Katheryn Helen Morse (15 October 1958 – 13 July 2023) was an Australian archaeologist who pioneered research on Pleistocene coastal archaeology in Western Australia.
Here she found perforated shell beads dating to c.30,000 which are the oldest examples of human adornment in Australia.
It also demonstrated the antiquity of the exploitation of marine resources by Aboriginal people.
[2] In 2014 she excavated at Ganga Maya cave and Kariyarra Rockshelter, south of Port Hedland, where she demonstrated continuous occupation of the northeast inland Pilbara, from 45,000 years ago to recent times.
Her fieldwork and research covered much of Western Australia, including the Ningaloo/Cape Range area, Perth metropolitan area, the Gascoyne, Murchison, Pilbara and Kimberley regions.