The Peopling of Australia and the New World Only modern Homo sapiens spread to the farthest reaches of the world into Siberia Australia New World North Central South America Remember this spread occurred during the Pleistocene the Ice Age When glaciation caused low sea levels allowing some land masses to be joined Spread of modern H sapiens Kottak 2005 Atlas The Indo Malaysian Archipelago contains two very different biogeographical regions The western islands onrich the Asian Sundaplacental Shelf Hence they supported Sumatra Java Bali and Borneo were joined mammal faunas and were colonized by Homo to each other and as to early the Asian mainland erectus perhaps as 1 8 mya by landbridges during glacial periods of low sea level Light colored areas indicate land exposed during glaciation www archaeology org The eastern islands Sulawesi Lombok Timor the Moluccas and the Philippines have never been linked by landbridges to either the Sunda Shelf or Australia or to each other They had limited mammal faunas chance arrivals from Asia and Australasia www archaeology org Although New Guinea Australia and Tasmania were joined into a single landmass called Sahul The colonizers of Australia still had to cross water in boats to reach this landmass The longest stretch would have been 43 54 miles Bednarik Hobman Rogers 1999 mc2 vicnet net au In 1998 the Nale Tasih 2 project used Middle Paleolithic stone tools to build this boat and sail it across the Timor Sea to Australia Settlement of Australia Earliest sites are along the coasts and along rivers into the interior Controversies 1 When was Australia settled 2 Was there one major wave of settlement or two Australia The earliest sites of 60 000 ya are in the north Controversy over how old only 40 000 Used radiocarbon dating for 40 000 yr old dates optical luminescence dating for 60 000 yr old dates Jinmium a sandstone rockshelter in the Northern Territory TL to date stone artifacts from lowest level at more than 116 000 years old Peter Bellwood www archaeology org Because the dates are from TL rather than the more accurate single grain optical luminescence many archaeologists question this claim If the Jinmium dates are correct it could be that archaic Homo once lived in Australia as they did throughout the rest of the tropical and temperate Old World Other northern sites with old dates 50 000 ya were dated by optically stimulated luminescence Malakunanja II Nauwalabila Among oldest burials in Australia 42 000 48 000 ya Mungo Man and Mungo Woman Willandra Lakes region Southeastern Australia Now dry lake beds then was lake where people fished collected shellfish and hunted small game Major drought began 40 000 ya Over 775 artifacts Mungo Woman was cremated the remaining bones smashed burned again and then buried Mungo Man s body was covered with red ochre prior to burial www cap nsw edu au Skeletal remains One skeleton from Mungo is very gracile Modern Australians have heavy brow ridges and are robust Was Australia populated by two waves of immigration Was first wave gracile and died out OR Did the gracile immigrants become more robust with time Summary of Peopling of Australia 1 Everyone agrees people arrived by 40 000 ya 2 Many agree they were there by 60 000 ya 3 Dates of over 100 000 ya very controversial 4 People had to use boats to reach Australia 5 First settlements were along northern coast then other coasts and along rivers into interior 6 Uncertain how many waves of migration
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