Patterns of chronological variability in occupation on the coastal margin of Blue Mud Bay

This paper presents an analysis of radiocarbon dating of shell mounds and middens in Blue Mud Bay, northern Australia. The aim is to investigate variability in use of the landscape and foraging activity through time. By considering both mounded and non-mounded shell deposits, results indicate that occupation and use of coastal landscapes during the Holocene in this region of northeast Arnhem Land was highly variable, with several overlapping phases of occupation and gaps in site formation. As in some other Australian regions, this implies a discontinuous or non-linear pattern of occupation, one that suggests the late Holocene occupation of coastal Blue Mud Bay may be characterised by variability in the distribution and intensity of foraging behaviour through time and space.