Australia's first people (original) (raw)
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The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea
Mainland Australia was connected to New Guinea and Tasmania at various times throughout the Pleistocene and formed the supercontinent of Sahul. Sahul contains some of the earliest known archaeological evidence for Homo sapiens outside of Africa, with a growing record of early complex social, technological, and artistic life. Here we present an overview of the oldest known sites in Australia along with key evidence pertaining to the dynamic cultures of early Aboriginal peoples. We review debates surrounding the age of first settlement and present evidence for the earliest technology, economy, and symbolism in Australia, emphasizing maritime skills, a large founding population size, novel technology, and adaptation to a wide range of environments.
Culture in Early Aboriginal Australia
Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1996
On the basis of recent archaeological evidence it seems that humans first entered the Australian continent about 60,000 years ago. These first ocean-going mariners had a high level of technological and economic skill, and had spread right across Australia into a wide variety of environments by about 35,000 years ago. Pigment showing clear signs of use occurs in almost all Australia's oldest known occupation sites, and evidence of self-awareness such as necklaces and beads has been found in several Pleistocene rock shelters. Rituals were carried out in connection with disposal of the dead, for at Lake Mungo there is a 25,000-year-old cremation, and ochre was scattered onto the corpse in a 30,000-year-old inhumation. Complex symbolic behaviour is attested at least 40,000 years ago by petroglyphs in the Olary district, and other evidence suggests a similar antiquity for rock paintings. The special focus of this article is cognitive archaeology, the study of past ways of thought as ...
Pleistocene rock art: a colonizing repertoire for Australia’s earliest inhabitants
A recent paper discussing the arrival of modern humans into Australia 50 ka argues that rock art was one of a suite of behaviours which would have facilitated the colonization of the most arid continent on earth. In this paper we discuss the social mechanisms and likely art correlates for that behaviour. The distribution of Australia's earliest art throughout the arid zone-and its cultural continuity in that environmental context-are discussed. We have recently argued that rock art played an integral role in the information exchange systems deployed by colonizers of the most arid continent on earth-Australia (McDonald & Veth 2011; Veth et al. 2011). We have also argued that there is good evidence for regional diversification in the use of material symbols in the pre-LGM record in Australia. The successful colonization of the arid and semi-arid core of Sahul in this time period has broader implications for the use of art as a social signifier. In this paper we re-analyze the earlier debates on the chronology for rock art use in Australia-recasting this not as an evolutionary trend (Maynard 1979) but rather as a necessary component in the colonization of a naive landscape and then successful adaptation to a range of environmental niches. By contextualizing this early rock art into other aspects of the Pleistocene archaeological record, we argue it is possible to theorize the use of rock art at this early period-despite the elusiveness of dated assemblages.
Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago
Kasih Norman, Ben Marwick, Jessica McNeil, Kate Connell, Tiina Manne, Elspeth (Ebbe) Hayes, Colin Pardoe, Christopher Clarkson, Andrew Fairbairn, Kelsey Lowe, S. Anna Florin, Richard L K Fullagar
The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Early human occupation of Australia’s eastern seaboard
Scientific Reports, 2024
Secure archaeological evidence for human occupation on the eastern seaboard of Australia before ~ 25,000 years ago has proven elusive. This has prompted some researchers to argue that the coastal margins remained uninhabited prior to 25 ka. Here we show evidence for human occupation between 30 ± 6 and 49 ± 8 ka at Wallen Wallen Creek (WWC), and at Middle Canalpin Creek (MCA20) between 38 ± 8 and 41 ± 8 ka. Both sites are located on the western side of Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), the second largest sand island in the world, isolated by rising sea levels in the early Holocene. The earliest occupation phase at both sites consists of charcoal and heavily retouched stone artefacts made from exotic raw materials. Heat-treatment of imported silcrete artefacts first appeared in sediment dated to~ 30,000 years ago, making these amongst Australia’s oldest dated heat-treated artefacts. An early human presence on Minjerribah is further suggested by palaeoenvironmental records of anthropogenic burning beginning by 45,000 years ago. These new chronologies from sites on a remnant portion of the continental margin confrm early human occupation along Sahul’s now drowned eastern continental shelf.
An early colonisation pathway into northwest Australia 70-60,000 years ago
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2017
Colonisation of Sahul 70-60 thousand years ago (kya) represents the first great maritime migration undertaken by anatomically modern humans in one of the final phases of the Out of Africa dispersal. Visual connectivity network analyses, agent-based simulations and ocean current modelling reveal that modern humans could follow numerous northern and southern migration pathways into Sahul. Our results support a southern route out of Africa through South Asia with entry into ISEA through the Banda Arc, culminating in an early colonisation of Sahul on the northwest shelf. Our results show multiple colonisation events through other entry points were also probable, and raise interesting possibilities for complex regional migration and population histories.