![]() |
||||||||||||||
Australia: The Land Where Time Began |
||||||||||||||
Aboriginal Occupation of Greater Australia - the pattern of
colonisation beginning in the Late
Pleistocene
The dynamics of the settlement of Australia by
Aboriginal people, that took place prior to 30,000 BP, is not certain.
Smith (Source 1) gives several factors by which the direct
reconstruction of the way in which colonisation took place has been
constrained. The range and quantity of data derived from archaeology are
insufficient to determine distribution prior to about 30,000 BP, about
half way to the first arrival at about 60,000 BP. His second factor is
lack of precision of dating methods in this time period (Allen, 1994;
Allen & Holdaway, 1995; Roberts, Jones & Smith, 1994). Other sources of
data are often used to interpret archaeological evidence regarding the
colonisation of the continent. Smith suggests the first arrival of people in
Australia and New Guinea occurred at some time before 35,000 BP (Allen,
1989; Groube, et al., 1986; Pearce & Barbetti, 1981), and
probably between 50,000 and 60,000 BP (Roberts, Jones & Smith, 1990;
Roberts et al., 1994). He believes to reach Australia and New
Guinea it would have required people to make a crossing of the ocean of
a few days duration from the nearest islands of the Indo-Malaysian
Archipelago, also suggesting that the migration was equally likely to
have occurred as a steady trickle as a single discrete migration. The
first arrivals would have presumably been familiar with island and
tropical environments, and would have been using watercraft for some
time before making the crossing (Irwin, 1992). The first settlement of the coast, as well as
estuarine and riverine environment, would have been assisted by their
familiarity with the continuity of useful species of plant and marine
environments across Wallacia in northern Australia and New Guinea,
though the terrestrial fauna would have been different and unfamiliar.
People would have migrated to the east, remaining in the tropics as they
colonised the Bismarck Archipelago and the
Solomon Islands, both rich
in marine resources, though their terrestrial environments were
depauperate in both terrestrial plants and animals. When they moved to
the east or the south they would have been confronted by an environment
like nothing they had ever encountered before, such as the montane
regions of the cordillera in New Guinea, arid central Australia and in
Tasmania, the high latitude temperate environments. By 30,000 BP they
were thriving in all these disparate environments (Smith & Sharp, 1993).
For much of the time earlier than 30,000 BP, when
colonisation was taking place, the sea level was between 60 and 80 m
lower than at present (Chappell, 1994), and as the present islands of
New Guinea and Tasmania were both part of the single landmass of greater
Australia, the area of the continent was substantially larger than at
present, especially as there were also large areas of the continental
shelves around the margins, especially in the north-western (Sahul) part
of the continent, exposed by the lower sea level. Whenever the sea-level
dropped by 12 m or more dry land, or at least a shallow strait,
connected new Guinea to the Australian continent. When the sea level was
55 m or more below the present level the island of Tasmania was
connected to the southern margin of the main landmass of Australia by
the Bassian Rise. Following the revision of estimates of sea levels
(Chappell, 1994), it would have been possible for people to walk from
southern Australia to Tasmania any time between 60,000 BP and 10,000 BP. Dispersal patterns and processes According to Smith, there are 2 broad categories of
proposed scenarios, those that favour early dispersal across the
continent that took place rapidly, and those favouring slower, patchier
dispersal, with parts of the continent being occupied up to 10s of
thousands of years after the first arrivals on the shores of Greater
Australia. Several assumptions are made as the basis for
scenarios of rapid dispersal and occupation that include a very flexible
