[en] The Kintyre Uranium Project is being developed by Canning Resources Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of Rio Tinto (formerly CRA). The work on the project includes the planning and management of a number of background environmental studies. The company has also commissioned studies by external consultants into process technologies, mining strategies and techniques for extracting the uranium ore from the waste rock. In addition, Canning Resources has made a detailed assessment of the worldwide market potential for Australian uranium in the late 1990s and into the 21st century. The most significant factor affecting the future of this project is the current product price. This price is insufficient to justify the necessary investment to bring this project into production

[en] Full text: Over the last decade there has been an intense debate about whether New Zealand prehistory is long ( > 1500 years) or short ( < 800 years). Pollen and charcoal analyses have played a key role in this debate by helping to pinpoint the transition from relatively undisturbed environments to those deforested by anthropogenic fires. Problems with in situ contamination, reworking of sediments, confusion of natural with anthropogenic impacts, and different theoretical expectations of growth, spread and impact of early Maori populations have led to disparate conclusions. We review pollen based studies carried out on a variety of fossil sites, including peat bogs, swamps, estuaries and lakes, and contribute new results. Different sedimentary environments show varying susceptibilities to contamination and have resulted in a wide spread of ages for initial Maori impact. Datable materials least susceptible to contamination by old or young carbon are pure peat and macrofossils, whereas lake, swamp and silty sediments are most susceptible. Analysis of the radiocarbon ages obtained for the start of Maori deforestation show that ages falling in the 'long' prehistory period are exclusively derived from lake sediments and swamps. In contrast, the bulk of the ages falling in the 'short' prehistory period are from pure peat and selected plant fragments. We conclude from our analysis of radiocarbon ages for pollen based deforestation that the first evidence of Maori environmental impact began about 700-550 calendar years BP (1250-1400 AD). Finer age resolution is limited by dating techniques, site limitations and the uncertainty associated with identifying the first signs of human impact. The period we have identified corresponds with the oldest dated archaeological sites and supports the short prehistory hypothesis. We discuss how to distinguish reliable fossil sites from those that have a high risk of giving misleading results

[en] Indirect dating methods have been applied to the rock paintings of Chillagoe, north Queensland, revealing patterns of superimposition, depictions of items of known antiquity, the use of fragile paints such as mud, and in-situ pigment stratigraphies (David 1994). These patterns suggest that the Chillagoe rock paintings are relatively young, likely less than 3000 years old. A change in the geographical distribution of rock painting styles suggests a regionalization of the styles starting around 3000 years BP. Such regionalization implies that major cultural changes accompanied the changes in rock painting styles. This model of temporal change is now being investigated through a collaboration between the University of Queensland, ANSTO and the Department of Chemistry, Texas A and M University to directly analyze radiocarbon in the charcoal pigments in several of the Chillagoe rock paintings. Samples collected from fourteen separate charcoal rock drawings at five rock shelters in the Chillagoe region were submitted to plasma chemical treatment. Though unreactive, the excited and energetic argon atoms in the plasma remove surface-absorbed CO₂ through inelastic collisions. Samples yielding less than 100 micrograms carbon required special handling for AMS analysis. An isotope dilution technique utilizing ¹⁴C-free carbon was chosen. Radiocarbon analysis were also performed and the results will be presented

[en] Full text: The use of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for radiocarbon dating allows us to use very small samples of carbon, <1 mg. This has opened a vast array of applications of radiocarbon dating which were difficult to do before AMS, due to sample size limitations of decay counting. We have successfully applied AMS ¹⁴C to dating of many types of textiles, including silks and linens, art works, documents and artifacts fabricated from wood, parchment, ivory and bone. For many of these types of samples, the results are often important in questions of the authenticity of these works of art and artifacts. This has encompassed a wide range of art works ranging from the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Shroud of Turin and the Chinese silk trade to the works of Raphael, Rembrandt and Picasso. Most recently, we have also dated the Vinland Map, a controversial document which shows the eastern coast of North America apparently using information from Viking voyages. An important issue in such studies is also the radiocarbon calibration curve. For some periods, most notably 1700-1950 AD we know that several changes in the ¹⁴C composition of the atmosphere make it almost impossible to date a sample during this period more precisely than the entire range. However, before this period, we have successfully dated materials to high precision. We have also studied the use of the period l900-1950 AD for ¹⁴C measurements and will present some examples where the rapid decline in Δ ¹⁴C can be used to date art works. The period after 1950AD also allows us to identify works fabricated from recent materials using the 'spike' in ¹⁴C due to atmospheric nuclear testing. This bomb ¹⁴C has also been successfully used to identify originals from copies of works purporting to be the originals. We will discuss some artifacts, art works and forgeries, where ¹⁴C can resolve problems of authenticity (authors)

