Dr Stuart Hawkins
Areas of expertise
- Archaeology 2101
- Archaeology Of Asia, Africa And The Americas 210103
- Archaeological Science 210102
- Maori Archaeology 210109
- Historical Archaeology (Incl. Industrial Archaeology) 210108
- Archaeology Of New Guinea And Pacific Islands (Excl. New Zealand) 210106
- Zoology 0608
Research interests
Zooarchaeology; Exploring both prehistoric and historic period archaeofaunas to understand socio-economic human development within their ecological contexts. Themes explored during my research have involved human-ecological interactions, human impacts on island ecologies, transitions to farming, butchery practices, contact period socio-economic transitions and the introduction of domestic animals to colonized environments, as well as taphonomic assessment of the accumulation of archaeofaunal assemblages by both cultural and natural agencies.
Landscape archaeology and GIS; Investigating the distribution of archaeological remains across the landscape within the context of the natural environment. The production of maps using CAD and ArcGIS software to graphically display this relationship and the linking of archaeological and environmental databases to maps to provide a holistic approach to complex models of cultural evolution.
Pacific prehistory; My interests have been focused on colonizing peoples and how they adapted to and modified initially pristine island ecologies within the Pacific. Specifically, my focus has been on Vanuatu as the gateway into the remote Oceanic region for the colonizing Lapita people, and early archaic period Maori settlement of New Zealand.
Palaeolithic; My current project focused on ISEA has given me access to deeper time averaged deposits with which to reconstruct human prehistory over time and space.
Historical archaeology; Subsistence, material, and built culture of European colonization and contact period Maori in New Zealand.
Biography
I received my Undergraduate and Masters Degrees at the University of Auckland. Soon after I became a Consultant Archaeologist spanning a 10 year period during which I worked on a number of prehistoric and historic period faunal assemblages in New Zealand. In 2009 I switched to academia focusing on early Neolithic interactions with fauna in the Vanuatu Archipelago in the Pacific and recently was awarded my PhD by The Australian National University. For the last two and half years I have been a Postdoctoral Research Associate on an Australian Research Council funded Laureate project titled: From Sunda to Sahul. This project is investigating the early movement of modern humans from Asia to Australia and adaptations to changing tropical island environmental conditions during dispersal and settlement over the last 50,000 years. I have worked on several faunas including reptiles, amphibians, mammals, fish and bird archaeological deposits throughout the Pacific region but am most well known for the discovery of an extinct giant land turtle in Vanuatu and several new species of extinct fruit bat.
Publications
- O'Connor, S, Mahirta, M, Kealy, S et al 2018, 'Unusual painted anthropomorph in Lembata island extends our understanding of rock art diversity in Indonesia', Rock Art Research, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 79-84.
- O'Connor, S, Mahirta, M, Kealy, S et al 2018, 'Kisar and the Archaeology of Small Islands in the Wallacean Archipelago [IN PRESS]', Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology, vol. online, pp. Jan-28.
- O'Connor, S, Mahirta, M, Samper Carro, S et al 2017, 'Fishing in life and death: Pleistocene fish-hooks from a burial context on Alor Island, Indonesia', Antiquity, vol. 91, no. 360, pp. 1451-1468pp.
- Louys, J, Kealy, S, O'Connor, S et al 2017, 'Differential preservation of vertebrates in Southeast Asian caves', International Journal of Speleology, vol. 46, no. 3, pp. 379-408.
- O'Connor, S, Mahirta, M, Tanudirjo, D et al 2017, 'Ideology, Ritual Performance and Its Manifestations in the Rock Art of Timor-Leste and Kisar Island, Island Southeast Asia', Cambridge Archaeological Journal, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 225-241pp.
- O'Connor, S, Mahirta, M, Samper Carro, S et al 2017, 'Fishing in life and death: Pleistocene fish-hooks from a burial context on Alor Island, Indonesia', Antiquity : A review of World Archaeology, vol. 91, no. 360, pp. 1451-1468.
- Hawkins, S, O'Connor, S & Louys, J 2017, 'Taphonomy of bird (Aves) remains at Laili Cave, Timor-Leste, and implications for human-bird interactions during the Pleistocene [IN PRESS]', Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, pp. 1-13.
- Hawkins, S, O'Connor, S, Maloney, T et al 2017, 'Oldest human occupation of Wallacea at Laili Cave, Timor-Leste, shows broad-spectrum foraging responses to late Pleistocene environments', Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 171, pp. 58-72.
