Dr Emilie Dotte
Areas of expertise
- Archaeological Science 210102
- Archaeology Of New Guinea And Pacific Islands (Excl. New Zealand) 210106
- Pacific History (Excl. New Zealand And Maori) 210313
- Quaternary Environments 040606
Research interests
Main research interests and areas of expertise:
Relationships between Francophone and Anglophone traditions in Pacific Archaeology
Historiography and Epistemology of Francophone traditions in the Archaeology of the Pacific Islanders
Inter-relations between Ethnology and Archaeology in the Pacific
Precolonial, contacts and early colonial periods in the Pacific Islands - the interface between indigenous oral traditions, ethnohistorical, historical and archaeological sources
New Caledonia and French Polynesia archaeology (including environmental archaeology)
Arboriculture and the hisotry of people, plants and forests in the Pacific Islands
Oceania indigenous perceptions of the "environment" in relation to the western concepts of wild/domesticated plants or nature/culture, and their uses in interpretation of archaeobotanical/palaeoenvironmental data
The development of anthracology in Oceania archaeology - from arid Australia to tropical Pacific Islands (including through supervision of students' research projects)
Biography
Emilie studied History, Cultural Anthropology and Archaeology at the Universities of Montpellier (Paul Valery), of Minnesota and of the Sorbonne (Paris I). She received her Master (Maitrise and DEA) in Oceania Prehistory and Environmental Archaeology from the Sorbonne and holds a double cotutelle PhD in Prehistory from the Sorbonne and the ANU. Her PhD thesis focused on New Caledonia precolonial archaeology and looked at the relations between Kanak settlement patterns and the vegetation, involving the first application of anthracology (archaeological wood charcoal analysis) in the region.
After completing her PhD, Emilie worked at the University of Western Australia as the laboratory manager for Archaeology, as a research assistant on Prof. Peter Veth's ARC Barrow Island Archaeology Project, and as a consultant archaeobotanist - with live projects in the Pilbara, WA; in New Caledonia with the Institute of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Pacific; and in French Polynesia, especially as part of Jenny Kahn and Patrick Kirch NSF project "Vulnerability and Resilience on Islands Socioecosystems". She is still associated to UWA as a Honorary Research Fellow.
Emilie recently joined the ANU as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow within Prof. Matthew Spriggs's ARC Laureate Project "The Collective Biography of Archaeology in the Pacific - a Hidden History".
Researcher's projects
As part of the ARC Laureate Project "The Collective Biography of Archaeology in the Pacific - a Hidden Histor", Emilie is investigating the development of Francophone literature and traditions in Pacific scholarship.
This project seeks to better understand the distinct historiography and epistemology of the Francophone tradition of archaeology in the Pacific. It also aims at investigating the relations between the over-represented Anglophone research and the more discrete Francophone one, from co-ignorance to co-influences and the creation of particular partnerships between researchers; to examine their role in the development of current narratives, practices and concepts in Pacific Archaeology.
Emilie maintains an interest in archaeobotany projects she has launched with international collaborators in the Pacific and Australia.
Current student projects
Andrea Ballesteros Danel - CASS, ANU - A History of Trans-Pacific Contact Theories: The American Connection (Co-Supervisor with Matthew Spriggs)
Chae Byrne - UWA - Reconstructing a vanished landscape: a palaeoecological and palaeoethnobotanical investigation from Barrow Island, WA through archaeobotanical analysis (Co-Supervisor with Peter Veth and Joe Dortch)
India-Ella Dilkes - UWA - Kimberley Carpology: In a Nutshell. A macrobotanical analysis of carpological assemblages recovered from the Kimberley, Western Australia (Co-supervisor with Jane Balme and Peter Veth)
Alexandra Ribeny - CASS, ANU - Fueling the Khmer: Anthracology, Tropical Deforestation and the Iron Industry c. 11th – 15th centuries AD (Co-supervised with Tim Denham and Mitch Hendrickson)
Rose Whitau (COMPLETED 2018) - CAP, ANU - Quaternary Vegetation Change in the Southern Kimberley region, Western Australia: archaeological wood charcoal analysis from four sites in Bunaba and Gooniyandi Country (Co-Supervisor with Sue O'Connor, Janelle Stevenson and Jane Balme)
Publications
- Dilkes-Hall, I, Balme, J, O'Connor, S et al. 2020, 'Archaeobotany of Aboriginal plant foods during the Holocene at Riwi, south central Kimberley, Western Australia', Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 309-325.
- Whitau, R, Vannieuwenhuyse, D, Dotte, E et al. 2018, 'Home Is Where the Hearth Is: Anthracological and Microstratigraphic Analyses of Pleistocene and Holocene Combustion Features, Riwi Cave (Kimberley, Western Australia)', Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, vol. 25, no. 3, pp. 739-776.
- Dotte-Sarout E, Cauchois H, Charleux M, Domergue S, Hermann A, Lagarde L, Leclerc M, Maric T, Molle G, Nolet E, Noury A, Rurua VA and Wadrawane J-M. 2018, 'Putting new francophone archaeology on the Pacific map', Archaeology in Oceania, vol. 53, pp. 103-115.
- King, F & Dotte-Sarout, E 2018, 'Wood charcoal analysis in tropical rainforest: a pilot study identifying firewood used at toxic nut processing sites in northeast Queensland, Australia [IN PRESS]', Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. online, pp. 1-23.
