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Australian Archaeology

There's a very interesting point here with respect to what does or doesn't constitute 'civilization'. As Pietro_Mercurios pointed out, there's a more or less stable set of criteria that's been used to date. These criteria, one must note, were assembled by and reflective of the societies whose members enumerated them - making them as much an exercise in self-anointment as clear-eyed analysis.

The classic criteria are all based on coordinated collective artifice as manifested within the retrospective horizon recognized by proto-Western culture at the time of self-anointment (i.e., only as far back in time as, for example, ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt). In other words, the criteria for 'civilization' reflected key elements of those specimens which (a) the criteria-setters recognized from a limited set of historical precedents and (b) reflected what the criteria-setters took to underpin their own self-ascribed status as 'civilized'.

More recent discoveries and analyses have challenged the black / white distinction imposed by these classical criteria. For example, there's a school of thought which claims the Mayan 'civilization' represented localized city-nodes which only loosely coordinated / controlled a relatively decentralized, and much broader, network of 'non-agricultural / non-urbanized' populations. More pointedly, the evidence to date seems to indicate the megalithic ritual center of Göbekli Tepe was sustained by pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer populations.

My point is that the classical benchmark for ascribing 'civilization' is self-serving, based on an obsolete limited viewpoint, and in need of re-thinking. I'm not claiming the classical 'Big 3' characterization is bogus per se. I'm only claiming it needs to be contextualized in a classification schema that affords more shades or levels than the simplistic black / white dichotomy the West has embraced for some time now.
 
EnolaGaia said:
There's a very interesting point here with respect to what does or doesn't constitute 'civilization'. As Pietro_Mercurios pointed out, there's a more or less stable set of criteria that's been used to date. These criteria, one must note, were assembled by and reflective of the societies whose members enumerated them - making them as much an exercise in self-anointment as clear-eyed analysis.

The classic criteria are all based on coordinated collective artifice as manifested within the retrospective horizon recognized by proto-Western culture at the time of self-anointment (i.e., only as far back in time as, for example, ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt). In other words, the criteria for 'civilization' reflected key elements of those specimens which (a) the criteria-setters recognized from a limited set of historical precedents and (b) reflected what the criteria-setters took to underpin their own self-ascribed status as 'civilized'.

More recent discoveries and analyses have challenged the black / white distinction imposed by these classical criteria. For example, there's a school of thought which claims the Mayan 'civilization' represented localized city-nodes which only loosely coordinated / controlled a relatively decentralized, and much broader, network of 'non-agricultural / non-urbanized' populations. More pointedly, the evidence to date seems to indicate the megalithic ritual center of Göbekli Tepe was sustained by pre-agricultural hunter-gatherer populations.

My point is that the classical benchmark for ascribing 'civilization' is self-serving, based on an obsolete limited viewpoint, and in need of re-thinking. I'm not claiming the classical 'Big 3' characterization is bogus per se. I'm only claiming it needs to be contextualized in a classification schema that affords more shades or levels than the simplistic black / white dichotomy the West has embraced for some time now.
Fascinating.

Which 'school of thought' is claiming that Mayan culture was, "loosely coordinated" and "controlled a relatively decentralized, and much broader, network of 'non-agricultural / non-urbanized' populations."? How would this put them outside the conventional classification for what constitutes a civilisation? Also, to what extent would this offset the fact that, at the height of their culture, not only did the Mayans practice agriculture, but they also appear to have managed to maintain a high population density through the careful application of highly organised water management strategies?

Are you suggesting that my post, about what I consider to be an inexact use of the term 'civilisation', was incorrect, or that it displayed a "proto-Western" bias?

Would you care to expand on your claims, perhaps with some sources, quotes and links?
 
As I stated, my point is that an ascription of 'civilization' is probably more reasonably construed as something involving a cumulative accretion of features rather than a simple threshold governed by a fixed set of post-hoc (and arguably prejudiced) characteristics.

Insofar as most of my library (and all the electronic files on 5 of my 6 computers) were lost in a residential fire circa 3 months ago, I can only work from memory. As I recall, it was during the late 1980's or early 1990's that some archaeologists proposed the Mayan 'civilization' hadn't been (or at least hadn't always been) characterized by populations localized in the 'city' complexes, and that during its formative phases the Mayan culture had operated as a loose-knit distributed network coordinated from what were ostensibly ceremonial / administrative centers (as contrasted with full-fledged 'cities'). As I remember it, this proposal was put forward in the context of explaining the Mayan collapse - in effect claiming much of the participant population wasn't tied to the known cities at all, and it was only the urbanized 'tip of the loosely integrated iceberg' which underwent a catastrophic fall.
 