- Hawkins, S, Samper Carro, S, Louys, J et al 2017, 'Human Palaeoecological Interactions and Owl Roosting at Tron Bon Lei, Alor Island, Eastern Indonesia', Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology, vol. 12, pp. 1-17pp.
- Hawkins, S, Worthy, T, Bedford, S et al 2016, 'Ancient tortoise hunting in the southwest Pacific', Scientific Reports, vol. 6.
- Hawkins, S, O'Connor, S & Kealy, S 2016, 'Late Quaternary hominin-bat (Chiroptera) interactions in the Asia-Pacific', Archaeology in Oceania, vol. 51, no. 1, pp. 7-17.
- Ravn, M, Bedford, S, Spriggs, M et al 2016, 'Pottery spatial patterns at the Lapita site of Teouma, Central Vanuatu: Some preliminary refitting results', in Frederique Valentin and Guillaume Molle (ed.), La pratique de l'espace en Oceanie Decouverte, Appropriation et Emergence Des Systems Sociaux Traditionnels (Spatial Dynamics in Oceania Discovery, Appropriation and the Emergence of Traditional Societies), French Prehistoric Society, Paris, Paris, pp. 163-177pp.
- Samper Carro, S.C. O'Connor, S., Louys, J. et al. 2015, 'Human maritime subsistence strategies in the Lesser Sunda Islands during the terminal Pleistocene-early Holocene: New evidence from Alor, Indonesia', Quaternary International, vol. Online Early Version, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2015.07.068
- Samper Carro, S, Louys, J, Hawkins, S et al 2015, 'A geometric morphometric approach to shape variation in fish vertebrae for taxonomic and habitat identification', International Council for Archaeozoology, Fish Remains Working Group ICAZ/FRWG 2015, ed. S. Gabriel, S.J.M Davies, A. M Costa, Conference Organising Committee, online.
- Worthy, T, Hawkins, S, Bedford, S et al 2015, 'Avifauna from the Teouma Lapita site, Efate Island, Vanuatu, including a new genus and species of megapode', Pacific Science, vol. 69, no. 2, pp. 205-254.
- Kinaston, R, Buckley, H, Valentin, F et al 2014, 'Lapita Diet in Remote Oceania: New Stable Isotope Evidence from the 3000-Year-Old Teouma Site, Efate Island, Vanuatu', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 1-18.
- Louys, J, Corlett, R, Price, G et al 2014, 'Rewilding the tropics, and other conservation translocations strategies in the tropical Asia-Pacific region', Ecology and Evolution, vol. 4, no. 22, pp. 4380-4398.
- Kinaston, R, Bedford, S, Richards, M et al 2014, 'Diet and Human Mobility from the Lapita to the Early Historic Period on Uripiv Island, Northeast Malakula, Vanuatu', PLOS ONE (Public Library of Science), vol. 9, no. 8, pp. e104071-e104071.
- Clark, G, Petchey, F, Hawkins, S et al 2013, 'Distribution and extirpation of pigs in Pacific Islands: A case study from Palau', Archaeology in Oceania, vol. 48, no. 3, pp. 141-153.
- Irwin, G, Worthy, T, Best, S et al 2011, 'Further Investigations at the Naigani Lapita site (VL 21/5), Fiji: Excavation, Radiocarbon Dating and Palaeofaunal Extinction', Journal of Pacific Archaeology, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 66-78.
- Storey, A, Spriggs, M, Bedford, S et al 2010, 'Mitochondrial DNA from 3000-year old chickens at the Teouma site, Vanuatu', Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 37, no. 10, pp. 2459-2468.
- White, A, Worthy, T, Hawkins, S et al 2010, 'Megafaunal meiolaniid horned turtles survived until early human settlement in Vanuatu, Southwest Pacific', PNAS - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 107, no. 35, pp. 15512-15516.
- Valentin, F, Buckley, H, Herrscher, E et al 2010, 'Lapita subsistence strategies and food consumption patterns in the community of Teouma (Efate, Vanuatu)', Journal of Archaeological Science, vol. 37, no. 8, pp. 1820-1829.
- Hawkins, S, Gumbley, W & Campbell, M 2010, 'Late 19th Century colonial bird exploitation at Ruland Street,Wanganui, New Zealand', in W Prummel, Jorn t Zeiler and Dick C Brinkhuizen (ed.), Birds in Archaeology, Barkhuis, Groningen, pp. 141-149.
