Published Resources Details
Book
- Title
- Prehistory of Australia
- Imprint
- Smithsonian Institution Press, 1999, 480 pp
- ISBN/ISSN
- 1-56098-399-X
- Description
Includes bibliography pp.441-470.
Published in association with Allen & Unwin, Australia- Abstract
During the past thirty years, the richness and complexity of Australia's remote human past has come into sharper focus. The earliest known occupation of the continent predates human presence in the Americas. The arrival of the first Aborigines stands as the earliest evidence of sea voyaging by modern humans. Australian rock art is among the world's oldest, and the continent's ethnographic records provide some of the most illuminating accounts of how prehistoric societies were organized.
John Mulvaney and Johan Kamminga take both chronological and regional approaches to describe 40,000 years of Australian Aboriginal cultures, languages, and practices. Discussing longstanding archaeological issues in light of recent discoveries, the authors address such topics as the timing of the first colonisation, the mysterious extinction of many of the largest marsupials after the arrival of humans, and the interpretation of prehistoric art. Broad regional prehistories describe the emergence of toolmaking, the expansion of ceremonial exchanges, and the influence of Indonesian and Torres Strait islanders. The authors also address such contemporary issues as Aboriginal control over archaeological fieldwork and the repatriation of human remains.
Prehistory of Australia is a comprehensive review of the human history of a continent extraordinarily diverse in artifacts and indigenous cultures.
[From the back cover.]