EnolaGaia said:
As I stated, my point is that an ascription of 'civilization' is probably more reasonably construed as something involving a cumulative accretion of features rather than a simple threshold governed by a fixed set of post-hoc (and arguably prejudiced) characteristics.

...
Is this just your own opinion, or are you referencing a particular school of thought? Are you suggesting that, by these criteria, the original indigenous peoples of Australia can be considered to have had a civilisation after all? Albeit one without actual cities, or evidence of settled urban culture.

Would this mean that the term, 'civilisation', has been rendered essentially meaningless?
 
No ... I'm only claiming it may not be reasonable to judge all cultures' relative status with respect to a single threshold. I'm suggesting that some cultures *may* have been operating in a manner somewhere 'beyond' the simple hunter-gatherer level, yet still not as functionally integrated as our Western-set threshold would demand for qualification as a 'civilization'. All I'm saying is that the black / white distinction that's held sway for so long is probably too simplistic.
 
To me, 'civilisation' suggests the Latin term, 'civis', the Roman for citizen. The same root as for city. Call me old fashioned, pedantic, or politically incorrect, if you will. Whatever other implied baggage the word carries, its use to describe a culture without cities, or some sort of settled urban infrastructure, just seems wrong to me.
 
I'm not going to call you any of those things! ;)

I don't have any problem with reserving the term 'civilization' for any society manifesting the three classical Grand Criteria.

... So long as we adequately accommodate / name the sort of grey area(s) or phase(s) through which any such society passed to get to that status. I'm quite confident there was a progression involved, and classically-defined 'civilizations' didn't just appear overnight.
 
Aboriginal rock art may depict first sea arrivals
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/ ... rivals.htm
BY:AMY MIDDLETON WITH AAP | AUGUST-2-2013

Ancient rock paintings discovered on an Australian Geographic expedition offer a new view of history.

Rock art discovered on an island off the NT may depict the first Europeans to arrive in Australia. (Credit: Mike Owen)

)
AN EXPEDITION TO A REMOTE Northern Territory island has uncovered rare indigenous rock art that could depict the first seafarers to reach Australian shores.

The artworks show vessels which may pre-date the arrival of Dutch explorers in the 17th century, as well as a steamship, and figures wearing hats and trousers.

The seven-day expedition, sponsored by the Australian Geographic Society, headed to the Wessel Islands last month where five 1000-year-old African copper coins were discovered by a RAAF serviceman in 1944.

Ancient rock paintings reveal early ships

The expedition team, led by Professor Ian McIntosh, an Australian anthropologist at Indiana University in the US, searched the island for clues, eventually coming upon several caves filled with the Aboriginal rock paintings.

Among whales, snakes and fish, the ancient but as yet un-dated art depicts white men with trousers and guns, as well as many ships of different sizes.

Mike Owen, expedition leader and heritage consultant in Darwin, NT, says the find is “spectacular”, adding that the most fascinating artwork depicts a dedicated steamship with a visible propeller.


Figures wearing hats and trousers are depicted among the artwork. (Credit: Mike Owen)
“There are numerous vessels of diverse configuration, including a nice little pearling lugger,” Mike told Australian Geographic. “To date no-one has reported ever seeing a ship with a propeller in cave art before, so it could be most important.”

The rock paintings, together with the coins from the ancient African kingdom of Kilwa, have led to speculation that the northern parts of Australia may have been visited by seafarers before 1606, when Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon became the first known European to reach Australian shores.

Wessel Islands discovery could rewrite history

The expedition also found a piece of timber believed to be deck bracing for an old sailing ship. Though it is yet to be dated, the timber could support the theory of a shipwreck during which the coins washed ashore.

Tim Stone, the group’s geomorphologist, speculates the coins could be from an Arab ship, similar to a wreck discovered off Sumatra in 1998. Tim adds the coins could also be "from a Portuguese ship, as it is possible that they were making contact with Aborigines in the north and may have had Kilwa coins in their possession after destroying the African kingdom in 1505.”

