Roger Llewellyn Dunmore Cribb (1948–2007) was an Australian archaeologist and anthropologist who specialised in documenting and modelling spatial patterns and social organisation of nomadic peoples. He is noted for conducting early fieldwork amongst the nomadic pastoralists of Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

, Turkey; writing a book on the archaeology of these nomad

Nomad

Nomadic people , commonly known as itinerants in modern-day contexts, are communities of people who move from one place to another, rather than settling permanently in one location. There are an estimated 30-40 million nomads in the world. Many cultures have traditionally been nomadic, but...

s; pioneering Australian archaeology and anthropologies' use of geographical information systems

GIS applications

Geographic information systems are computer software and hardware systems that enable users to capture, store, analyse and manage spatially referenced data....

, plus genealogical software; and conducting later fieldwork documenting the cultural landscape

Cultural landscape

Cultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."....

s of the Aboriginal peoples of Cape York Peninsula.

Overview

Dr Cribb's life's work is the work of a practical, applied

Applied research

Applied research is a form of systematic inquiry involving the practical application of science. It accesses and uses some part of the research communities' accumulated theories, knowledge, methods, and techniques, for a specific, often state, business, or client driven purpose...

 social scientist

Social sciences

Social science is the field of study concerned with society. "Social science" is commonly used as an umbrella term to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the natural sciences usually exclusive of the administrative or managerial sciences...

 who firmly believed anthropological model

Scientific modelling

Scientific modelling is the process of generating abstract, conceptual, graphical and/or mathematical models. Science offers a growing collection of methods, techniques and theory about all kinds of specialized scientific modelling...

s, grounded

Grounded theory

Grounded theory is a systematic methodology in the social sciences involving the generation of theory from data. It is mainly used in qualitative research, but is also applicable to quantitative data....

 and parsimoniously applied, could reliably reach beyond our existing accumulated knowledge, into the archaeological

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

 past of some of our oldest cultures in some of the more sparsely populated regions of our world: i.e. the nomadic pastoralists

Nomadic pastoralism

Nomadic pastoralism is a form of agriculture where livestock are herded in order to find fresh pastures on which to graze following an irregular pattern of movement - in contrast with transhumance where seasonal pastures are fix. The herded livestock may include cattle, yaks, sheep, goats,...

 of Anatolia

Anatolia

Anatolia is a geographic and historical term denoting the westernmost protrusion of Asia, comprising the majority of the Republic of Turkey...

 (Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

) and the gatherer-hunters

Hunter-gatherer

A hunter-gatherer or forage society is one in which most or all food is obtained from wild plants and animals, in contrast to agricultural societies which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was the ancestral subsistence mode of Homo, and all modern humans were...

 of Cape York

Cape York Peninsula

Cape York Peninsula is a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland at the tip of the state of Queensland, Australia, the largest unspoilt wilderness in northern Australia and one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth...

, (Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

).

Dr Cribb's research practice was to strive to undertake as much 'ethnographic

Ethnography

Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...

' fieldwork as possible with the peoples whose heritage

Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...

 he wished to later unravel and reveal. His preference was to store his (and other peoples) data within purpose-designed databases, and then apply small, efficient purpose-designed computer program

Computer program

A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute...

s to analyze the data and distill, reveal, confirm, plus extrapolate social and environmental organising principles and patterns. Organising principles and patterns 'discovered', were reapplied back into the original physical and biological landscapes, tested if possible, then extrapolated back in time

It is perhaps unfortunate that mid-career, for both mental and physical health reasons, Dr Cribb found himself and his broader projects (in Cape York) having to proceed without academic patronage or funding. From the early 1990s onwards Dr Cribb became increasingly disengaged from academic communities of scholars, tending to work instead within the grey (unpublished) fringes of more commercially driven (less 'pure

Pure research

Pure research, basic research, or fundamental research is research carried out to increase understanding of fundamental principles. Many times the end results have no direct or immediate commercial benefits: pure research can be thought of as arising out of curiosity. However, in the long term it...

') research projects and programs. Rapid developments in computer technologies and programming quickly overtook him, yet he continued for many years to work in those areas, with those peoples whose cultural landscape

Cultural landscape

Cultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."....

s he was most keen to understand, document, and help reveal to the world.

From Dr Cribb's works and his writings, it can be seen 'terra nullius

Terra nullius

Terra nullius is a Latin expression deriving from Roman law meaning "land belonging to no one" , which is used in international law to describe territory which has never been subject to the sovereignty of any state, or over which any prior sovereign has expressly or implicitly relinquished...

