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Prehistory of Australia

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Prehistory of Australia ‘This will be a classic in the field. Rich in historical insights and con- temporary sensitivities, it is a sober evaluation of evidence for the first human settlement of Australia, and a good introduction to the pre- historic cultures of Australia. It covers all the basics well and provides a very rich background in natural as well as human history. Readable and accessible to the interested public, it is also useful for students and professionals. Like good wine, this is a book that has matured over the course of its revisions, and keeps getting better and better.’ Brian Hayden, Simon Fraser University Emeritus Professor John Mulvaney is one of Australia’s foremost pre- historians, whose career in archaeology spans nearly half a century. He was the first to teach the prehistory of the Australian continent and was instrumental in fostering professional archaeology in Australia. His book on Australian prehistory published 30 years ago, also a first, provides the basis and inspiration for this current syn- thesis. His fieldwork in the 1960s extended the continent’s prehistory into the distant millennia of the last Ice Age. While foundation pro- fessor of Australian prehistory at the Australian National University, John gained fame for his promotion and public defence of Australia’s heritage. Among his public offices, John was a foundation commis- sioner of the Australian Heritage Commission and represented Australia on World Heritage issues. He campaigned successfully to preserve the remarkable archaeological heritage of Tasmania’s Franklin River and southwest forestland. Today he is regarded as one of Australia’s foremost public intellectuals. Dr Johan Kamminga is recognised internationally for his research on Aboriginal stone technology. Over the last 25 years he has carried out archaeological fieldwork in many parts of Australia, such as Cape York, Kakadu and the Snowy Mountains, and overseas in New Guinea and Southeast Asia. He has written or co-authored publica- tions on a range of topics, from regional field surveys to the analysis of prehistoric artefacts and human evolution in Asia. One of his major works is Mechanics of Pre-Industrial Technology (Cambridge University Press); he was also an advisory editor for the award-winning refer- ence work Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia. Prehistory of Australia Prehistory of Australia John Mulvaney & Johan Kamminga First published 1999 by Allen & Unwin Published 2020 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Derek John Mulvaney and Johan Kamminga 1999 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Mulvaney, D. J. (Derek John), 1925–. Prehistory of Australia. Bibliography. Includes index. 1. Aborigines, Australian—Antiquities. 2. Australia— Antiquities. I. Kamminga, Johan. II. Title. 994.01 Set in 10.75/13 pt Adobe Caslon by Bookhouse, Sydney ISBN-13: 9781864489507 (pbk) Contents Figures and illustrations viii Maps xiv Preface xv 1 The past uncovered and its ownership 1 2 The diversity of surviving traces 18 3 Dating the past 39 4 Changing landscapes 53 5 People, language and society 66 6 Subsistence and reciprocity 79 7 Seafarers to Sahul 103 8 Sahul: A Pleistocene continent 113 9 The initial colonisation 130 10 The original Australians 147 11 Pleistocene settlement 172 12 Conquest of the deserts 190 13 Pleistocene artefacts 207 14 Holocene stone tool innovations 223 15 Theories and models: Explaining change 257 16 People of the coast 273 17 Regional challenges and responses 297 18 Island settlement 320 19 Tasmania 339 20 Art on rock 357 21 Rock art of temperate Australia 369 22 Rock art of tropical Australia 383 23 Asian and European newcomers 407 Glossary 425 Endnotes 429 References 441 Index 471 vii Figures and illustrations Members of the northern Queensland Djungan community visiting the Ngarrabullgan excavation in 1993 7 F. D. McCarthy studying rock engravings at Mount Cameron West, Tasmania, 1968 13 Lithic scatter on a wind deflated sand dune, South Keppel Island 20 Coastal midden deposits, eastern Tasmania 21 Cockle shell mounds at Weipa, Cape York 21 Kutikina limestone cave in the Franklin valley, southwest Tasmania 24 The Ngarrabullgan rockshelter on top of Mount Mulligan 24 Portion of extensive stone arrangements on a ceremonial ground near Carisbrook, Victoria 26 Koonalda Cave, a sinkhole in the karst limestone of the Nullarbor Plain 28 Grindstone quarry at Helen Springs (Kurutiti), Northern