Copyright (c) 2009 Bond University All rights reserved. http://epublications.bond.edu.au/steve_webb Recent documents in Steve Webb en-us Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:28:32 PST 3600 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/steve_webb/2 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/steve_webb/2 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:58:59 PST Extract:Previously, insights into past societies have nearly always been achieved through archaeological investigation, but by studying skeletal rather than cultural remains it is possible to make substantial additions to this knowledge. This is especially so in regard to the evaluation of environmental pressures exerted on individuals living a hunter-gatherer lifestyle. Such biological studies also add further dimensions to the investigation of prehistory. It is, after all, people, not their tools and chattels, that suffer the vagaries of the environment in which they live, and these vagaries are often reflected in the form of diagnosable traits within the skeleton. Steve Webb http://epublications.bond.edu.au/steve_webb/1 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/steve_webb/1 Thu, 06 Nov 2008 16:58:00 PST Extract:Cribra orbitalia is a bone condition characterized by one or several clusters of small openings in the anterior and/or antero-lateral portions of the orbital plate of the frontal bone. Reference to it in the anatomical literature is rare, often inaccurate and cursory at best. Works on bone pathology ignore it altogether, perhaps because cribra orbitalia reflects no recognizable morphological or behavioural symptoms or is not seen to be associated with pathologies diagnosed by other criteria. It has been suggested that it does not occur in modem populations and therefore does not arise in pathology in the modern context. It is physical or biological anthropologists, dealing with ancient skeletal populations, who have been most responsible for drawing attention to the phenomenon. Steve Webb http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/130 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/130 Tue, 22 May 2007 16:50:23 PDT The First Boat People concerns how people travelled across the world to Australia in the Pleistocene. It traces movement from Africa to Australia, offering a new view of population growth at that time, challenging current ideas, and underscoring problems with the 'Out of Africa' theory of how modern humans emerged. The variety of routes, strategies and opportunities that could have been used by those first migrants is proposed against the very different regional geography that existed at that time. Steve Webb shows the impact of human entry into Australia on the megafauna using fresh evidence from his work in Central Australia, including a description of palaeoenvironmental conditions existing there during the last two glaciations. He argues for an early human arrival and describes in detail the skeletal evidence for the first Australians. This is a stimulating account for students and researchers in biological anthropology, human evolution and archaeology. © Cambridge University Press 2006. Steve Webb http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/40 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/hss_pubs/40 Wed, 09 Aug 2006 18:02:23 PDT Human and other hominid fossil footprints provide rare but important insights into anatomy and behaviour. Here we report recently discovered fossil trackways of human footprints from the Willandra Lakes region of western New South Wales, Australia. Optically dated to between 19-23 ka and consisting of at least 124 prints, the trackways form the largest collection of Pleistocene human footprints in the world. The prints were made by adults, adolescents, and children traversing the moist surface of an ephemeral soak. This site offers a unique glimpse of humans living in the arid inland of Australia at the height of the last glacial period. Steve Webb