Australian archaeology
Encyclopedia
Australian Archaeology is a large sub-field in the discipline of Archaeology
. Archaeology in Australia
takes three main forms, Aboriginal
Archaeology (the archaeology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia before and after European Settlement), Historical Archaeology
(the archaeology of Australia after European Settlement) 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.
Currently, archaeological research places great importance on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's viewpoints of the land and history of Australia. Consideration is given to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's belief that archaeological sites are not just capsules of the past but a continuation from the past to the present. Therefore, at a research level significance is placed on the past but also on the importance of the present.
The First Settlement of Australia is a popular research topic both in archaeology and in the public arena. There is a consensus that no human or closely related species
evolved independently in Australia. This is suggested because there are no species of primate to be found in Australia, both at present and in the fossil record. It is therefore assumed that the first settlers of Australia came from outside. At present the fossil record suggests that the first settlers were Homo sapiens, or fully modern humans.
There is controversy as to where the first Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people originated. Both of the two main theories postulate that the first settlers were fully modern humans. Asian Genetic studies have demonstrated that there are similarities between Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Melanesians
and India
ns. However, the early suggested date of 60, 000 years ago for initial settlement is quite early when compared to other areas in the world. This may suggest that the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population derives from an early African population which migrated along the south coast of Asia, at a much faster rate than other populations migrating across the continents of the Holocene
.
The first settlement of Australia most likely occurred during the last glacial maximum. During this time Australia and New Guinea
were joined as a single land mass called Sahul. The south-east Asian continent and islands were also joined as a single land mass called Sunda
. It is theorised that the first Australians crossed the sea between Sahul and Sunda about 60,000 to 40,000 years ago. Other dates have been suggested, and these results are not seen as definite conclusions. Sunda and Sahul had a permanent water-crossing, meaning that the first Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had to make a crossing on the open sea (see Wallace Line
).
Sahul is important in that in the past Australia was not an isolated continent, but was joined with New Guinea (and Tasmania). As such, New Guinea has also been the focus of archaeological investigations by Australian researchers.
The most important early sites in Australia are:
The change in sea levels means that the first settlements located on the coast would have been submerged.
With the settlement of Australia, it is most probable that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people first settled on the northern coast, as this area closest to Asia. However, the actual spread of people and the settlement of the continent is largely debated with three major models put forward:
in their studies of early occupation sites. It is argued that a separation of 60 to 70 thousand years best fits the evidence from the Human genome diversity project
, and a number of other new dating technologies. Some have proposed dates extending back to 100 thousand to 120 thousand years, but these dates are criticised on technical grounds and are not accepted by most scientists.
, was also advocated as proof of an earlier wave of settlers to the continent. Dating of the Kow Swamp material, however, showed that rather than being earlier, it was in fact a lot more recent than the nearby Mungo gracile skeletons that more closely resembled modern Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Today it is thought that Aboriginal people throughout the continent are descendents of an original founder population, although this does not completely exclude some contribution from later arrivals.
, have put forward the idea that human settlement was responsible for the large climatic and environmental changes that occurred in Australia.
The extent and causes of the Australian megafauna
l extinction—generally placed in the Late Pleistocene
—continues as an active debate and preoccupation among archaeologists and paleontologists working in the Australian scene. Besides ongoing attempts to refine the dating and extent of the extinction event(s), much research is actively directed towards establishing whether, or to what extent, anthropogenic effects played a part in the disappearance of dozens of species of large-bodied animals formerly inhabiting the continent. Central to this question is a determination of how long humans and the megafauna species coexisted. Many factors have been considered as possible causes of the extinction, ranging from environmental variables to entirely human-based activity.
The most extreme theory is that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were completely responsible for the extinction of these animals through extensive hunting. This theory is largely based on the Overkill hypothesis of the Americas
, where hunters travelled through the land exterminating megafauna. This Overkill Hypothesis is largely discredited (not just in Australia), as there have been no confirmed discoveries of kill sites, sites that are found in other contexts around the world and associated with Megafauna hunting. The sites of Cuddie Springs
in New South Wales
, and Keilor
in Victoria, display some evidence of associations between Aboriginal stone tools and megafauna remains, but do not prove conclusively the overkill theory. Furthermore, the coexistence of Aboriginal populations with the megafauna tends to contradict the overkill hypothesis. These writers suggest "threshold (for megafauna dieoff) was crossed between 26,000 and 15,000 yr B.P. when the arid area expanded further than usual and water resources in the woodland areas were severely reduced", although this finding is disputed by Roberts et al. It is clear from paleobotanical
and palaeontological evidence that the extinction coincided with great environmental change.
Approximately 18,000 to 7,000 years ago, many societies around the world underwent significant change; in particular, this time marks the rise of agriculture in many Neolithic societies. In the Australian context environmental change did not give rise to the development of agriculture but it may have contributed to the disappearance of populations of animals made even more vulnerable to depletion through hunting and marginalised grazing.
n Aboriginal people and whether large social/economic change was caused by environmental factors (see Environmental determinism
), or from factors within the society. The predominant view at the time held that in the case of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people any social change was largely influenced by external, largely environmental, factors.