response to environmental conditions encountered, and a high intrinsic
population growth rate, that resulted in occupation of the continent
that was rapid. Some propose that the dispersal across large areas of
the interior followed the drainage systems (Birdsell, 1957; Mulvaney,
1961), such as those of the Murray-Darling Basin and the Lake Eyre
Basin, that between them cover a vast area of central Australia. As they
moved from the early arrival points in the north of the continent there
would have been a gradient in the vegetation cover of the land towards
the south, allowing the people to adjust gradually to changing plant
foods, as they gained ecological knowledge that eventually allowed them
to settle the arid interior (Golson, 1971). Quantitative models have
been constructed that show that it would be possible for the continent
to have filled to saturation, with a population of about 300,000 people,
(the estimated population current in 1957) in between 845 and 4134 years
after initial arrival (Birdsell, 1957). The estimated pre-contact
population has since been increased to about 750,000 (White and
Mulvaney, 1987). Key components in these proposed dispersals include
rapid demographic growth that drove dispersal, groups from the main
population centres moving to new areas when carrying capacity is
approached, a process in which social groups are replicated. Others have questioned these assumptions. It has
been suggested that the Aboriginal population may have grown slowly for
the first few millennia after first arrival (White & O'Connell, 1982:
46-54). Suggestions have been made that stochastic fluctuations affect
small founder populations (McArthur, Saunders & Tweedie, 1976). It has
also been suggested that the population growth rate could have been
reduced by the presence of endemic malaria in coastal lowlands in the
northernmost third of the continent (Groube, 1993). It has also been
suggested that if small groups continued arriving from Asia for several
millennia after the first landing it may have offset these factors. The
same results could have been achieved by the presence of several founder
populations along the north coast and western New Guinea. Even when
populations have growth rates that are almost stationary the population
grows substantially over 5,000-10,000 years. Selective parameters appear
to change when empty territory is available, rapid dispersal taking
place (Kitching, 1986; Stodart & Parer, 1988; Rindos & Webb, 1992).
Smith suggests small groups may have moved into new territory that had a
rich terrestrial fauna before the carrying capacity of their original
group was reached, possibly without replicating social formations. In
the desert areas some desert groups have historically managed to
maintain social and demographic units, even when the population density
is as low as 1/200 km2 (e.g. Long, 1971).
An alternative view was proposed according to which
some habitats, coastal or riverine zones, were preferentially occupied,
because of the lack of anything more than the barest capacity to adapt
to ecological conditions they had not previously encountered (Bowdler,
1977) or (Hallam, 1987; Horton, 1981). According to Smith, Bowdler
proposed the most influential of these models, suggesting the focus
would have been strongly on aquatic resources at the beginning of
colonisation, resulting in the groups being tied to littoral, lacustral
and riverine habitats, suggesting that it was not until 12,000-10,000 BP
that montane and desert regions were occupied. One of the key parts of
her suggestion is that after 15,000 BP lakes and rivers in semi-arid
areas of south-eastern Australia failed, such as occurred in the
Willandra region. According
to this scenario (See
Millet Harvesters), the
drying up of lakes, such as the Willandra lakes, forced the people to
rely on terrestrial food sources such as grass seeds and acacia seeds,
both of which are present in the ethnography of central Australia,
widespread settlement of inland arid areas becoming possible following
the glacial period as a result of the shift to terrestrial food sources.