Supporting the shipwreck theory, Mike says one vessel appears to be on rocks with “her back broken, which explains how the artist knew that there was a propeller below the waterline.”

“As it stands there are still many questions yet to be answered,” says Mike. “We have certainly refined the questions and will soon be in a position to report back.”

A full report from this expedition will appear in the Australian Geographic print edition in early 2014
 
More strange coin finds...

How did medieval coins from East Africa end up on a remote island off the Northern Territory?

There is a slender island off Australia's northern coast, a place of taboo and old grief, where the wind blows hard and crocodiles swim in the warm sea. An island of sharp rock and pale sand, of paperbark swamps and swarming green ants, deserted now but still home to the sacred places of the Yolngu Aboriginal people of north-east Arnhem Land who once lived there. The walls of their hidden caves are vivid with red and yellow drawings of ships and strangers, of sails and guns, archives of a crowded history. It is a lonely island, 11 rough hours' sailing from the mainland, where 69 years ago a young serviceman from Sydney walked along the beach and felt something small and hard underfoot. In the sand were four worn coins, nearby, five more. He picked them up, put them in a tobacco tin and took them home. Then he forgot about them.

Many years after Morry Isenberg arrived home from Marchinbar Island, where he was part of a RAAF radar unit during World War II, he remembered that tin. He had the coins valued, was assured they were worthless and, disappointed, donated them to a museum, where they disappeared into storage again. But before he handed them over, four of the nine were identified as 17th- and 18th-century Dutch coins. Similar coins had been found in Australia before. The other five, though, were far stranger - coins minted up to 1000 years ago in a fabled medieval city state on a remote East African island. Only two others have ever been found outside East Africa. And yet somehow, inexplicably, here were five of them, scattered on an empty beach thousands of kilometres away across the Indian Ocean.

The conundrum of how coins from the island sultanate of Kilwa Kisiwani, off the coast of modern-day Tanzania, could possibly journey to the island of Marchinbar, off the coast of the Northern Territory, captivates and confounds everyone who hears of them. Australian anthropologist Ian McIntosh has been trying to explore Marchinbar ever since he first learnt of the coins almost 30 years ago.
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In July, armed with Isenberg's original map, the 56-year-old finally succeeded, leading the first expedition to Marchinbar, where he and six others combed the island feverishly for a week. Though they didn't find any ancient coins, the team returned with a haul of intriguing shipwreck debris, along with news of rock art depicting numerous different types of ships.

It's still unclear whether the Kilwa and Dutch coins arrived on the island together, perhaps carried as a sailor's precious talisman lost at sea or given as trinkets to Yolngu by seafarers. Some speculate, more explosively, that the Kilwa coins arrived much earlier, and hint at far earlier contact with Australia, perhaps pre-dating the official European discovery of Australia 400 years ago. "A Kilwa coin in Kilwa is not worth much," says McIntosh. "But a Kilwa coin in Arnhem Land is priceless for what it might tell us about our past."

The five African coins he found are about the size of a dollar coin and very thin, their edges nibbled by time. Their worn surfaces record the names of sultans and have pious, rhyming inscriptions flowing from front to back - "Ali son of al-Hasan trusts in the Master of Bounties" reads one in translation. Made of lowly copper, they would most likely have been small change on Kilwa, where they still wash up on the beaches, says Adelaide-based archaeologist and East African coinage specialist John Perkins.

The coins are a mix of ages, likely to date from the late 11th century up to 1340, depending on which sultan they were minted for, says Perkins, and were never intended for foreign trade or travel. Only two others have been found elsewhere, in Oman and Zimbabwe. Notes Perkins, "To find coins which do not travel in one of the most remote places on Earth? You couldn't make that up."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/out-of-a ... z2f0uQXcfl
 
'Asian Neanderthals' may have occupied Australia

NEANDERTHAL peoples' Asian cousins occupied the islands of our nearest neighbours and possibly Australia itself, scientists believe.

Writing today in the journal Science, Adelaide University archaeologist Alan Cooper argues that the Denisovans – Neanderthal-like relatives of ancient humans – crossed Wallace’s Line, one of the world’s most formidable marine barriers, more than 100,000 years ago.

Having achieved this feat, it would be “amazing” if they had not made what was then an easy crossing to Australia. “If you cross Wallace’s Line you’ve done all the hard work,” Professor Cooper told The Australian.

