The Seven Mile Creek Mound: new evidence for mid-Holocene Aboriginal marine resource exploitation in central Queensland

Abstract

Recent excavation of an Aboriginal shell mound on Seven Mile Creek, just southeast of Gladstone, central Queensland, has revealed a dense shell midden deposit dated to c. 3900cal BP. This result provides some of the earliest evidence of highly focused marine resource exploitation from an open archaeological site on the Queensland coast. The site is briefly described, preliminary results of analyses presented and implications discussed.