Shimona Kealy
Current position
Lecturer & Postdoctoral Researcher at the Australian National University
Where did you study?
PhD - The Australian National University
Honours - University of New South Wales
Bachelor - University of New England
How did you become interested in archaeology?
I started out studying Palaeobiology and Vertebrate Palaeontology until one day, at a pub in Adelaide, I got roped into the archaeology game with the promise of travels and discoveries in the remote islands of Indonesia....and I've never looked back!
What archaeological projects are you working on at the moment?
My current fieldwork is based on the islands of south-east Indonesia (Nusa Tenggara) searching for the earliest evidence of human occupation in the region and investigating the earliest movements and inter-island networks of these maritime communities.
I am also currently working on legacy archaeological collections from Papua New Guinea and investigating traces of animal translocations by early people to further understand early connections across this fascinating region.
Tell us about one of your most interesting archaeological discoveries.
For my PhD I modelled what the ancient land-(and sea-)scape of Island Southeast Asia and northern Australia-New Guinea would have looked like ~60 thousand years ago when the ancestors of Australia's indigenous peoples first crossed these seas to reach Australia. In doing so I was also able to model the degree of intervisibility between these different islands to Australia's north, and it was fascinating to see how truly interconnected (and intervisible) they would have been. This really made it clear how possible, and purposeful the migration to Australia would have been.
Since then, in my travels to remote Indonesian islands I am always fascinated and delighted to realise how intervisible the islands are, even today - and really appreciate how interconnected these island communities are, both now and in the past.
Tell us about a funny / disastrous / amazing experience that you have had while doing archaeology.
The discovery of Makpan - the largest cave we have yet located and which preserved evidence of human occupation on the island of Alor since ~ 43 thousand years ago.
It was the very last day of our month of survey on the islands of Pantar & Alor, our 'quick car ride' turned into an hours-long adventure which ended with the car bogged and us hiking down a mountain before finally reaching the cave literally as the sun was setting....all the while having no idea if there was even really a cave to be found, let alone that it would be worth all our efforts to each it....but boy was it worth it!
What’s your favourite part of being an archaeologist?
Exploring new places and discovering new things - our world still holds so many wonderful mysteries for us to uncover!
Follow up reading.
https://researchprofiles.anu.edu.au/en/persons/shimona-kealy