The evidence that supports this idea is that sites at approximately the same time (around 4,000 years ago) experienced increased usage. This is supported by increased site numbers, increased artefact density and an expansion into new environments. This evidence has also been explained by environmental factors, large population growth, technological change, or even post-depositional factors
.
in which foragers diversified the types of food sources harvested, broadening their subsistence base outward to include more fish, small game, water fowl, invertebrates likes snails and shellfish, as well as previously ignored or marginal plant sources, would seem to apply to Australian hunters and gatherers. These changes were linked to climatic changes, including sea level rises during the Flandrian transgression in which:
Aboriginal people had a good understanding of local ecologies, and harvested many varieties of plants and animals in season. W.E.Roth talks about driving kangaroos into a 3 sided enclosure of nets "with the assistance of numerous beaters". Wallabies and emus were also caught in a similar way. Wallaroos were hunted with fire and beating towards a creek, where they were killed with spears and sticks. Animals were also driven towards set nets and fish traps were common.
The degree to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Australian continent practiced agriculture has long been debated by archaeologists. Earlier it was believed that Australian Aboriginal people were ignorant of the principles of agriculture, but this has since been disproven. For instance, Australian Aboriginal women in traditional societies often transplanted immature "bush tucker" plants found growing in unfavourable locations to more favourable spots. There were also a number of plants (particularly seeds and roots) that could have lent themselves to cultivation, and were used in making such foods as damper
. Charles Sturt
in his 1844 expedition to northwest New South Wales and Central Australia reports seeing large hay stacks built by Aboriginal people of seed crops. This was located east of Depot Glen Milparinka about 600 km from the Murray River
. Firestick farming has also always been a technique used by Aboriginal people to open the canopy of closed canopy forests, introducing sunlight to the ground, and prompting germination of a number of foodstuffs known to attract kangaroo
and other marsupials. This would encourage a more intensive land use than otherwise. But the main reason for the lack of agriculture in Australia is the extreme variability of the climate. Australia is the only continent on Earth, which, as a result of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, experiences greater variability between years than it does between the seasons. Such climatic variability makes farming very difficult, especially for incipient farmers, unable to be supported from outside of their community. Australian Aboriginal people found that maintaining stable populations below the effective carrying capacity of the environment would enable an adequate supply of food, even in drought years, so maintaining a stable culture. This made hunting and gathering
a more sustainable activity on the Australian continent than neolithic
farming. Evidence of cultivation at Kuk
in Papua New Guinea, from about 10-12,000 years BP (at a time when that island was joined to Australia, suggests crop raising was possible in the Sahul supercontinent when conditions were favourable.
is the study of the past through material remains such as artefacts (i.e. objects), structures (e.g. standing and ruined buildings, fences, roads), features (e.g. ditches, mounds, canals, landfill), and even whole landscapes modified by human activity and their spatial and stratigraphic contexts.
The origins of Historical archaeology in Australia
is generally held to lie in archaeological investigations by the late William (Bill) Culican at Fossil Beach in Victoria, by Jim Allen's Ph.D. research at Port Essington in the Northern Territory and by Judy Birmingham's work at Irrawang Pottery
in the Hunter Valley of NSW.
An increasingly important area of Australian historical archaeology studies the interaction between European and other settlers, and Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
is archaeology practised in a submerged environment. It encompasses the pre-historic and historic eras. Maritime Archaeology
(the study of humans and their activities in, on, around and under the seas, rivers and estuaries) and Nautical Archaeology, (the specialised study of boat and ship construction) are allied sub-disciplines of archaeology as a whole. Often the sites or relics are not inundated, however. Of late these various studies have progressed into the Industrial and post-war eras. In mirroring its terrestrial roots, underwater archaeology, maritime and nautical archaeology can now include the examination of a wide range of sites ranging from the Indigenous through to industrial archaeology and of late the study of wartime and post-war sites, including historic submerged aircraft. Better known as a sub-discipline of aviation archaeology
, underwater aviation archaeology is arguably the most recent offshoot of underwater archaeology developing its theoretical underpinnings and a substantial corpus of fieldwork, research and publication work in the late 1990s. Maritime Archaeology, as the first of these sub-disciplines to emerge in Australia commenced under the aegis of Jeremy Green in the 1970s due to concerns expressed by academics and politicians with the rampant destruction of the Dutch and British East India ships lost on the west coast. As Commonwealth legislation was enacted and enforced after 1976 and as States enacted their own legislation the sub-discipline spread throughout Australia as a result of on-going funding by both the States and the Commonwealth. While also encompassing the study of port-related structures ( e.g. jetties, anchorages), lighthouses, moorings, defences etc., initially the focus in maritime archaeology was solely on shipwrecks. Now far broader in its scope, some states maritime and underwater archaeology is practised out of Museums and in others out of cultural heritage management units. There are also numerous practitioners in private practice, or acting as consultants. Regardless, all practitioners operate under the aegis of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA).
) only developed in earnest in Australia from the 1970s, with the advent of various state legislation requiring approvals for damage or disturbance to archaeological relics, such as the Aboriginal and Archaeological Relics Preservation Act 1972, in Victoria. The Victoria Archaeological Survey
was established from the Relics Office in 1975. Historical Archaeology is generally protected by separate legislation, such as the New South Wales Heritage Act 1977, and the various other state counterparts.
Cultural Heritage Management for archaeological sites is seen in the context of wider heritage issues, and follows the principles set out in the Burra Charter
or the Australia ICOMOS charter for the conservation of places of cultural significance.
