ArchaeoL Oceania 43 (2008) 93-103 Anything more than a picnic? Re-considering arguments for ceremonial Macrozamia use in mid-Holocene Australia BRIT ASMUSSEN Keywords: ceremony, intensification, Macrozamia, central Queensland, mid-late Holocene Abstract Influential arguments have been advanced in Ausiralian archaeology concerning the origins and development of social and economic change in the mid-late Holocene (Lourandos 1997). One example used lo support this claim is the perceived existence of ceremonial feasting events held in the semi-arid and rugged sand.stone gorge systems of central Queensland, attended by large groups of people for extended periods, and underwritten by large quantities of kernels from ihe cycad Macrozamia moorei (Beaton 1977. 1982; see also Lourandos 1997). However the re- cxamination of the macrobotanicai evidence from archaeological sites in this region using taphonomic analysis, replicative processing experiments, recalculations of seed density and estimations of the minimum numbers of seeds, does not support this model. This re-examination questions ihe role of Macrozamia seeds in the context of socio-economic change and suggests new interpretations oí Macrozamia resource use. Large-scale communal public rituals and ceremonies supported by feasts have been argued to have played an important role in the social, economic and political arenas of ancient cultures (Jennings 2005: Potter 1997). In Australia, continent-scale models concerning the development of mid- Holocene ceremonial events and resource intensification have been strongly influenced by Beaton's interpretations of the archaeobotanical records of Cathedral Cave, Wanderer's Cave and Rainbow Cave in the Central Queensland Highlands (CQH). These sites appeared to provide direct archaeological evidence for frequent, large-scale inter-group ceremonial feasting events supported by the processing and consumption of toxic Macrozcimia seeds, dating back to the mid-Holocene (Beaton 1977, 1982. 1993). Beaton's argu- ments were highly Influential and have been widely cited by researchers arguing for continental-scale transformative social processes in the mid-tate Holocene (Jones 1978; Lourandos 1980a, i980b, 1983a, 1983b, 1988, 1997; see also David and Denhani 2006: Ross 2006). There has been significant debate about ways of testing high-level models of intensification of socio-political complexity in Holocene Australia (Beaton 1995:798: Bird and Frankel 1991a. 1991b: Bird et at. 1997; Edwards and O'Connell 1995:776: Frankel 1988, 1991a. 1991b. 1993, 1995:654; Godfrey 1989; Hiscock 1981, 2002. 2008; Visiiing Fellow. School of Archaeology, The Australian National University. Canberra ACT 0200. email: brit.asmussen@exemail.com.au Holdaway er at. 2002: Jones 1980; Lilley 2000: Pardoe 1995). However there have been few detailed re- examinations of archaeological data using the kinds of analytic approaches called lor in these debates (although see Attenbrow 2Ü04 and Hiscock 2008). This paper presents the results of a detailed re- examination of Ihe Macrozamia assemblages from these three sites from the Central Queensland Highlands, excavated by John Beaton in the mid l970's. and held by the Queensland Museum. The first section of this paper presents an overview of the original model of ceremonial cycad use in the CQH. The second section of Ihe paper presetits the methods and results of experimental replicative processing techniques, taphonomic analyses to identify the non-human component of the assemblages, analysis of site formation, and techniques used to derive more accurate density and MNl estimates. The third section argues that the results of the reanalysis fail to support Beaton's arguments for either the use of large quantities oí Macrozamia seeds over the last 4300 years, or the regular occurrence of Macrozamia supported ceremonial events In these sites, and argues for the subsistence use of these seeds by stnall groups of foragers. Ceremonial cycad feasting in the Central Queensland Highlands A particularly striking example of socio-economic intensification was argued to have developed 43(M) years ago in the rugged sandstone gorges in the Central Queensland Highlands (Beaton 1977. Í991a, 1991b). Although the three rocksheiter sites in this region. Cathedral Cave, Wanderer's Cave and Rainbow Cave, contained a range of excavated materials, the large, robust and highly visible seed shells from Macrozamia moorei plants became the focus of archaeological explanations (Beaton 1991 a: 12, 24). Beaton estimated that the fractured and carbonised Macrozamia specimens had densities of 400-600 seeds per m' in each of these sites. The density of Macrnzamia shells led to the consideration of ihe circumstances in which such quantities of seeds would have been eaten and their shells discarded. Beaton's interpretation of the use of Macrozamia seeds in the highland sites was heavily based on the anthropological account made in the late 1970s by Meehun and Jones, who described the use of seeds from the related Cycas sp. by 93