Lynley Wallis

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Lynley A. Wallis is an Australian archaeologist and Associate Professor at Griffith University. She is a specialist in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction through the analysis of phytoliths.

Contents

Education

Wallis obtained her PhD from the Australian National University (ANU). Her PhD thesis titled Phytoliths, Late Quaternary Environment and Archaeology in Tropical Semi-arid Northwest Australia demonstrated the suitability of phytolith analysis to questions of palaeoenvironmental interest in the tropical semi-arid areas and, subsequently, produced the first detailed late Quaternary terrestrial vegetation record for northwest Australia. [1]

Career

Her career spans both private and public sector cultural heritage management, university lecturing and research in both Indigenous and historical archaeology. [2]

She was employed as a lecturer in the School of Anthropology, Archaeology and Sociology at James Cook University (2001–2002) and then for five years at Flinders University (2005–2009). From 2009–2011, Associate Professor Wallis served as a senior research fellow at the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre (AERC) at the University of Queensland. [3] From 2016–2020 Wallis was a senior research fellow with Nulungu Research Institute at University of Notre Dame but in 2020 took up a research position at Griffith University in Brisbane. [4]

Between these academic positions, Wallis worked as senior conservation officer for the Heritage Unit, Environment ACT (2002–2004) and then as a senior research officer at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (2004–2005). She started her own consulting company Wallis Heritage Consulting in 2011 which provides cultural heritage management services and Indigenous liaison for both government and private sector clients. [5]

Research

Wallis' research interests focus on human-environment relationships through the late Quaternary period, coastal and island archaeology, phytolith analysis, and ethnobotany. She specialises in palaeoenvironmental reconstruction through the analysis of phytoliths and remote area fieldwork, and maintains broad interests in community-based Indigenous archaeology. [3]

She has been worked on projects across most of Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), Northern Territory (NT), Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and Queensland (QLD) and has international experience working in Chile, Vietnam and Thailand.

She has been involved in a number of Australian Research Council (ARC) grants across her career and has been awarded more than 40 research grants. [6]

Awards and honours

Wallis has served as President of two peak organisations for archaeologists in Australia, the Australian Archaeological Association and the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists.

In 2012, Wallis was awarded life membership for her contribution to the Australian Archaeological Association. [7]

Select publications

Related Research Articles

Paleoethnobotany Study of remains of plants cultivated or used by people in ancient times, which have survived in archaeological contexts

Pal(a)eoethnobotany or archaeobotany is a sub-field of environmental archaeology that studies plant remains from archaeological sites. Basing on the recovery and identification of plant remains and the ecological and cultural information available for modern plants, the major research themes are the use of wild plants, the origins of agriculture and domestication, and the co-evolution of human-plant interactions. Archaeobotany is arguably now a mature discipline, but one that is facing challenges relating to data and communication.

Phytolith

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Australian archaeology is a large sub-field in the discipline of archaeology. Archaeology in Australia takes three main forms, Aboriginal archaeology, historical archaeology and maritime archaeology. Bridging these sub-disciplines is the important concept of cultural heritage management which encompasses Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sites, historical sites and maritime sites.

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References

  1. Wallis, L.A. (2000). Phytoliths, Late Quaternary Environment and Archaeology in Tropical Semi-arid Northwest Australia. Unpublished PhD theses, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra.
  2. "Lynley A. Wallis" . Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Lynley Wallis" . Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  4. "Dr Lynley Wallis" . Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  5. "WHC About Us" . Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  6. "Member Profiles: Lynley Wallis" . Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  7. "Lynley Wallis" . Retrieved 17 January 2019.