- Dotte-Sarout, E & Kahn, J 2017, 'Ancient woodlands of Polynesia: A pilot anthracological study on Maupiti Island, French Polynesia', Quaternary International, vol. 457: 6-28. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2016.10.032
- Dotte-Sarout, E 2016, 'Evidence of forest management and arboriculture from wood charcoal data: an anthracological case study from two New Caledonia Kanak pre-colonial sites', Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, vol. -, no. -, pp. 1-17. First Online: doi:10.1007/s00334-016-0580-0
- Dotte-Sarout, E 2017, 'Book Review: Unearthing the Polynesian Past: explorations and adventures of an island archaeologist', Journal of Pacific History, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 119-120.
- Dotte-Sarout, E 2017, 'How Dare Our 'Prehistoric' Have a Prehistory of Their Own?! The interplay of historical and biographical contexts in early French archaeology of the Pacific.', Journal of Pacific Archaeology, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 25-34pp.
- Dotte-Sarout, E 2016, 'Book Review: Tupaia. Le pilote polynesien du capitaine Cook', Journal of the Societe des Oceanistes (Journal de la societe des oceanistes/Journal societe des oceanistes), vol. 142-143, pp. 150-152.
- Ward, I, Winter, S & Dotte-Sarout, E 2016, 'The lost art of stratigraphy? A consideration of excavation strategies in Australian indigenous archaeology', Australian Archaeology, vol. 82, no. 3, pp. 263-274.
- Whitau, R, Dilkes-Hall, I, Dotte-Sarout, E et al 2016, 'X-ray computed microtomography and the identification of wood taxa selected for archaeological artefact manufacture: Rare examples from Australian contexts', Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, vol. 6, pp. 536-546.
- Winter, S, Forsey, C, Dotte-Sarout, E et al 2016, 'The settlement at Barmup: Britain's first farm in Western Australia', Australasian Historical Archaeology, vol. 34, pp. 34-43pp.
- Kirch, P, Molle, G, Nickelsen, C et al. 2015, 'Human Ecodynamics in the Mangareva Islands: A stratified Sequence from Nenega-Iti Rock Shelter (site AGA-3, Agakauitai Island)', Archaeology in Oceania, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 23-42.
- Kahn, J, Nickelsen, C, Stevenson, J et al. 2015, 'Mid- to late Holocene landscape change and anthropogenic transformations on Mo'orea, Society Islands: a multi-proxy approach', Holocene, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 333-347.
- Dotte-Sarout, E, Carah, X & Byrne, C 2015, 'Not Just Carbon : assessment and prospects for the application of anthracology in Oceania', Archaeology in Oceania, vol. 50, no. 01, pp. 01-22.
- Kahn, J, Dotte-Sarout, E, Molle, G et al 2015, 'Landscape Change, Settlement Histories and Agricultural Practices on Maupiti, Society Islands.', Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 363-391.
- Beck, W & Dotte-Sarout, E 2013, 'Plant Remains', in Jane Balme and Alistair Paterson (ed.), Archaeology in Practice: A Student Guide to Archaeological Analyses, Blackwell Publishing Ltd, Oxford, UK, pp. 336-360.
- Byrne, C, Dotte-Sarout, E & Winton, V 2013, 'Charcoals as indicators of ancient tree and fuel strategies: An application of anthracology in the Australian Midwest', Australian Archaeology, vol. 77, pp. 94-106.
- Dotte-Sarout, E, Ouetcho, A, Bole, J et al 2013, 'Of Charcoals and Forests: Results and Perspectives from an Archaeobotanical Investigation of Precolonial Kanak Settlement Sites in New Caledonia', Pacific Archaeology: Documenting the Past 50,000 years. papers from the 2011 Lapita Pacific Archaeology Conference, ed. Glenn R. Summerhayes & Hallie Buckley, University of Otago, Dunedin, pp. 120-137.
- Dotte-Sarout, E, Sand, C, Bole, J et al 2013, 'Archeogeography and pre-contact territorial processes in Northern Grande Terre (New Caledonia)', (in French), Journal de la Societe des Oceanistes, no. 136-137, pp. 195-207.
- Dotte-Sarout, E 2012, 'The Ancestor Wood - trees, forests and Kanak pre-colonial spatial occupation in New Caledonia's Grande Terre : case study and anthracological approach in the Tiwaka valley' (in French), in Frederic Angleviel (ed.), La Melanesie, l'Harmattan, Paris France, pp. 133-154.
- Dotte, E, Sand, C, Bole, J et al. 2010, 'Perspectives on Pre-Colonial Human Introduction of Woody and forest Species in the Pacific Islands: Prospective Ethno-Anthracological Research in New Caledonia', 2007 - VII International Conference on Easter Island and the Pacific: Migration, Identity and Cultural Heritage, ed. Paul Wallin, Hele Martinsson-Wallin, Gotland University Press, Gotland Sweden, pp. 431-454.
- Dotte, E 2010, 'Management and Integration within precolonial kanak territories of vegetation ressources. Ethno-archaeo-anthracological approach in New-Caledonia' (in French), in Theopane Nicolas, Aurelie Salavert (ed.), Territoires et Economies, Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris France, pp. 155-189.