' myths offended his belief in pre-existing, largely unrevealed human heritage deeply imprinted into otherwise apparently 'empty' landscapes

Cultural landscape

Cultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."....

It might be said, Dr Cribb's most enduring professional contribution over a lifetime, was his work to counter all sense of 'terra nullius by recording large archaeological landscapes; facilitating archaeological heritage protection; and revealing forever the richness, density and vastness of some of the cultural landscape

Cultural landscape

Cultural Landscapes have been defined by the World Heritage Committee as distinct geographical areas or properties uniquely "..represent[ing] the combined work of nature and of man.."....

s still persisting in Anatolia (Turkey), and Cape York (Australia).

Chronology of Works

• CRIBB, R (1974) Patterns of Racial Ideology: An Analysis in Terms of the Conflict Theory of Society. Unpublished Masters Thesis in Anthropology and Sociology, University of Queensland. Brisbane, Australia
• CRIBB, R (1982) The archaeological dimensions of near eastern nomadic pastoralism : towards a spatial model of unstable settlement systems Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of South Hampton, United Kingdom.
• CRIBB, R & WESTERN, J.S (1983) Cribbie: past community structure and the impact of resettlement on the inhabitants of Cribb Island, Brisbane. Unpublished report to the Commonwealth Department of Transport and Communications. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
• CRIBB, R (1984) Greener Pastures: Mobility, Migration and the Pastoral Mode of Subsistence. Number 14. Pages 11–46
• CRIBB, R (1984) Computer simulation of herding systems as an interpretative and heuristic device in the study of kill-off strategies. in CLUTTON-BROCK, j & GRIGSON, G (ed) Animals and Archaeology: Early Herders and their Flocks. British Archaeological Reports (B.A.R). Oxford.
• CRIBB, R (1985) The analysis of ancient herding systems: an application of computer simulation. in BARKER, G & GAMBLE, C (Eds) Beyond Domestication in Prehistoric Europe. Investigations in Subsistence Archaeology and Social Complexity. Academic Press. New York. Pages 75–106.
• CRIBB, R (1986a) A graphics system for site-based anthropological data. Australian Aboriginal studies. Number 2. Pages 24–30
• CRIBB, R (1986b) Introducing the Concept of a Dedicated Spatial Analysis Package for Archaeology. Archaeological Computing Newsletter. Number 9
• CRIBB, R (1986c) When the Tide Came in : Pleistocene-Holocene Sea-Levels, Archaeological Catchments and Population Change in Northern Australia. in DAY, M; FOLEY, R, & RUKANG, Ru (Eds) The Pleistocene Perspective: World Archaeological Congress, Southampton 1986. Allen & Unwin. London.
• CRIBB, R (1986d) Sites, people and archaeological information traps: a further transgressive episode from Cape York. Archaeology in Oceania'. Volume 21 Number 3. Pages 171-176
• CRIBB, R (1987) Aurukun Archaeology and Plant Survey 1987. Unpublished tapes and data sheets recording places and local experts descriptions of plants and places, deposited with the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra
• CRIBB, R (1987) A preliminary report on archaeological findings in Aurukun Shire, western Cape York. Queensland archaeological research. Number 3. Pages 133-158
• CRIBB, R (1988) Report to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies on the results of the 1987 Aurukun shell mound trip. Unpublished Report to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra.
• CRIBB, R & SUTTON, P (1988) The Aurukun database project. Unpublished report to the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies. Canberra.
• CRIBB, R; WALMBENG, R; WOLMBY, R & TAISMAN, C (1988) Landscape as cultural artefact: shell mounds and plants in Aurukun, Cape York Peninsula. Australian Aboriginal Studies. Number 2. Pages 60–73
• CRIBB, R & MINNEGAL, M (1989) Spatial analysis on a dugong consumption site at Princess Charlotte Bay, North Queensland. Archaeology in Oceania. Volume 24. Number 1. Pages 1–12
• SUTTON, Peter, MARTIN, David, von STURMER, John, CRIBB, Roger & CHASE, Athol (1990) Aak: Aboriginal Estates and Clans between the Embley and Edward Rivers, Cape York Peninsula. 1000 pp Restricted Access Publication. South Australian Museum. Adelaide, Australia