The Denisovans were unknown before a finger bone and some teeth were discovered in a Siberian cave in 2008. Scientists believe they outnumbered the Neanderthals and lived throughout Asia.

Traces of their DNA exist in modern humans, leading to the assumption that the two groups interbred in Asia. But Professor Cooper said genetic evidence of interbreeding had only been found in indigenous populations of New Guinea, Australia and nearby areas.

This suggested it had occurred on the Australian side of Wallace’s Line, a powerful marine current east of Borneo and Bali which marks a natural boundary between Eurasian and Australasian species.

Given that humans and their relatives originated in Africa, Denisovans would have had to find a way of crossing Wallace’s Line. Professor Cooper said most archaeologists would not have given Denisovans credit for using watercraft in the first place.

But they, like their Neanderthal cousins, had been underrated. “Neanderthal doesn’t mean a cave man with a big club and Raquel Welch. (They were) probably much more akin to modern humans than we’ve been thinking.”

While no Denisovan remains have been found so far in Australia – or anywhere outside Siberia’s Altai Mountains – Professor Cooper said such discoveries could be just around the corner. Australia’s heat and humidity are not ideal for preserving fossils, but the region has not been “done over” by archaeologists like Europe and the Middle East.

Professor Cooper highlighted Australian scientists’ discovery of the “hobbits” in Flores ten years ago. “It indicates how little we know and how much more there is to find.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher- ... 6741814927
 
The roo that could rewrite history

A tiny drawing of a kangaroo curled in the letters of a 16th century Portuguese manuscript could rewrite Australian history.

The document, acquired by Les Enluminures Gallery in New York, shows a carefully-drawn sketch of kangaroo (know as a ''canguru'' in Portuguese) nestled in its text and is dated between 1580 and 1620. It has led researchers to believe images of the marsupial were already being circulated by the time the Dutch ship Duyfken - long thought to have been the first European vessel to dock in Australia - landed in 1606.

The pocket-sized manuscript, known as a Processional, contains text and music for a liturgical procession and is inscribed with the name Caterina de Carvalho, believed to be a nun from Caldas da Rainha in western Portugal.

The European discovery of Australia has officially been credited to the Dutch voyage headed by Willem Janszoon in 1606, but historians have suggested the country may already have been explored by other Western Europeans.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/boo ... z2qVQcvyzO
 
If civilization is indicated by urbanity and town planning, then yes, the Australian Aboriginal had none, but if civilization meant an acclaimed genesis, a knowledge and study of the stars, a well regulated legal system, an oral history, stone huts, pictographic means of communication among other things, then the Australian Aboriginal, as far as I'm concerned had civilisation.

"
Aboriginal stone architecture is part of a range of Indigenous stone engineering structures that were built. These include stone-walled fish traps in the sea and rivers, weirs, canals, ovens and ceremonial stone layouts on the ground. Naturally-occurring stone caves and rock overhangs were also used for shelter, although these were usually used for other activities than camping.

Stone houses were seen in the Australian Alps and flat slab slate-type stone houses were described in the north-east of South Australia, built as a dome on heavy limbs with heavy clay to fill the gaps (Basedow 1925, p. 103).

In the Warringah area, north of Port Jackson, Sydney, stone shelters were built in an elongated egg shape with clay infill to keep out groundwater to prevent flooding. A hole was made in the roof to let smoke out and an animal hide was used to keep out the rain. They were lined with fern, grasses and paperbark. Possum skin rugs were also used. The same shelter would be used by the same family for many years (Foley 2001, pp. 186-7).

Western Victorian lava-stone structures
The abundance of basalt stones and rocks around Lake Condah allowed the Gunditjmara people to develop complex stone structures. These structures included not only houses but also eel traps based on a complex system of creeks, ponds, weirs, traps and gates. Local groups owned different estates including eel traps and other structures like a village, which were passed on to descendants.

This area was included on the National Heritage List in 2005 as part of the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape - external site. It contains the only remaining permanent houses built by an Indigenous community in Australia.

Stone structures like those at lake Condah have also been found across south-western Victoria. Windbreaks were formed of stone as well as roofed storehouses in the Eumeralla River region, Lake Condah and around Mt Eccles."
 
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If Cilla Black was alive and reading Mungo's post, she would be having a Lava, Lava fun right now.