Territory 29 Wilgie Mia red ochre quarry in the Murchison region of Western Australia 30 One of five carved trees surrounding the grave of Yuranigh, who was buried in 1850 at Molong, New South Wales 33 Fish trap in the Darling River at Brewarrina, northwestern viii New South Wales 35 FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS ■ The cremation burial of a young woman occurred on Lake Mungo’s shore over 20,000 years ago, the world’s oldest known cremation 38 The 1963 excavations at Fromm’s Landing, Murray River, South Australia 41 Horsehoof core 46 Archaeologist Bruno David and scientist Bert Roberts collecting sediment samples for OSL dating, while plotting their location on section drawings of the Ngarrabullgan trench 51 Arnhem Land woman preparing waterlily-seed cakes 83 Aborigines at Coranderrk, Victoria, c. 1879, wearing possum- skin cloaks 90 Greenstone hatchet from the Ebenezer Aboriginal Mission in northwest Victoria 92 Mount William diabase quarry c. 1900 100 Two commonly used sea-level curves for the last glacial cycle 106 Extinct species of marsupial megafauna 123 Painting of a Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) and her pup, Kakadu National Park 125 Malakunanja rockshelter at the foot of an outlier from the sandstone escarpment, Kakadu National Park 141 Kow Swamp 5 skull 159 Thorne’s robust and gracile types of crania 160 Sangiran 17 cranium 160 Stratigraphic section of a trench at Devil’s Lair with dates through 30,000 years 177 Stratigraphy of Kutikina cave established occupation between about 20,000 and 15,000 years BP 183 Nunamira Cave, southwest Tasmania, during excavation in 1988 185 Pleistocene artefacts from Bone and Nunamira Caves 186 Stratigraphic cross-section of the southern end of the Lake Mungo lunette 196 Life at Lake Mungo about 30,000 years BP 198 Schematic section of Koonalda Cave 203 Bipolar core, retaining some pebble cortex 215 ix ■ PREHISTORY OF AUSTRALIA Pleistocene stone artefacts 218 Nawamoyn shelter, formed by a huge mass of sandstone which fell from the eroding Arnhem Land escarpment 220 Gambieran stone tools made from coastal flint 228 Microblade core, bondi points and geometric microliths 235 Thumbnail scrapers 236 Unifacially flaked points and bifacially flaked points 238 Tool-kit for making Kimberley points 240 Macroblades with resin grips collected in central Australia a century ago 241 Flaking spearheads at Ngilipitji quarry, eastern Arnhem Land, 1935 243 Drill from central Queensland and obliquely retouched blade from Boulia region, western Queensland 244 Juan knife from Queensland 245 Rectangular macroblade, Sleisbeck, and wood scraper, formerly hafted 246 Warlpiri man from Yuendumu using a tula adze mounted on a wooden handle, with characteristic two-handed grip 247 Tula adze flakes, in various degrees of wear 248 Pirri gravers and a pirri graver slug 250 Marni wadna stone engraving tool from the Lake Eyre region 251 Elouera with use-polish 253 Reniform slate scraper from Findon 255 Skeleton of a dingo dated to about 3000 years BP, excavated by John Mulvaney at Fromm’s Landing 259 Artificial channel dug by Aboriginal eel fishers at Toolondo, western Victoria 268 The ‘mini-hatchet’ found in a rockshelter near Oenpelli in 1948 279 Fish-hook file, turban shell blanks and fish-hooks from a rockshelter in Wattamolla Cove, Royal National Park, south of Sydney 285 Trident fish spear, collected by Captain Cook and Joseph x Banks at Kurnell in 1770 288 FIGURES AND ILLUSTRATIONS ■ Head of a death spear, with a single row of stone barbs 293 Taap saw-knife with three quartz teeth 295 Kodj hatchet from near Bunbury, Western Australia 296 Canoe of a sheet of eucalypt bark, typical of watercraft on still, inland waterways in southeastern Australia, c. 1879, Yarra River, Victoria 303 Australian watercraft 323 Sea-going canoe from Mabuiag 324 Tasmanian float canoe, originally sketched by C. A. Lesueur in 1802, near Schouten Island, eastern Tasmania 324 Tasmanian Aboriginal residents at Oyster Cove, photographed in 1858 by Bishop Nixon 341 Captain Cook offering gifts to men of the Nuenonne band on landing at Adventure Bay, Bruny Island, 29 January 1777 342 Stone scrapers excavated at Rocky Cape 347 West Point—intersecting trench excavations into the midden, 1964–65 350 Finger fluting in Koonalda Cave 366 The main engraved panel at Early Man Shelter, near Laura, Cape York, dated to older than 14,400 years 368 A weathered pavement of Panaramitee Style circle and track motifs, Ooraminna, central Australia 371 Emu with a clutch of eggs and
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