Archaeology of powerful stones in the Australia-Pacific region: an Introduction

Abstract

Over millennia, and right across the globe, people have invested time and energy to create cultural landscapes that revolve around or incorporate powerful stones. Questions about the structured nature, distribution, source, or placement of stones (both within physical and meta-physical worlds), pose intriguing theoretical and methodological challenges. Emic and etic perspectives may provide additional insights into the complex (often animate) nature of the stone, the purpose of which varied radically between communities. In this special number of Archaeology in Oceania we explore some of the ways in which First Nations and non-Indigenous archaeologists address these potent features and objects, across widely varying chrono-cultural contexts in the Australia–Pacific region.