Arf Arf! Humour!

The Old Ones from down there have a myth of a giant who made ovens by digging in the ground, but they kept going out because water would eventually pour in.

He made 4 of these ovens, got the Edgar Britts when they all went out and then left the area. The area of Mt Gambier has 4 old volcanoes there, with all of them being filled with water until the 1960's - there are now only two of them with water.

One of these lakes changes colour overnight to a deep blue

Blue-Lake.jpg


The last eruption was supposedly, 6 thousand years ago - prior to that 28 thousand years ago. oral tradition is a fine thing - no chinese whispers here!
 
Arf Arf! Humour!

The Old Ones from down there have a myth of a giant who made ovens by digging in the ground, but they kept going out because water would eventually pour in.

He made 4 of these ovens, got the Edgar Britts when they all went out and then left the area. The area of Mt Gambier has 4 old volcanoes there, with all of them being filled with water until the 1960's - there are now only two of them with water.

One of these lakes changes colour overnight to a deep blue

View attachment 1025

The last eruption was supposedly, 6 thousand years ago - prior to that 28 thousand years ago. oral tradition is a fine thing - no chinese whispers here!

The closest thing that resembles that a few miles from home is this.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pleasley Vale, Mansfield, Derbyshire NG19, UK/@53.1777645,-1.2031639,242m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x487997c565e229b5:0x70ecba6c40ac1a1e

I only share that here because on a hot day the water shines a vibrant turquoise that is so seductive.
 
The history gets backdated all the time - interesting.

Aboriginal archaeological discovery in Kakadu rewrites the history of Australia

Jabiru, Northern Territory: Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for a minimum of 65,000 years, a team of archaeologists has established - 18,000 years longer than had been proved previously and at least 5000 years longer than had been speculated by the most optimistic researchers.

The world-first finding, which follows years of archaeological digging in an ancient camp-site beneath a sandstone rock shelter within the Jabiluka mining lease in Kakadu, Northern Territory, drastically alters the known history of the trek out of Africa by modern humans, according to the leader of the international team of archaeologists, associate professor Chris Clarkson of the University of Queensland.

Among the trove of discoveries are the world's oldest stone axes with polished and sharpened edges, proving that the earliest Australians were among the most sophisticated tool-makers of their time: no other culture had such axes for another 20,000 years.[/qupte]

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sc...the-history-of-australia-20170719-gxe3qy.html
 
True - but they were on the West Coast and this skull was found on the East Coast. And that's a pretty looooong walk... Especially for a European without any survival skills in the Outback.

The artifact could have followed the trade routes?
 
The history gets backdated all the time - interesting.

I was wondering how they dated this. According to the report it was by:

using advanced single-grain optically-stimulated luminescence dating techniques.

Earlier digs at the site, known as Madjedbebe, stretch back to the 1970s. But carbon dating and earlier methods of luminescence dating were unable to establish that occupation had extended beyond 47,000 years.

I'm left wondering how accurate the advanced single-grain optically-stimulated luminescence technique is.
 
That so-called 'civilized' people visited Australia in the first millenium before Christ, is strongly indicated by Chinese records telling of a solar eclipse that occured in the 500's BCE. As I understand it astronomical records bear this out. The eclipse in question was only visible in Australia. So how did the Chinese know about it?
 
That so-called 'civilized' people visited Australia in the first millenium before Christ, is strongly indicated by Chinese records telling of a solar eclipse that occured in the 500's BCE. As I understand it astronomical records bear this out. The eclipse in question was only visible in Australia. So how did the Chinese know about it?
The Chinese know everything.
 
That so-called 'civilized' people visited Australia in the first millenium before Christ, is strongly indicated by Chinese records telling of a solar eclipse that occured in the 500's BCE. As I understand it astronomical records bear this out. The eclipse in question was only visible in Australia. So how did the Chinese know about it?

The terrestrial track (path along which a solar eclipse event is at least partially visible) can extend for quite some distance in length and breadth. You need to specify which eclipse is at issue in this case, because there were many eclipses during the 6th century BC. Here's a list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_6th_century_BC

There's another explanatory angle ... Chinese astronomers were consistently logging eclipse events two centuries earlier, and surviving documentation as far back as the 4th century BC describes how to predict solar and lunar eclipses. It's entirely possible the Chinese records to which you refer (whatever they are ... ) represent tables of predicted events, including ones not necessarily visible from China.
 