[en] More than 80 pieces of T'ang Dynasty and 40 Han Dynasty style ceramic wares have been analysed to determine the amount of thermoluminescence (TL) accumulated since the initial firing of the object and the level of the radiation flux which has created the TL. This paper presents a summary of the thermoluminescence analysis results. Approximately 60% of Han ceramics and 45% of the T'ang pottery authenticated have been shown to belong to periods other than that stylistically suggested. Items which have been found not to be of the anticipated antiquity generally fall into distinct age groups. Of the T'ang wares the most commonly copied item is found to be the horse and for the Han pieces, human figures and ewers/pots/vases represent the most frequently reproduced wares

[en] Terrestrial faunal deposits have traditionally been difficult to date where their ages are beyond the limit of the radiocarbon dating technique i.e.> 40, 000 yrs. The lack of accurate ages for faunal deposits of mid to early Pleistocene in age, a time characterised by large scale fluctuations in global climates and the colonization of Australia by humans, has been a limiting factor in many palaeontological and palaeoecological studies. The current work is an attempt at placing age constraints on some mid-Pleistocene faunal deposits occurring in the limestone caves of the Naracoorte region (Wells et al., 1984). The intimate association of these deposits with cave formation (flowstones and stalagmites) provides an opportunity to date the emplacement of the sediment and fossils. This study follows on from earlier work (Ayliffe and Veeh, 1986) and employs the Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) technique to date speleothems to high precision

[en] Full text: Analysis of pre-modern pottery of the Pacific has long attempted to formulate measures independent of style for constructing archaeologically meaningful groups. However, the variable character of fabrics and the longevity of production (Lapita and post-Lapita wares from 3000 years ago to the present) have tended to obscure differences due to changes in production practices and resources through time and differences relating to the exchange of ceramics between islands or regions. In this poster we outline a preliminary study that employs an economical and robust technique to distinguish both within- and between-region groups. This is achieved with electron microprobe analysis of small volcanic glass fragments present in wares tempered with volcanic sands, and interpretation based on Principal Components Analysis. The method builds on the chemical groupings for glass from different volcanic complexes in the Pacific established through high energy ion beam (PIXE-PIGME) analysis. The purpose of this study is to characterise a selection of samples of pottery from the Duke of York's peninsula using electron microprobe analysis of very small glass fragments in the sections that ranged in size from around 0.05 mm to 1 mm.. The study involved the identification and elemental characterisation of individual fragments of glass in a section. Principal Component Analysis was used to identify structure latent in the dataset. The results of the study show that clear characterisation is possible to enable the wider application of the technique to Lapita and post Lapita ceramics produced originating in volcanic areas of the Pacific

[en] A chemical technique has been developed which can isolate elemental carbon (charcoal, soot, etc) derived from biomass burning in any sediment containing any quantity of elemental carbon. Sediment samples (generally containing 0.01 to 0.001% elemental carbon) are decarbonated using 1 N HCl, and silicate minerals are destroyed by HF/HCl. The demineralized residue, containing organic carbon and elemental carbon is the;n subjected to an acid oxidation using a K₂Cr₂O₇/H₂SO₄ solution. This procedure destroys 95% of the organic carbon with only minor loss of dense charcoal particles. The small and action of remaining acid-resistant organic carbon is then rapidly destroyed using an additional alkaline oxidation step with a KOH/H₂O₂ reagent. This leaves a residue composed entirely of elemental carbon. The amount of elemental carbon is determined by combustion of the sample, cryogenic purification of the resultant CO₂ and manometric measurement of CO₂ yield. The carbon-isotope composition of the CO₂ was then determined by mass spectrometry, in order to provide information on the type of vegetation being burnt. The carbon-isotope composition of elemental carbon suggests that the bulk of carbon during the large scale events was derived from a C4 source. The concurrence of large biomass burning events with transition periods in global climate, suggests that the large-scale biomass burning may be one mechanism whereby terrestrial organic carbon accumulated during interglacial periods is transferred to other reservoirs at the onset of the following glacial period

[en] This presentation highlights the results of the work carried out by the author during her doctoral research regarding the use of lead isotope analysis to investigate the source of copper and lead for the metalwork during the British Bronze Age. Over 450 new lead isotope analyses of ore samples from England and Wales were compared with published data from Britain, Ireland, France and Germany. In addition, more than 400 pieces of metalwork, representing all phases of the British Bronze Age, were analysed. Many of these pieces of metalwork had previously been analysed for their chemical and impurity content, and supplementary chemical analyses were made to investigate a possible chemical/lead isotope relationship. The ores show overlapping isotopic distributions, while the artefacts show intriguing shifts in the lead isotope signature, with coherent pattern recognizable throughout the Bronze Age phases and regionally

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