choice Vote for each Tute Group! And the overall winner is joint – Mya and Monet & Juniper (who collaborated) They get a Tjanpi weaving kit (thanks Fiona!)

Thanks as always to Elly for preparations and Niamh and Lohrrin for expert tutelage…

Next week we go to the lab for usewear and residue analysis on tall the replica artefacts the class has been making and using. The old adage – in the field you finds things; in the lab you find things out - will apply!

16/09/2026

UWA ARCY1002 Experimenting with Archaeology is Dye-ing!

Today we investigated the role of colour in the past – and how to dye raffia, alpaca wool (thanks fieldschool!), and calico. Using their stone tools made earlier in the year experimenters cut up beetroot, cabbage, avocado, blueberries (the fruit worked well with salt, the veggies lagged a bit but at least everyone got their daily 5-and-2) .

Also use, carrot, used turmeric, paprika, dandelion and makeshift salt and vinegar/fixative/ mordants. First time we are doing this particular experiment so all tips and hints welcome. Also tips for local and exotic plants to cultivate for dye-ing at the experimental facility gratefully received…

Next week the dyed raffia will be used to weave baskets when we have the amazing Dr. Fiona Walsh to instruct the class in weaving and ethical ethnography. And yes, there will be a prize!

And the week after that the stone tools will be analyse din the lab for usewear and residues.

11/09/2026

08/09/2026

This week's Archaeology Seminar Series will be presented by RARI Director Sam Challis - and will be delivered online! Same timeslot (3PM WST), link in comments!

08/09/2026

UWA ARCY2051 Conspiracies, Aliens and Hoaxes use Experimental Archaeology to Test Hypotheses on how the Shroud of Turin may have been made

Today on a gorgeous Djilba day we spent the afternoon testing recently published research (Moraes 2025) that suggest making a cloth image from a 3D object (like a human head) produces a distorting ‘Agamemnon effect’ that is incompatible with the face seen on the Shroud. Instead, a flat bas-relief model is more likely as the base model; assuming for the purposes of the experiment the Shroud is not, in fact, miraculous.

Great use of our Experimental facility and the finest Styrofoam mannikins and linen the dollar store had in stock…

Some really creative approaches by 10 different groups of students, who all come from very different disciplines. Now their work will get baked in an oven, washed and aged to see if that could explain some of the Shroud’s mysteries…

https://www.handbooks.uwa.edu.au/unitdetails?code=ARCY2051

07/09/2026

How to be an archaeologist?: Get into honours in Archaeology at UWA!

31/08/2026

The latest issue of Australian Archaeology is in memory of the late Tim Maloney who worked with a number of UWA archaeologists and with WA communities. A life to remember, an inspiring archaeologist.
https://www.facebook.com/61563607844714/posts/122221450166453594/?app=fbl

Issue 92(2) is a special Festschrift for Tim Maloney who died at just 36 years of age. Papers address Tim's passions: stone artefacts and Indigenous and community archaeology. (Guest Editors Eve Haddow and India Ella Dilkes-Hall)
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03122417.2026.2698983