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Dr
Bryce Barker
What
is your current position?
Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Head of Department, Humanities and International Studies, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba
Where
did you study archaeology?
BA (Hons) University of Queensland, PhD University of Queensland, Brisbane
How
did you become interested in archaeology?
I originally came from New Zealand and the family farm was surrounded by archaeological sites, including Maori Pa sites (hill forts) and a huge obsidian quarry and I was always fossicking about with all this stuff. Later on when I left school I travelled extensively and visited many of the great archaeological sites of the world and was able to observe first hand the work archaeologists were doing. Visiting these sites got me thinking that perhaps the most interesting part of, say Egyptian civilisation was not the civilisation itself but its origins. Who were the people who lived here prior to agriculture etc? This is what led me to become interested in pre-historic archaeology, specifically the archaeology of Hunter-Gatherers. This inspired me to actually enquire about becoming an archaeologist and I soon learnt that the kind of archaeological training I was after was not done in a Classics and Ancient History Department but in Anthropology. I was not sure what a degree in archaeology would lead to, thinking that it was highly unlikely to lead to a job. However I was by this stage so passionate about it that whether I got a job or not was not a consideration. To my surprise I found that there is a wide range of employment opportunities in archaeology and that if you are passionate and committed you have every chance of employment.
What
archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?
I have just completed a large Rock Art recording project in the Bowen/Burdekin region on the central Queensland coast with the Giru Dala Council of Elders, part of an ongoing project looking at pre-European tribal boundaries and just before Christmas was involved in an excavation of an Aboriginal burial at Kingsthorpe. As well I am currently working on a project examining the use of Aboriginal oral traditions in archaeological interpretation and have just given conference papers on this at the World Archaeology Congress in Washington DC and at Coffs Harbour. In April I will spend 3 weeks in Torres Strait excavating sites as part of a research team from Monash University.
Tell
us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries.
As part of my PhD research project I was excavating a site in Nara Inlet on Hook Island in the Whitsunday Islands. The site was a rockshelter that eventually turned out to show initial occupation beginning at 9000 years ago. The sediment was very fine and so we were excavating with brushes which was just as well because as I delicately brushed aside some dirt, I came down on a piece of plant material. As I continued to slowly expose the sediment surrounding it I realised that it was an intact flower. It was remarkably well preserved and as it was a flower from a mangrove species I knew someone had carried it up to the shelter approximately 600 years ago.
Tell
us about a funny/disastrous/amazing experience that you have had
while doing archaeology.
For me one of the most amazing parts of doing archaeology is excavating an object that is thousands of years old knowing that you are probably the first person to touch that object since it was left by its previous owner. This is especially true of highly personal items such as the flower mentioned above. Another example is when I rediscovered a rockshelter that had hundreds of hand stencils on its walls. On the floor was a flat rock with a thick crust of red ochre, which had dried finger marks set in it, as if the people responsible for the art had just left a day or so before. In this same shelter on one panel were three hand stencils; a large adult hand, a smaller adult hand and a little baby’s hand all together. No matter the distance of time or the difference in culture, this poignant signature was something that all humans can relate to and was to me reflective of the commonality of being human.
What’s
your favourite part of being an archaeologist?
I love it all! It is a job that combines science with creativity, office and lab work with fieldwork in the bush and in my case the opportunity to impart my passion for archaeology to my students as well as making a contribution to what we know about our human past. The old cliché about archaeology is that an archaeologist goes to remote and exotic places and makes remarkable discoveries – and for me anyway this is certainly true! One of the unique features of doing Pre-European archaeology in Australia is the interaction with contemporary Aboriginal communities and the relationships formed through this.
Follow
up reading:
Barker, B. 2004 The Sea People: Late Holocene maritime hunter-gatherers on the Tropical Queensland Coast. Terra Australis Monographs, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Pandanus Press, Canberra.
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