From a handful of practitioners in the '70s, there are now more than 250 commercially based archaeologists in Australia. Again in Victoria, one of the first to establish was du Cros and associates (later absorbed by Biosis Research). The Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologist
Inc. (AACAI) is the professional body established in 1979 with presently about 50 full members. In New South Wales, companies such as Casey and Lowe and GML, have specialised in large scale historical archaeological salvage.
Consultancy Archaeology is primarily driven by development, and so is often at the centre of controversy over ownership of heritage and in particular the conflicting objectives of conservation and development. Aboriginal communities often ascribe a special significance to the places where archaeological remains have been found.
which establishes a framework for the protection and recognition of native title
. The Australian legal system recognises native title where:
is one of the largest and oldest organisations devoted to furthering archaeology of all types within Australia.
The Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology
(ASHA) originally founded as the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology in 1970. Its aims were, and still are, to promote the study of historical archaeology in Australia.
The Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria
or AASV is predominantly a non-professional organisation, which was formed in 1976 in through the amalgamation of two earlier societies, the Anthropological Society of Victoria
formed in 1934, and the Archaeological Society of Victoria
formed in 1964.
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...
. Archaeology in 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...
takes three main forms, Aboriginal
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...
Archaeology (the archaeology of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia before and after European Settlement), Historical Archaeology
Historical archaeology
Historical archaeology is a form of archaeology dealing with topics that are already attested in written records. These records can both complement and conflict with the archaeological evidence found at a particular site. Studies tend to focus on literate, historical-period societies as opposed...
(the archaeology of Australia after European Settlement) and Maritime Archaeology
Maritime archaeology
Maritime archaeology is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, shore side facilities, port-related structures, cargoes, human remains and submerged...
. Bridging these sub-disciplines is the important concept of Cultural Heritage Management
Cultural Heritage Management
Cultural heritage management is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management , although it also draws on the practices of conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture...
which encompasses Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sites, Historical sites and Maritime sites.
Aboriginal archaeology (The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and Culture)
Archaeological studies or investigations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and culture in Australia has had many different agendas through time. Initial archaeological investigation was often focused on finding the oldest sites. By the 1970s, archaeological research was concerned with the environment and the way it impacted on humans. In the late 1970s, Cultural Heritage Management gained prominence with the increasing demands by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups for representation in archaeological research. At a research level the focus shifted to cultural change of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through time.Currently, archaeological research places great importance on Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's viewpoints of the land and history of Australia. Consideration is given to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's belief that archaeological sites are not just capsules of the past but a continuation from the past to the present. Therefore, at a research level significance is placed on the past but also on the importance of the present.
The First Settlement of Australia is a popular research topic both in archaeology and in the public arena. There is a consensus that no human or closely related species
Hominidae
The Hominidae or include them .), as the term is used here, form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: chimpanzees , gorillas , humans , and orangutans ....
evolved independently in Australia. This is suggested because there are no species of primate to be found in Australia, both at present and in the fossil record. It is therefore assumed that the first settlers of Australia came from outside. At present the fossil record suggests that the first settlers were Homo sapiens, or fully modern humans.
There is controversy as to where the first Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people originated. Both of the two main theories postulate that the first settlers were fully modern humans. Asian Genetic studies have demonstrated that there are similarities between Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Melanesians
Melanesians
Melanesians are an ethnic group in Melanesia. The original inhabitants of the group of islands now named Melanesia were likely the ancestors of the present-day Papuan-speaking people...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns. However, the early suggested date of 60, 000 years ago for initial settlement is quite early when compared to other areas in the world. This may suggest that the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population derives from an early African population which migrated along the south coast of Asia, at a much faster rate than other populations migrating across the continents of the Holocene
Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene and continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Quaternary period. Its name comes from the Greek words and , meaning "entirely recent"...
.
The first settlement of Australia most likely occurred during the last glacial maximum. During this time Australia and New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
were joined as a single land mass called Sahul. The south-east Asian continent and islands were also joined as a single land mass called Sunda
Sundaland
Sundaland is a biogeographical region of Southeastern Asia which encompasses the areas of the Asian continental shelf that was exposed during the last ice age. It included the Malay Peninsula on the Asian mainland, as well as the large islands of Borneo, Java, and Sumatra and their surrounding...
. It is theorised that the first Australians crossed the sea between Sahul and Sunda about 60,000 to 40,000 years ago. Other dates have been suggested, and these results are not seen as definite conclusions. Sunda and Sahul had a permanent water-crossing, meaning that the first Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had to make a crossing on the open sea (see Wallace Line
Wallace Line
The Wallace Line separates the ecozones of Asia and Wallacea, a transitional zone between Asia and Australia. West of the line are found organisms related to Asiatic species; to the east, a mixture of species of Asian and Australian origin is present...
).
Sahul is important in that in the past Australia was not an isolated continent, but was joined with New Guinea (and Tasmania). As such, New Guinea has also been the focus of archaeological investigations by Australian researchers.
The most important early sites in Australia are:
- Rottnest IslandRottnest IslandRottnest Island is located off the coast of Western Australia, near Fremantle. It is called Wadjemup by the Noongar people, meaning "place across the water". The island is long, and at its widest point with a total land area of . It is classified as an A Class Reserve and is managed by the...