According to Smith the arid zone is singled out in
a number of other models as a particularly problematic environment for
occupation (Horton, 1981, Veth, 1989), and it has been suggested that
woodland that was well watered would have been the preferred environment
for settlement, over both aquatic and desert environments, as a result
of a more flexible response towards the terrestrial environment than was
allowed in the model of Bowdler (Horton, 1981; Hallam, 1987). Potable
water availability was seen as a key factor in early occupation,
especially by Horton, who also suggests that the distribution of the
large megafauna were a guide to woodland that was well-watered in the
late Pleistocene, assuming at least some of the large herbivorous
megafauna were extant at the time of the first arrivals in
Australia. Rock art in the northwest of the continent and elsewhere have
been found that are believed to be of species of the megafauna. See
Megafauna and the Dreamtime,
Diprotodon optatum,
Giant Kangaroos of the Dreamtime
(Sthenurus),
Palorchestes azeal,
Quinkana,
Marsupial Lions. Smith says
that the context in which all these models were proposed has been
changed radically by archaeological work that has been carried out since
1977 (Allen et al., 1988; Allen, 1989; Bowdler, 1990a; Kiernan
et al., 1983; Smith, 1987; Cosgrove 1989). Models for the occupation
of the major continental dunefields that occurred late, about 5,000 BP,
have been proposed that are somewhat similar (Veth, 1989, 1995). A
common factor in these models is the special difficulties associated
with these regions that have
drainage that is
uncoordinated,
hummock grasslands and
dunefields, the suggestion being made that before these
dunefields could be occupied it was necessary to make adaptations, both
technological and social, in adjacent regions. Smith suggests the timeframe is a major problem for
all these proposed models, as he believed it was unlikely the people
took 10s of thousands of years to adapt to ecological conditions that
were either difficult of unfamiliar, especially in the light of
archaeological evidence indicating that habitats such as montane (Gillieson
& Mountain, 1983; Mountain, 1993; White, Crook & Ruxton, 1970) and arid
(Maynard, 1980; Smith, 1987, 1989) where exploited long before 14,000
BP, and it is now apparent that terrestrial-based economies were
operating prior to this time in a number of places across Australia
(e.g. Bowdler, 1990b; Cosgrove, 1989; Kiernan, Jones & Ranson, 1983). Smith says these arguments risk confusing dispersal
with optimisation strategies (see Rindos & Webb, 1992), suggesting that
optimal adaptation to the local environment, and population densities
that are comparable to ethnohistoric levels, need not occur at the time
of the initial settlement. Smith believes the case for the initial
occupation of these regions taking place in the Holocene because of the
requirement for adaptations, economic and social, before they
could be occupied, is overstated by Veth, (1989) (Smith, 1993). This
model was later recast (Veth, 1995), shifting emphasis more on to areas
where the drainage systems were uncoordinated, though according to Smith
it is 'clearly at odds with archaeological evidence' here (Cane, 1995;
Gould, 1977; Martin, 1973; Wright, 1971; Smith, 1987, 1989). According
to Smith, the picture of the settlement of deserts has changed rapidly
following the finding of clear evidence of the use of sandy deserts
during the Pleistocene, indicating that the chronological framework at
least needs to be recalibrated (Smith et al., 1991; Veth
et al.,
1990; Veth, 1995; Veth & O'Connor, 1996). Major time lags between the coastal region
occupation and that of the continental interior are believed by Smith to
be unlikely (Source 1). It is difficult to model the growth of
population because of the linear configuration of the coastal zone
without concluding that some movement into the interior took place long
before the populating of the coastal zone of the continent was complete
(White & O'Connell, 1982, Fig. 3.7). Westward movement around the margin
of the continent would be expected to have required adaptation at an
early stage to arid conditions, as the continental western coast is
