Organizing the manufacture of Bondi points at Balmoral Beach, Middle Harbour, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Abstract

Abstract Analysis of the stone artefact assemblage excavated from a stratified midden in a sandstone rockshelter at Balmoral Beach in Middle Harbour, Sydney, has revealed various strategies were adopted in manufacturing asymmetric backed artefacts, also known as Bondi points. The irregular morphology of many Bondi points and the small size of most in this assemblage suggest a need to economize and improvise, which we propose was due to the relatively limited availability of suitable stone materials in coastal Sydney. It was not only a question of distance to source and access but of abundance—there are few sources of suitable stone close to Balmoral Beach. The documented technological organization shows that people at Balmoral Beach were creatively backing flakes in several different ways to produce Bondi points with standardized width and thickness—length of the complete Bondi points was seemingly not as important. This observation, combined with the evidence that some broken Bondi points were re‐worked, is discussed in the context of reliability and maintainability, design principles that may have been adopted for their manufacture.