(70,000 years old) - Nauwalabila (55,000 - 60,000 years old)
- Malakanunja (45,000 - 61,000 years old)
- Devil's LairDevil's LairDevil’s Lair is a single-chamber cave with a floor area of around 200 square metres that formed in a Quaternary dune limestone of the Leeuwin–Naturaliste Ridge, 5 kilometres from the modern coastline of Western Australia...
(45,000 years old) - Lake MungoLake MungoLake Mungo is a dry lake in south-western New South Wales, Australia. It is located about 760 km due west of Sydney and 90 km north-east of Mildura. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region...
(61,000 or 40,000 years old) - controversy exists over precise dating (see below)
The change in sea levels means that the first settlements located on the coast would have been submerged.
With the settlement of Australia, it is most probable that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people first settled on the northern coast, as this area closest to Asia. However, the actual spread of people and the settlement of the continent is largely debated with three major models put forward:
- Concentric dispersal through the entire continent through one single "entry" point.
- Coastal dispersal by spreading along the coast line and later entering inland areas, mainly via the major waterways.
- Fluctuating colonisation in and out of different environmental zones. For example, in plentiful years the population would be in semi-arid regions, but in drought would move to areas with better resources.
Date of arrival
There is significant debate over the date of arrival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people into the Australian continent. Until the 1950s it was often believed that arrival of the first Aboriginal people was within the last 10,000 years. In the 1950s, the dates were extended back to the last Ice Age, based upon falling sea-levels at that period and the existence of landbridges linking the islands of the Sunda Shelf and the Sahul Continental Shelf linking Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania. The discovery and use of C14 dating extended the dates to 40,000 at Lake Mungo, and this is often the dates most frequently found. However, more recently, the analysis of sea levels has shown that coastlines 40,000 years ago were not as exposed as they were 60 to 70 thousand years ago. The submergence of the earliest sites of occupation due to rising sea levels has meant that the earliest archaeological signature may in fact represent occupation much later than the initial time of arrival. The difficulty in establishing a date of arrival earlier than 50, 0000 years has been compounded by the widespread use of radiocarbon dating and the supposed "radiocarbon barrier" which establishes 40,000 years as a limit to which C14 dates can be easily and reliably extracted. This limitation has prompted many archaeologists, including Rhys Jones and Alan Thorne, to include thermoluminescence dating methodsThermoluminescence dating
Thermoluminescence dating is the determination, by means of measuring the accumulated radiation dose, of the time elapsed since material containing crystalline minerals was either heated or exposed to sunlight...
in their studies of early occupation sites. It is argued that a separation of 60 to 70 thousand years best fits the evidence from the Human genome diversity project
Human Genome Diversity Project
The Human Genome Diversity Project was started by Stanford University's Morrison Institute and a collaboration of scientists around the world. It is the result of many years of work by Luigi Cavalli-Sforza, one of the most cited scientists in the world, which has published extensively in the use...
, and a number of other new dating technologies. Some have proposed dates extending back to 100 thousand to 120 thousand years, but these dates are criticised on technical grounds and are not accepted by most scientists.
Multiple arrivals
Earlier anthropologists believed that there were "three waves" of arrival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to Australia, the first being of "negrito" Tasmanian people, who were displaced by "Murrayans", and these in turn were considered to be displaced by "Carpentarians". These theories were sometimes advocated in order to disprove the Aboriginal claim to being the indigenous "first peoples". The fact that modern Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people cannot explain the Bradshaw figures of North Western Australia, was also seen as evidence of displacement of earlier peoples by later arrivals. The finding of a robust skeleton with surprisingly so-called "primitive" features at Kow SwampKow Swamp Archaeological Site
The Kow Swamp archaeological site comprises a series of late Pleistocene burials within the lunette of the eastern rim of a former lake known as Kow Swamp. The site is located 10 km south-east of Cohuna in the central Murray Valley, in northern Victoria, at...
, was also advocated as proof of an earlier wave of settlers to the continent. Dating of the Kow Swamp material, however, showed that rather than being earlier, it was in fact a lot more recent than the nearby Mungo gracile skeletons that more closely resembled modern Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Today it is thought that Aboriginal people throughout the continent are descendents of an original founder population, although this does not completely exclude some contribution from later arrivals.
Megafauna extinction
Some researchers, such as Tim FlanneryTim Flannery
Timothy Fridtjof Flannery is an Australian mammalogist, palaeontologist, environmentalist and global warming activist....
, have put forward the idea that human settlement was responsible for the large climatic and environmental changes that occurred in Australia.
The extent and causes of the Australian megafauna
Australian megafauna
Australian megafauna are a number of large animal species in Australia, often defined as species with body mass estimates of greater than 30 kilograms, or equal to or greater than 30% greater body mass than their closest living relatives...
l extinction—generally placed in the Late Pleistocene
Late Pleistocene
The Late Pleistocene is a stage of the Pleistocene Epoch. The beginning of the stage is defined by the base of the Eemian interglacial phase before the final glacial episode of the Pleistocene 126,000 ± 5,000 years ago. The end of the stage is defined exactly at 10,000 Carbon-14 years BP...
—continues as an active debate and preoccupation among archaeologists and paleontologists working in the Australian scene. Besides ongoing attempts to refine the dating and extent of the extinction event(s), much research is actively directed towards establishing whether, or to what extent, anthropogenic effects played a part in the disappearance of dozens of species of large-bodied animals formerly inhabiting the continent. Central to this question is a determination of how long humans and the megafauna species coexisted. Many factors have been considered as possible causes of the extinction, ranging from environmental variables to entirely human-based activity.