arid, as well as less emphasis on littoral resources (Nicholson & Cane,
1994; White & O’Connell, 1982: 52). If a suggestion about the presence
of malaria in northern and swamp regions is correct (Groube, 1993),
groups moving inland would have been free to grow and disperse while
those in the malaria infested areas would have been slowed down. It has
also been suggested that larger territories would be needed, as a result
of reduced carrying capacity in arid areas, higher dispersal rates also
resulting in these areas (Birdsell, 1957). This has been confirmed by
studies of rabbits, which have spread throughout arid and semi-arid
regions at 100 km/y, those in coastal and forest habitats spreading at
10-15 km/y (Stodart & Pared, 1988). Continental colonisation - archaeological
evidence Smith suggests that because of the remoteness of
the time of first arrival there are problems with the archaeology and
the chronological resolution of this event. These problems make it
difficult to investigate the pattern and rate of settlement, only in the
very broadest terms being possible. According to Smith, current data
[1998] suggest that all parts of the continent had been occupied by
15,000-10,000 BP, though in places, such as south-western Tasmania, the
New Guinea Highlands and parts of the arid interior, did not have a
record of continuous occupation at the time of writing, 1998. High latitude regions In Tasmania, the southwest region that is densely
forested, has produced a number of finds such as
Beginners Luck Cave (Murray
et al., 1980),
Kutikina Cave (Fraser Cave) (Kiernan
et al., 1983) and
Nunamira Cave (Bluff Cave)
(Cosgrove, 1989) that demonstrate that the region has one of the richest
records in Australia of occupation during the Pleistocene that begins
about 35,000 BP. The occupation sites were being used at a time when the
region, on the extreme southern margin of the continent, was vegetated
by exposed alpine grasslands. The oldest date of 35,000 BP was
obtained from
Warreen Cave in
south-western Tasmania. These early dates for occupation in the
Tasmanian southwest indicated that humans were exploiting highland and
extremely high-latitude regions much earlier than expected, causing
problems for the previous models of the occupation of Australia. The
archaeological evidence apparently shows that the region was occupied
continuously throughout the last glacial period, when the largest
Tasmanian ice sheet existed. These sites also provided evidence for a
much richer fauna, dominated by small macropods, than had been expected,
prompting Bowdler (1990a) to reassess her coastal colonisation model,
conceding that the evidence showed that adaptation to the exploitation
of terrestrial resources had occurred much earlier than she had
believed. The occupation sites of Tasmania, 1 of only a few
parts of Australia to provide an opportunity to test the proposals of
speed of colonisation of the continent. At
Parmerpar Meethaner a
sterile layer is present that has been dated to about 40,000 BP, the
earliest occupation layer having been dated to about 34,000 BP
(Cosgrove, 1995). Cosgrove suggested that this has put the time of
arrival of people in Tasmania at about 34,000 BP. If the excavator is
correct it would suggest that there was a large time lag, of about
20,000 years between the time of the earliest arrival in northern
Australia and the arrival of the first people in Tasmania. As it is not
known how long the sterile layer took to accumulate it is not certain if
this actually brackets the earliest arrival in the region, if it took a
relatively short time to form it would suggest that the earliest time of
arrival has not been effectively bracketed. Deserts Archaeological evidence for occupation of arid
areas was interpreted as opportunistic use of the upper reaches of
coastal catchments or the landward section of coastal territories, when
the dates obtained were of Late Pleistocene age (Bowdler, 1977). This
interpretation was based on evidence from such sites as the
Newman Site in the
Pilbara dated to 21,000 BP
(Maynard, 1980), and on the
Nullarbor Plain,
Koonalda Cave, 22,000 BP, (Wright, 1971and
Allens Cave (N145), more than 20,000 BP (Martin, 1973).