That so-called 'civilized' people visited Australia in the first millenium before Christ, is strongly indicated by Chinese records telling of a solar eclipse that occured in the 500's BCE. As I understand it astronomical records bear this out. The eclipse in question was only visible in Australia. So how did the Chinese know about it?

They had restaurants there at the time.
 
The terrestrial track (path along which a solar eclipse event is at least partially visible) can extend for quite some distance in length and breadth. You need to specify which eclipse is at issue in this case, because there were many eclipses during the 6th century BC. Here's a list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_6th_century_BC

There's another explanatory angle ... Chinese astronomers were consistently logging eclipse events two centuries earlier, and surviving documentation as far back as the 4th century BC describes how to predict solar and lunar eclipses. It's entirely possible the Chinese records to which you refer (whatever they are ... ) represent tables of predicted events, including ones not necessarily visible from China.
I'll do some checking, as I can't back it up right at the moment, but I know I saw something about an eclipse in Australia in one of my Fortean books. I might not have the date right but there were referennces to a vast land to the south. The writer identified this southern land as Australia.

Anyway, like I say, I'll do some checking.
 
Casting new light on a dark chapter in Austalia's history.

For almost a century, the people of the Kutjungka region of WA have passed on the testimony of massacres of their ancestors at Sturt Creek.

Now Flinders University researchers have found scientific evidence that indicates bodies of Aboriginal victims in the southeast Kimberley region were frequently incinerated following the event.

Working with oral testimony of the descent group, which originated from a sole adult survivor of the massacre, archaeological surveys defined two distinct sites containing thousands of bone fragments.

In a world first, X-ray diffraction analysis of bone fragments has been used to interpret a massacre site. The analysis, conducted by CSIRO, confirmed the fragments had been subjected to high temperatures.

The 16 samples of bone fragments tested in the laboratory showed sharp hydroxyapatite peaks (crystallite sizes 9882 nanometres and 597nm respectively) and had been subjected to extreme temperatures of 600°C for more than 80 hours, 650°C for more than 20 hours, 700°C for more than 4 hours and 800°C for more than 1 hour.

"The oral testimonies were that people were shot and burnt," says Dr Pamela Smith from Flinders University Archaeology. ...

Read more at https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blog...rensics-investigates.html#bulv2sFyFgmos4Tp.99
 
A nice write up of that seminal moment:

Finding Mungo Man: the moment Australia's story suddenly changed

Late in his ninth decade and conscious the sands of his time may be too diminished to finish all he should, Jim Bowler speaks at night to the ancient Aboriginal person who has defined his life, Mungo Man.
Geologist Bowler – snowy-haired, clear-eyed and fit at 87 – discovered the remains of the modern Indigenous Australian man, at least 40,000 years old, in the Willandra Lakes region of New South Wales in 1974, having previously found those of a perhaps equally ancient female in 1968.

Bowler has since wrestled with the implications – for cosmology and philosophy, for science and religion, for Australian race relations and humanity. His Mungo Man-inspired thoughts range across the genesis of earthly life, Celtic mysticism and the clashes between rationality and intuition, science and the Dreaming, the sacred and the profane. He is lucid and compelling.

The discovery of the ancient skeletons has captivated a legion of scientists and philosophers for 50-plus years, and this week Mungo Man’s remains begin the journey from the National Museum of Australia in Canberra back to country.


https://www.theguardian.com/austral...-the-moment-australias-story-suddenly-changed

 
Over the past six years, archaeologist Michael Slack and his team at Scarp Archaeology have excavated more than 200 rock shelters in the Newman area in a close working relationship with local Indigenous traditional owners.

"We know that Aboriginal people got to the inland Pilbara around 40,000 years ago but we don't know what happened to them after that," Dr Slack said.

"There's a lot of blanks on the maps that we're trying to fill in. That's important because it ties in with the extinction of what's known as the megafauna, the giant animals that once inhabited Australia — giant wombats and kangaroos."

Dr Slack said there was a lot of argument among experts about what wiped out megafauna.

"The Pilbara has the ability to possibly answer that question because we know people pre-date that extinction event," he said.

Read more at https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blog...l-secrets-of-ancient.html#6CrOOlD5GhvEbGf5.99
 
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