The most extreme theory is that Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were completely responsible for the extinction of these animals through extensive hunting. This theory is largely based on the Overkill hypothesis of the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, where hunters travelled through the land exterminating megafauna. This Overkill Hypothesis is largely discredited (not just in Australia), as there have been no confirmed discoveries of kill sites, sites that are found in other contexts around the world and associated with Megafauna hunting. The sites of Cuddie Springs
Cuddie Springs
Cuddie Springs is a notable archaeological and paleontological site in the semi-arid zone of central northern New South Wales, Australia . Cuddie Springs is an open site, with the fossil deposits preserved in a claypan on the floor of an ancient ephemeral lake...
in New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, and Keilor
Keilor archaeological site
The Keilor archaeological site was among the first places to demonstrate the antiquity of Aboriginal occupation of Australia when a cranium, unearthed in 1940, was found to be nearly 15,000 years old. Subsequent investigations of Pleistocene alluvial terraces revealed hearths about 31,000 years BP,...
in Victoria, display some evidence of associations between Aboriginal stone tools and megafauna remains, but do not prove conclusively the overkill theory. Furthermore, the coexistence of Aboriginal populations with the megafauna tends to contradict the overkill hypothesis. These writers suggest "threshold (for megafauna dieoff) was crossed between 26,000 and 15,000 yr B.P. when the arid area expanded further than usual and water resources in the woodland areas were severely reduced", although this finding is disputed by Roberts et al. It is clear from paleobotanical
Paleobotany
Paleobotany, also spelled as palaeobotany , is the branch of paleontology or paleobiology dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments , and both the evolutionary history of plants, with a...
and palaeontological evidence that the extinction coincided with great environmental change.
Approximately 18,000 to 7,000 years ago, many societies around the world underwent significant change; in particular, this time marks the rise of agriculture in many Neolithic societies. In the Australian context environmental change did not give rise to the development of agriculture but it may have contributed to the disappearance of populations of animals made even more vulnerable to depletion through hunting and marginalised grazing.
Lake Mungo dating
Arguably the oldest human remains in Australia, the Lake Mungo 3 skull was given the age of 60,000 years by Gregory Adcock and his researchers. However, this claim has come under criticism largely due to the process used to analyse the skull and the claims regarding the dating and the mtDNA found. Most people suggest that the age of the specimen is approximately 40,000 years. Sensitivities to handling Aboriginal remains means that specimens are not available for further research, so reassessment of the date awaits the development of appropriate ethical protocols.The intensification debate
The idea of intensification was put forward by a number of archaeologists, but the most prominent in developing the idea was Harry Lourandos. Intensification is an idea that posits that change in economic systems of peoples is controlled by social changes. This means that change can occur without an external force such as environmental change. The idea derived from a debate about the TasmaniaTasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
n Aboriginal people and whether large social/economic change was caused by environmental factors (see Environmental determinism
Environmental determinism
Environmental determinism, also known as climatic determinism or geographical determinism, is the view that the physical environment, rather than social conditions, determines culture...
), or from factors within the society. The predominant view at the time held that in the case of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people any social change was largely influenced by external, largely environmental, factors.
The evidence that supports this idea is that sites at approximately the same time (around 4,000 years ago) experienced increased usage. This is supported by increased site numbers, increased artefact density and an expansion into new environments. This evidence has also been explained by environmental factors, large population growth, technological change, or even post-depositional factors
Taphonomy
Taphonomy is the study of decaying organisms over time and how they become fossilized . The term taphonomy was introduced to paleontology in 1940 by Russian scientist Ivan Efremov to describe the study of the transition of remains, parts, or products of organisms, from the biosphere, to the...
.
The cultivation question
Kent Flannery's model of the Broad spectrum revolutionBroad spectrum revolution
The Broad Spectrum Revolution hypothesis, proposed by Kent Flannery in a 1968 paper presented to a London University symposium, suggested that the emergence of the Neolithic in southwest Asia was prefaced by increases in dietary breadth among foraging societies...
in which foragers diversified the types of food sources harvested, broadening their subsistence base outward to include more fish, small game, water fowl, invertebrates likes snails and shellfish, as well as previously ignored or marginal plant sources, would seem to apply to Australian hunters and gatherers. These changes were linked to climatic changes, including sea level rises during the Flandrian transgression in which:
- Conditions became more inviting to marine life offshore in shallow, warm waters.
- Quantity and variety of marine life increased drastically as did the number of edible species.
- Because the rivers' power weakened with rising waters, and the creation of many estuaries, the currents flowing into the ocean were slow enough to allow fish to ascend upstream to spawn.
- Birds found refuge next to riverbeds in marsh grasses and then proceeded to migrate to different habitats.
Aboriginal people had a good understanding of local ecologies, and harvested many varieties of plants and animals in season. W.E.Roth talks about driving kangaroos into a 3 sided enclosure of nets "with the assistance of numerous beaters". Wallabies and emus were also caught in a similar way. Wallaroos were hunted with fire and beating towards a creek, where they were killed with spears and sticks. Animals were also driven towards set nets and fish traps were common.