Puritjarra Rockshelter (Smith, 1987, 1989; Smith
et al.,
in press in 1998) that has been dated to about 35,000 BP provided
archaeological evidence of the early occupation of the arid central
regions of the Australian continent. Later finds in the
arid zone are such sites as
the
JSN site (14,400 BP (Smith
et al., 1991) in the
dunefields of the
Strzelecki Desert (see
Australian Archaeological Sites),
Cuckadoo 1 Rockshelter,
15,000 BP (Davidson et al., 1993),
Katumpul, about 22,000
BP (Veth, 1995: 36) in the Laverton region and at
Serpent's Glen, about
24,000 BP (Veth & O'Connor, 1996). According to Smith the remaining
evidence, though sparse, indicates that the arid interior of the
continent was already being exploited over widespread areas in the Late
Pleistocene, from at least 30,000 BP. The
Little Sandy Desert (Veth & O'Connor, 1996) has provided more
recent evidence, dates that the Pleistocene occupation pattern included
some of the more arid areas of Australia that included the major
continental
dunefields. It has been suggested that this
represents a form of opportunistic use of the arid zone (Bowdler, 1990a;
Veth, 1995) and not a fully operating system (c.f. Smith, 1989). As more
recent evidence accumulates Smith says it has become more difficult to
maintain the interpretation of the evidence as possibly indicating
opportunistic use of the arid zone. The initial occupation of these sites had been
believed to be controlled by their adaptation to new plant resources,
mainly grass seeds and acacia seeds. The archaeological evidence is not
consistent with this being the case, seed-grinding implements that are
identifiable not being found until about 4,000-3,000 BP, suggesting that
these plant foods were not the first resources to be exploited in the
arid regions (Smith, 1986). Though direct evidence of prehistoric
subsistence is rare, the faunal assemblages at the
Silver Dollar Site, 25,000
BP, in which macropods and emu egg shells predominate, suggest the early
adjustments were to these resources (Bowdler, 1990b). Small macropods
also dominate the rich faunal assemblage found in Allens Cave (Cane,
1995) on the Nullarbor Plain where the occupation extends to about
39,000 BP. An early adaptation to very arid regions is demonstrated by
the sites on the Nullarbor Plain, occupation at Allens Cave apparently
continuing throughout the
last glacial maximum, at
which time the site was on a vast arid inland plain, situated on a
saltbush steppe. Situated in the south-eastern sector of the arid
zone, Karolta has been reported to have been dated to about
30,000 BP, based on cation ratio assays and AMS radiocarbon dating of
charcoal that was embedded in rock varnish (Dorn
et al., 1988;
Dorn & Nobbs, 1992). If these dates are confirmed it would strengthen
the argument that fully operating regional systems were established
early in the colonisation of the arid zone. Islands See
Archaeology of Sahul or Greater
Australia - Melanesian Lowlands Conclusion Smith's conclusion is that the initial settlement
of the coastal and riverine environments of northern Sahul probably took
a few thousand years, and included the movement of people to the large
islands to northern Melanesia, possibly involving deliberate as opposed
to accidental voyaging. He also concludes that the northern Australian
savannahs and those of the Sahul Shelf were probably widely occupied
before the colonisation of the coastal environments was complete. He
suggests that settlement began slowly, becoming more rapid over time,
the drier climates of the interior leading to better health of the
people in those regions that allowed more rapid dispersal, and the
larger territories that were necessary to support each of these groups
in the interior. Smith suggests similar factors may have operated in the
colonisation of the central Cordillera of New Guinea, the richest
terrestrial fauna being found in the montane forests and alpine
habitats, with the added benefit of relief from malaria in the cooler
climates. He suggests that the northern and eastern
coastlines of Australia, with their rich coastal habitats, probably
promoted rapid selective settlement. On the west and northwest coasts
the arid littoral zone probably promoted a move to exploitation of
terrestrial resources at an early stage of colonisation, as part of a
broad spectrum mixed economy. He suggests settlement of the arid zone
may have taken place within a few thousand years of the first arrivals
in Australia, though populations in the deserts have probably always
been low and widely dispersed, and subject to the vagaries of the
erratic climate of these regions. The last parts of the continent to be
occupied may have been the major Australian deserts, both sand ridge and
stony deserts, or at least the last places to have an established fully
operating regional system, though he says it is uncertain if the
colonisation of these arid areas lagged behind the colonisation of the
northern savannahs by 10s of thousands of years. In Tasmania, the high latitude temperate habitats
were occupied at an early stage, based on the available archaeological
evidence it appears that Tasmania was first occupied about 35,000 BP,
though he considered the dates of 35,000 BP for both Tasmania and New
Ireland to be difficult to reconcile with other archaeological evidence
that indicates that Greater Australia was first occupied about
50,000-60,000 BP. He believes lags of 10s of thousands of years are
unlikely to be correct. See
Stone Tools
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Author: M.H.Monroe Email: admin@austhrutime.com Sources & Further reading |