A metrical and spatial examination of edge ground stone axes in the Lake Eyre Basin

This paper presents an archaeological examination of edge-ground stone axes in the Lake Eyre Basin. The methodology provides a test for the ethnographic record which has been the usual (and essentially untested) foundation for the demarcation of stone axe trade routes in the Lake Eyre Basin. The data suggest a marked increase in the size of the stone axes at Glenormiston, some 220km south of their source at Mt Isa. Over the 550km from Glenormiston to Gason, the size of the stone axes decreased with increasing distance from the source. These results challenge the trade routes proposed by McCarthy and McConnell and support McBryde's proposed link between Mt Isa and Glenormiston