The degree to which Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Australian continent practiced agriculture has long been debated by archaeologists. Earlier it was believed that Australian Aboriginal people were ignorant of the principles of agriculture, but this has since been disproven. For instance, Australian Aboriginal women in traditional societies often transplanted immature "bush tucker" plants found growing in unfavourable locations to more favourable spots. There were also a number of plants (particularly seeds and roots) that could have lent themselves to cultivation, and were used in making such foods as damper
Damper (food)
Damper is a traditional Australian soda bread prepared by swagmen, drovers, stockmen and other travelers. It consists of a wheat flour based bread, traditionally baked in the coals of a campfire. Damper is an iconic Australian dish...
. Charles Sturt
Charles Sturt
Captain Charles Napier Sturt was an English explorer of Australia, and part of the European Exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from both Sydney and later from Adelaide. His expeditions traced several of the westward-flowing rivers,...
in his 1844 expedition to northwest New South Wales and Central Australia reports seeing large hay stacks built by Aboriginal people of seed crops. This was located east of Depot Glen Milparinka about 600 km from the Murray River
Murray River
The Murray River is Australia's longest river. At in length, the Murray rises in the Australian Alps, draining the western side of Australia's highest mountains and, for most of its length, meanders across Australia's inland plains, forming the border between New South Wales and Victoria as it...
. Firestick farming has also always been a technique used by Aboriginal people to open the canopy of closed canopy forests, introducing sunlight to the ground, and prompting germination of a number of foodstuffs known to attract kangaroo
Kangaroo
A kangaroo is a marsupial from the family Macropodidae . In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, especially those of the genus Macropus, Red Kangaroo, Antilopine Kangaroo, Eastern Grey Kangaroo and Western Grey Kangaroo. Kangaroos are endemic to the country...
and other marsupials. This would encourage a more intensive land use than otherwise. But the main reason for the lack of agriculture in Australia is the extreme variability of the climate. Australia is the only continent on Earth, which, as a result of the El Nino Southern Oscillation, experiences greater variability between years than it does between the seasons. Such climatic variability makes farming very difficult, especially for incipient farmers, unable to be supported from outside of their community. Australian Aboriginal people found that maintaining stable populations below the effective carrying capacity of the environment would enable an adequate supply of food, even in drought years, so maintaining a stable culture. This made hunting and gathering
Hunting and gathering
Hunting and gathering may refer to:*Hunting and gathering, the subsistence method based on edible plants and animals from the wild*Hunting and Gathering...
a more sustainable activity on the Australian continent than neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
farming. Evidence of cultivation at Kuk
Kuk
Kuk is the deification of the primordial concept of darkness in Egyptian mythology. In the Ogdoad cosmogony, his name meant darkness. As a concept, Kuk was viewed as androgynous, his female form being known as Kauket , which is simply the female form of the word Kuk...
in Papua New Guinea, from about 10-12,000 years BP (at a time when that island was joined to Australia, suggests crop raising was possible in the Sahul supercontinent when conditions were favourable.
Historical archaeology in Australia
Historical archaeologyHistorical archaeology
Historical archaeology is a form of archaeology dealing with topics that are already attested in written records. These records can both complement and conflict with the archaeological evidence found at a particular site. Studies tend to focus on literate, historical-period societies as opposed...
is the study of the past through material remains such as artefacts (i.e. objects), structures (e.g. standing and ruined buildings, fences, roads), features (e.g. ditches, mounds, canals, landfill), and even whole landscapes modified by human activity and their spatial and stratigraphic contexts.
The origins of Historical archaeology in Australia
Historical archaeology in Australia
Historical Archaeology is the study of the past through material remains such as artefacts , structures , features Historical Archaeology is the study of the past through material remains such as artefacts (i.e. objects), structures (e.g. standing and ruined buildings, fences, roads), features...
is generally held to lie in archaeological investigations by the late William (Bill) Culican at Fossil Beach in Victoria, by Jim Allen's Ph.D. research at Port Essington in the Northern Territory and by Judy Birmingham's work at Irrawang Pottery
Irrawang Pottery
In 1833-1856 James King established and ran a pottery at Irrawang in the lower Hunter Valley in New South Wales ....
in the Hunter Valley of NSW.
An increasingly important area of Australian historical archaeology studies the interaction between European and other settlers, and Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Underwater and Maritime Archaeology in Australia
Underwater archaeologyUnderwater archaeology
Underwater archaeology is archaeology practised underwater. As with all other branches of archaeology it evolved from its roots in pre-history and in the classical era to include sites from the historical and industrial eras...
is archaeology practised in a submerged environment. It encompasses the pre-historic and historic eras. Maritime Archaeology
Maritime archaeology
Maritime archaeology is a discipline within archaeology as a whole that specifically studies human interaction with the sea, lakes and rivers through the study of associated physical remains, be they vessels, shore side facilities, port-related structures, cargoes, human remains and submerged...
(the study of humans and their activities in, on, around and under the seas, rivers and estuaries) and Nautical Archaeology, (the specialised study of boat and ship construction) are allied sub-disciplines of archaeology as a whole. Often the sites or relics are not inundated, however. Of late these various studies have progressed into the Industrial and post-war eras. In mirroring its terrestrial roots, underwater archaeology, maritime and nautical archaeology can now include the examination of a wide range of sites ranging from the Indigenous through to industrial archaeology and of late the study of wartime and post-war sites, including historic submerged aircraft. Better known as a sub-discipline of aviation archaeology
Aviation archaeology
Aviation archaeology is a recognized sub-discipline within archaeology and underwater archaeology as a whole. It is an activity practiced by both enthusiasts and academics in pursuit of finding, documenting, recovering, and preserving sites important in aviation history...
