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Australia: The Land Where Time Began |
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Aboriginal Occupation - Tasmania (Flood, 2004) The Tasmanian Aboriginal People are the only surviving
human population who are known to have been isolated so completely by a
natural barrier from the rest of the world for about 10,500 years. Once
the land bridge joining Tasmania to the mainland had been flooded by the
rising sea the difficult nature of the 250 km wide Bass Strait, with
frequent storms and strong currents, as well as many submerged rocks
that made any sea crossing in primitive craft such as canoes, sea-going
or not, extremely dangerous and not likely to be attempted without good
reason. It is still recognised as a rough passage, it is
the connection between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with contributions
from the
Southern Ocean, the
conditions made worse by its depth, only about 50 m. The huge volumes of
water pushing through such a shallow section make for strong currents
and rough seas. All this is made even worse by powerful winds. In the
days of sail many ships were lost in it, often with no trace being
found. It has been said to be twice as wide and twice as rough as the
English Channel. As a result of this isolation new technology or
ideas couldn't be brought from the mainland, and as the dingo arrived
and spread across the mainland after the drowning of the land bridge, it
never reached Tasmania. It has been estimated on ethnographic data that the
population of Tasmania was about 3,000 - 5,000 at the time of the first
European contact. This has been disputed on biological grounds,
suggesting that such a small population inhabiting an island about
67,870 km2, about the size of Ireland would have undergone
genetic drift over a period of 10,000 years resulting in biological
divergence. An alternative suggestion is that the initial population at
the time Tasmania was first occupied, about 35,000 years ago, had risen
to a much higher level by natural increase by the time of isolation,
declining subsequently to the comparatively low level at the time of
European contact. Excavation of a number of occupation sites has
shown that the tool kit at the time of separation from the mainland was
very similar to that on the mainland. Tasmania is the most southerly part of the world
inhabited during the Ice Age. Glaciers were present on Tasmania's
mountains and icebergs would have drifted past its coasts from the
Antarctic, 1000 km further south. When sea level dropped as a result of
glaciations, a broad land bridge was exposed from early in the
Ice Age. It is thought the land connection would have been
available from about 60,000 BP, early in the Ice age, so was present
when the first Aboriginal People arrived in northern Australia. It lasted until
about 10,500 BP. So far the earliest occupation site in Tasmania
dates to a bit more than 35,000 BP. At least 4 other sites,
Nunamira, ORS 7, Palewardia
Walana Lanala, and
Bone Cave, all have dates of 30,000 BP or more. No doubt
there would have been occupation sites on the now-submerged land bridge
that could be even older. A feature of the Tasmanian cave occupation sites is
that at the start of occupation there is light, intermittent use of the
caves, especially during the period of the glacial maximum. Another
constant feature of these sites throughout the
Pleistocene is the constant
exploitation of the red-necked wallaby and marrow extraction. They
appear to have been red-necked wallaby specialists. It has now been shown that by 35,000 BP Aboriginal People
had developed a way of life that allowed them to live in the alpine
environment of upland Tasmania. At the
glacial maximum, about
18,000 BP, annual average temperatures were about 6o C lower
then present, and glaciers in Tasmania extended to 800 m above sea
level. The treeline was at least 235 m lower. The glacial Tasmanian
climate has been equated with that of the Australian Alps at Mt Hotham,
at 1862 m, of the present, but with shorter summers. In the times prior to, and at the height of, the
last glaciation the climate here was periglacial, sub Antarctic, but the
river valleys were free of big trees which made movement through them
much easier than when the rainforest became established by the end of
the Pleistocene. It had previously been suggested that the intermittent
nature of occupation in the highland caves of Tasmania was because they
were used during summer hunting expeditions. If they were actually
winter campsites, the occupants would be able to escape the worst of the
freezing conditions prevailing in the area in winter, and could explain
why the vast majority of prey seemed to come from a single species, the
red-necked rock wallaby, which would have been easily available to the
hunters. In some cave deposits emu eggshells have been
found. These are available only in spring and early summer, so they
could have varied their diet with the eggs while the weather was still
cold, before the conditions warmed up enough to move out for the summer.
It is possible they might have remained in the caves all year, but that
would require them to be comparatively sedentary and mean they hunted
only rock wallabies all the year. The inhabitants of
southwest Tasmania had a
more highly structured economy than any other part of Australia during
the Ice Age. The Pleistocene Tasmanian industry differs from that of
other Australian sites of this time.
Darwin glass was transported over 100 km, indicating a
probable trading network. There were also differences between the east
and west of Tasmania during Pleistocene times, showing the adaptability
of these people to changing environments. Changes in technology and
economy also occurred over time. In the lowest layers there is neither
Darwin glass nor thumbnail scrapers, and there is possibly an increase
in mobility, and land use patterns changed during and after the glacial
maximum. The finds from Pleistocene sites in marginal
climatic regions in Tasmania show a highly complex society. Pigmented
art shows the possibility of religious activity in the deep caves of
Tasmania. There are further indications of complex societies, with their
own distinctive archaeological signatures prior to the mid-Holocene when
changes were thought to have occurred. During the Pleistocene there was a wide variability
between the assemblages in the southwest and the southeast of Tasmania.
There were also cultural differences between the 2 areas. In the west,
temperate rainforest covered the fold structure of the southwest, with
its impenetrable horizontal forest. In the east there were dry
sclerophyll forests on the fault-structured geology. This pattern
differs from the concept of an Australia-wide Pleistocene culture and
technology that was uniform, simple and unchanging. By the end of the glaciation the link with the
mainland had been cut by rising sea levels. The inhabitants of southwest
Tasmania thrived though 20,000 years, the last 10,500 years in
isolation. The
Southwest The southwest of Tasmania has one of the last
remaining temperate wildernesses in the world and in it is some of the
densest rainforest in the world. At the time of European contact the
population of Tasmania was largely restricted to a narrow coastal belt
only a few hundred metres wide that they kept open with fire. Their main
food source was from the sea. They tended to travel along the coast
rather than inland, and only a couple of tracks through the rainforest
are known, as from Port Davey to the south coast. Little, if any,
occupation is known of in the wilderness of the southwest. The
horizontal scrub and the fast-flowing rivers would have been a
significant disincentive to try to penetrate inland, especially as they
lived so well on the coast. The rivers are still a problem for anyone
wanting to travel upstream in a boat; jet boats are required to overcome
the powerful flow. The first evidence of Aboriginal People in the rainforest
was found by accident, stone tools being found on the bank of the Gordon
River around the base of a fallen Nothofagus. The tree
roots had exposed the stone tools as they pulled out of the ground.
There was a quartz pebble core
with the flakes that had
been chipped from it scattered around it. The flakes fitted exactly with
the scars on the core, and they were still extremely sharp. 12 tools
were found, including a quartz hammerstone. Associated charcoal at this
site gave a disappointingly recent date of 300 +/- 150 years. The
Aboriginal People had at least traversed the area in recent times.
The next find, only 3 weeks later, was at
Kutikina Cave.
See
Aboriginal Occupation - Populating the Continent - Final Phase -
Tasmania
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Author: M.H.Monroe Email: admin@austhrutime.com Sources & Further reading |