Object biographies from the Northern Territory. Re-contextualising a random stone-tool assemblage from Kambolgie Creek and Mt. Callanan in the Australian South Alligator region

The collection of the Institute for Prehistoric Archaeology (IPA) at Freie Universität Berlin (FU) contains archaeological and ethnographic stone-tools from different parts of the world that were brought together by researchers and collectors. One assemblage of ca. 50 flaked and ground stone tools from the Australian Northern Territory was documented and examined as part of a master’s thesis at IPA. The assemblage is the result of surface collection that was primarily conducted by Dr. Ruth Struwe during an excursion to the Northern Territory in 1971. Although put together by a trained archaeologist, the objects represent an arbitrary sample of material culture from the area. As part of the thesis, the tools were assessed for typology, partly examined for use-wear, and the archaeological context of the region was outlined by appraising the relevant literature. A holistic approach, based on the concept of object biographies was chosen to understand the potential cultural embeddedness of the objects in their original context; as well as to trace their historical and potential future trajectories.