, underwater aviation archaeology is arguably the most recent offshoot of underwater archaeology developing its theoretical underpinnings and a substantial corpus of fieldwork, research and publication work in the late 1990s. Maritime Archaeology, as the first of these sub-disciplines to emerge in Australia commenced under the aegis of Jeremy Green in the 1970s due to concerns expressed by academics and politicians with the rampant destruction of the Dutch and British East India ships lost on the west coast. As Commonwealth legislation was enacted and enforced after 1976 and as States enacted their own legislation the sub-discipline spread throughout Australia as a result of on-going funding by both the States and the Commonwealth. While also encompassing the study of port-related structures ( e.g. jetties, anchorages), lighthouses, moorings, defences etc., initially the focus in maritime archaeology was solely on shipwrecks. Now far broader in its scope, some states maritime and underwater archaeology is practised out of Museums and in others out of cultural heritage management units. There are also numerous practitioners in private practice, or acting as consultants. Regardless, all practitioners operate under the aegis of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA).
Cultural heritage management
Commercial or consulting archaeology (also termed Cultural heritage managementCultural Heritage Management
Cultural heritage management is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management , although it also draws on the practices of conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture...
) only developed in earnest in Australia from the 1970s, with the advent of various state legislation requiring approvals for damage or disturbance to archaeological relics, such as the Aboriginal and Archaeological Relics Preservation Act 1972, in Victoria. The Victoria Archaeological Survey
Victoria Archaeological Survey
The Victorian state government established the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Office under the Chief Secretary's Department, following the enactment of the Archaeological and Aboriginal Relics Preservation Act 1972. One of the original aims of the Relics office was to compile a list of...
was established from the Relics Office in 1975. Historical Archaeology is generally protected by separate legislation, such as the New South Wales Heritage Act 1977, and the various other state counterparts.
Cultural Heritage Management for archaeological sites is seen in the context of wider heritage issues, and follows the principles set out in the Burra Charter
Burra Charter
The Burra Charter defines the basic principles and procedures to be followed in the conservation of Australian heritage places.In 1979, the Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Places of Cultural Significance was adopted at a meeting of Australia ICOMOS at the historic mining town of...
or the Australia ICOMOS charter for the conservation of places of cultural significance.
From a handful of practitioners in the '70s, there are now more than 250 commercially based archaeologists in Australia. Again in Victoria, one of the first to establish was du Cros and associates (later absorbed by Biosis Research). The Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologist
Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologist
The Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologist Inc. is the professional body established in 1979 with presently about 50 full members, to represent archaeologists working in professional fields of contract and public archaeology. The associations aims are to "uphold and promote the...
Inc. (AACAI) is the professional body established in 1979 with presently about 50 full members. In New South Wales, companies such as Casey and Lowe and GML, have specialised in large scale historical archaeological salvage.
Consultancy Archaeology is primarily driven by development, and so is often at the centre of controversy over ownership of heritage and in particular the conflicting objectives of conservation and development. Aboriginal communities often ascribe a special significance to the places where archaeological remains have been found.
Legal obligations in Australia
Protection and management of archaeology in Australia is controlled by Federal and State Government legislation including the Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984, The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the various state archaeological legislation such as Victoria's Heritage Act 1995 (covering historical archaeology) and the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. Several states maintain archaeological site inventories as the main management tool. The principle of most forms of archaeological legislation in Australia is to provide blanket protection for all archaeological remains and sites, whether or not they have been recorded, and use a system of permits and consents to control change to those sites. for Aboriginal archaeological sites, there is often a requirement for consultation with traditional owners, and they sometimes have a role in approving works that impact on archaeological sites.Native Title and Land Rights
Native Title is formalised under The Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993Native Title Act 1993
The Native Title Act of 1993 provides for determinations of native title in Australia. The Act was passed by the Keating Labor Government in response to the High Court's decision in Mabo v Queensland...
which establishes a framework for the protection and recognition of native title
Native title
Native title is the Australian version of the common law doctrine of aboriginal title.Native title is "the recognition by Australian law that some Indigenous people have rights and interests to their land that come from their traditional laws and customs"...
. The Australian legal system recognises native title where:
- the rights and interests are possessed under traditional laws and customs that continue to be acknowledged and observed by the relevant Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders
- by virtue of those laws and customs, the Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islanders have a connection with the land or waters
- the native title rights and interests are recognised by the common law of Australia.
Important Australian archaeologists
This is a list of archaeologists who have made a notable contribution to the development of the subject - Australian archaeology.- Iain DavidsonIain DavidsonIain Davidson is a Scottish professional footballer. He currently plays for Scottish Football League club Raith Rovers, mainly as a defensive midfielder but can also be played in the defence.-Career:...
- Jim AllenJim Allen (archaeologist)Professor Jim Allen is a prominent Australian archaeologist who has specialized in the archaeology of the South Pacific. In 1966 Jim Allen undertook the first professional excavation of a European site in Australia, the 1840s military settlement of Victoria, which was established at Port...