• CRIBB, R (1990) Archaeology of Mount Mulligan: A Quick Reconnaissance. Unpublished report to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Canberra
• CRIBB, R (1991a) Nomads in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge
• CRIBB, R (1991b) Getting into a flap about shell mounds in northern Australia : a reply to Stone. Archaeology in Oceania. Volume 26. Number 1. Pages 23–25
• CRIBB, R (1991c) One lousey matchbox : a review of the Aboriginal Land Act 1991, Torres Strait Islander Land Act 1991 procedures manual : a discussion paper. Unpublished paper prepared for the Tharpuntoo Legal Service. Cairns, Australia.
• CRIBB, R (1991d) Aboriginal Heritage in Queensland: Some Suggestions on the Collection, Control and Ownership of Data and Information: A Preliminary Discussion Paper. Unpublished paper prepared for the Tharpuntoo Legal Service Aboriginal Corporation
• CRIBB, R (1991e) Archaeological assessment of the Spalenka Dunefield, ATP 3968M, Mining lease 1383, Cape Flattery Silica Mines Pty Ltd Unpublished Report prepared for Hopevale Community Council and Tharpuntoo Legal Service, North Queensland, Australia
• CRIBB, R (1992)Preliminary Report on the Excavation of an Aboriginal Midden Site at Bailey's Creek Mouth. Unpublished report for Concrete Constructions Pty Ltd. Cairns, Australia.
• CRIBB, R (1993) Modelling relationships : a computerised approach to Aboriginal genealogy, family history and kinship studies. Australian Aboriginal Studies. Number 1. Pages 10–21.
• CRIBB, R (1993) Report to A.N.P.W.S and the Kuku Djungan Aboriginal Corporation on the Ngarrabullgan Heritage Survey Project: 21 May - 31 August 1993. Unpublished Report to the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service. Canberra.
• CRIBB, R (1994) Report on Traditional Ownership and Aboriginal heritage: Wangetti Crocodile Farm Project. Unpublished report to the Queensland Department of Lands.
• CRIBB, R & HOLLINGSWORTH, L (1994) Report to the Wet Tropics Authority for the Wangetti Management Plan: Aboriginal Heritage. Unpublished Report for the Yirrganydji Tribal Aboriginal Corporation (in association with the Djbugay peoples). Cairns, Australia
• BAILEY, G; CHAPELL, J.B; CRIBB, R (1994) The origin of Anadara shell mounds at Weipa, North Queensland, Australia. Archaeology in Oceania Volume 29 Number 2. Pages 69–80
• CRIBB, R (1995) Towards a Strategy for the Management of Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in the Wet Tropics. in FOURMILE, H; SCHNIERER, S; & SMITH, A (Eds) An Identification of Problems and Potential for Future Rainforest Aboriginal Cultural Survival and Self-Determination in the Wet Tropics. James Cook University's Centre for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Participation, Research and Development. Cairns, Australia. Pages 36–53.
• DAVID, B; GRAINER, J.R; WASON, S; GRAINER, E; GRAINER, J I & CRIBB, R; (1995) Ngarrabullgan: archaeological sites and the management of a Kuku Djungan place. In WARD, Graham & WARD, Lucina (Eds) Australian Rock Art Research Association, Occasional AURA Publication. Number 9. Pages 53–60.
• CRIBB R (1996a) An Assessment of the Definition of National Estate Boundaries for Groups of Shell Mounds on the Weipa and Andoom Peninsulas. Unpublished Report to Comalco Aluminium Inc, the Australian Heritage Commission, and the Cape York Land Council
• CRIBB, R (1996b) Shell mounds, domiculture and ecosystem manipulation on western Cape York Peninsula. VETH, P & HISCOCK, P (eds) Archaeology of northern Australia: regional Perspectives. Tempus: archaeology and material culture studies in anthropology. University of Queensland, St Lucia. Volume 4. Pages 150-174
• CRIBB, R (2000) An Assessment of Comalco's Cultural Heritage Proposals. Unpublished Report to the Cape York Land Council
• CRIBB, R (2000) The Shell Eaters. Early incomplete draft of an unpublished draft manuscript Roger Cribb was working on, but never finished. Cairns. Australia
• CRIBB, R (2006) Getting Around: Mobility, Lifestyle and Culture among Indigenous People. Unpublished seminar presented as part of James Cook University's School of Anthropology and Archaeology Seminar Program. Cairns, Australia.