Susan O'Connor, BA (Hons) (UNE), PhD (UWA)
Head, Department of Archaeology and Natural History

Email: sue.oconnor@anu.edu.au

Biographical Statement

I am currently conducting a major archaeological research project in East Timor investigating the cultural and environmental changes that took place across the Neolithic transition and into the Metal Age. This project complements and builds on previous research in the eastern Maluku region and Wallacea and current research in Papua New Guinea which is investigating Pleistocene colonisation in Island Southeast Asia and Greater Australia and subsequent patterns of migration, interaction and exchange.

Research Interests

Australian and Southeast Asian archaeology; Pleistocene colonisation of Island Southeast Asia, Australia and Papua New Guinea by modern humans and the links between these regions; change and continuity across the boundary of the Neolithic transition in Island Southeast Asia; human impacts on the environment.

Key Publications

• 30,00 Years of Aboriginal Occupation in the Kimberley, Northwest Australia. Terra Australis 14, Archaeology and Natural History and Centre for Archaeological Research Publications, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, 1999.
• 'The timing and nature of prehistoric island use in northern Australia', Archaeology in Oceania, 27: 49-60, 1992.
• (with P. Veth) The world’s first mariners: savannah dwellers in an island continent. In S. O'Connor and P. Veth (eds.) East of Wallace’s Line: studies of past and present maritime societies in the Indo-Pacific region, pp. 99-137. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 16. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkema, 2000.
• (with M. Spriggs and P. Veth) Excavation at Lene Hara establishes occupation in East Timor at least 30,000 35,000 years on: results of recent fieldwork. Antiquity 76: 45-50, 2002.

Career Highlights

Awarded Australian Research Council QEII Fellowship (1999-2003); Project title: Characterising the Island Southeast Asian Neolithic Transition: a comparison of preceramic and ceramic (Neolithic) maritime cultures.