- Judy BirminghamJudy BirminghamJudy Birmingham is a prominent historical archaeologist based in Sydney, Australia.Birmingham came to teach at the University of Sydney in 1961 as a lecturer specialising in Iron Age Cyprus and Anatolia, and how the people groups living there had a diet consisting solely of feces.In 1966 she began...
- Diane BarwickDiane BarwickDiane Elizabeth MacEachern Barwick was a Canadian-born anthropologist, researcher and teacher in the field of Australian Aboriginal culture and society.-Background and Teaching:...
- Peter CouttsPeter CouttsPeter John Frazer Coutts was an Australian archaeologist who was first director of the Victoria Archaeological Survey , the precursor to the Heritage Branch of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria....
- Roger CribbRoger CribbRoger Llewellyn Dunmore Cribb was an Australian archaeologist and anthropologist who specialised in documenting and modelling spatial patterns and social organisation of nomadic peoples...
- William (Bill) CulicanWilliam (Bill) CulicanWilliam Culican was an Australian archaeologist and lecturer in `Biblical Archaeology’ and `Pre-Classical Antiquity’ at the University of Melbourne....
- Vere Gordon ChildeVere Gordon ChildeVere Gordon Childe , better known as V. Gordon Childe, was an Australian archaeologist and philologist who specialised in the study of European prehistory. A vocal socialist, Childe accepted the socio-economic theory of Marxism and was an early proponent of Marxist archaeology...
- Raymond DartRaymond DartRaymond Arthur Dart was an Australian anatomist and anthropologist, best known for his involvement in the 1924 discovery of the first fossil ever found of Australopithecus africanus, an extinct hominid closely related to humans, at Taung in the North of South Africa in the province...
- David FrankelDavid Frankel (archaeologist)David Frankel is Professor and Honours Coordinator in Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Historical and European Studies at La Trobe University....
- Jack GolsonJack GolsonJack Golson is an archaeologist who has done extensive field work in Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia. He has made important and pioneering contributions to the world of archaeology....
- Peter HiscockPeter HiscockPeter Dixon Hiscock is a prominent Australian archaeologist. Born in Melbourne he obtained a PhD from the University of Queensland. He is now Professor in the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London and an...
- Rhys Jones
- John MulvaneyJohn MulvaneyJohn Mulvaney AO CMG is an Australian archaeologist and known as the "father of Australian Archaeology".Derek John Mulvaney was born in Yarram, Victoria...
- Tim MurrayTim Murray (archaeologist)Tim Murray is an Australian archaeologist and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia . He joined the Archaeology department in 1986 as Lecturer. On the retirement of the foundation Chair Professor Jim Allen, Murray was appointed to the...
- Gary PreslandGary PreslandGary Presland is an Australian archaeologist and writer who studied history at La Trobe University 1973-76, and archaeology at the University of London, 1977-79. He was a staff member of the Victoria Archaeological Survey from 1983 to April 1988; his research interests are in the Aboriginal and...
- Claire SmithClaire SmithClaire Smith is an archaeologist. She is an Associate Professor with the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, and President of the World Archaeological Congress....
- Arthur Dale TrendallArthur Dale TrendallArthur Dale Trendall AC CMG was a New Zealand-born Australian art historian and classical archaeologist whose work on identifying the work of individual artists on Greek ceramic vessels at Apulia and other sites earned him international prizes and a papal knighthood...
Professional Societies in Australian Archaeology
The Australian Archaeological AssociationAustralian Archaeological Association
The Australian Archaeological Association Inc. an archaeological organisation in Australia.Membership is open to anyone interested in furthering archaeology in Australia, a definition that include prehistoric archaeology, historical and industrial archaeology, ethno-archaeology and marine...
is one of the largest and oldest organisations devoted to furthering archaeology of all types within Australia.
The Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology
Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology
The Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology was originally founded as the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology in 1970 by Judy Birmingham, then a lecturer at the University of Sydney...
(ASHA) originally founded as the Australian Society for Historical Archaeology in 1970. Its aims were, and still are, to promote the study of historical archaeology in Australia.
The Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria
Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria
The Archaeological and Anthropological Society of Victoria or AASV is an incorporated association formed in 1976 in Melbourne, Australia through the amalgamation of two earlier societies, the Anthropological Society of Victoria formed in 1934, and the Archaeological Society of Victoria formed in 1964...
or AASV is predominantly a non-professional organisation, which was formed in 1976 in through the amalgamation of two earlier societies, the Anthropological Society of Victoria
Anthropological Society of Victoria
The Anthropological Society of Victoria was formed in 1934, in response to the efforts of gifted lecturer Frederic Wood Jones who attracted an enthusiastic non-academic audience to his public lectures in the 1930s....
formed in 1934, and the Archaeological Society of Victoria
Archaeological Society of Victoria
The Archaeological Society of Victoria was formed in 1964 from the efforts of University of Melbourne academic William Culican in response to the enthusiastic response to his archaeology lectures run through the CAE....
formed in 1964.
External links
- http://www.aacai.com.au//index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1/ Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc.
- Australian Archaeological Association
- National Archaeology Week
- Australian Society for Historical Archaeology
- australian archaeology blog
- OzArch - Australian Archaeology email list
- http://www.aboriginalhistory.org/Aboriginal HistoryAboriginal HistoryAboriginal History is an annual peer-reviewed academic journal published by Aboriginal History. It was established in 1977 and covers interdisciplinary historical studies in the field of the interactions between Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non-indigenous...
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