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Kim Akerman
es) would bring herds of cattle from the hinterland, to ports and abattoirs for
shipping or processing. Aboriginal stockmen (cowboys) would often go to
the bottle dumps associated with these settlements and collect glass to take
as gifts and trade goods for their relatives back home. Worked glass in the
form of reject preforms can be found around the old dumps and also at sites
where the stockmen would camp while they tended the herds at stockyards,
wells and tanks on the fringes of the town.
Most points for everyday are usually less than 6 cm long, and six hours
of knapping could produce about eighteen points suitable for hunting and
require no more than six points and might replace or renew four points in
a week. The constant production of points was as much to make goods for
gifts or exchange, as it was maintain a constant supply of spear armatures
(Akerman et al, ibid
person at any one time.
Because of the nature of the material generally available – either tough
Points were used as spear armatures, as butchering knives (while hafted as
spears and unhafted), as circumcision knives, for use in ceremonial decora
tion and as important trade items. With regard to the latter function, smaller
points were exchanged between close kin and friends and used for mundane
purposes while larger points (including glass points) usually remained cir
culating within the exchange system, until they exited the area. Large white
chert points that entered this area from the south were also worn as paired
head ornaments in some ceremonies. In this case, they were hafted with
resin to a short stick handle and placed in a headband to project forward
over the temples like a pair of horns. They could also be displayed project
ing vertically from the ground. If stone points were not available facsimiles
carved from wood and painted white were worn in a similar manner (Petri
1954: plates 4c, 13a and b).
Lithic Zone 2
This region is of great interest, as within it there are a number of stone tech
importance in this area of hardwood and softwood spear throwers, bowls
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