Australia and Austronesia
8000 B.C.-1000 B.C.
Australia Timeline
• 8000 B.C.-colonization of most of Australia
and New Guinea
• 6000-4000 B.C.-reorganization of coastal
territories.
• 3000-2000 B.C.-Introduction of domestic
dogs, more complex technology.
• 1000 B.C.-Expansion of trade, invention of
outrigger canoes.
Map with some early sites
Prehistoric culture
• From 5000 -1000 B.C. there was a gradual
increase in temperature and rainfall and the
development of more sophisticated technologies.
• The main items of trade were songs and dances,
along with flint, precious stones, shells, seeds,
spears, and food items.
• Political power rested with community elders
rather than hereditary chiefs and disputes were
settled communally in accordance with an
elaborate system of tribal law.
http://www.answers.com/topic/prehistory-of-australia
Roonka Site
• The Roonka site is located on the Murray River,
approximately 5 km south of Blanchetown in
South Australia.
• Excavation of the prehistoric Aboriginal cemetery
in the Roonka Flat dune began in November
1972, after flooding and erosion had exposed a
number of burials.
• Skeletal remains of more than 120 individuals
have been recovered from Trench A, with
radiocarbon dates indicating a sequence from at
least 7000 years until the European contact
period.
http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/Roonka.html
Burial in situ
http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/ausindex.html
Roonka Burial
•One of the most interesting aspects of the
Roonka cemetery is the variety of artifacts found
in association with the burials.
•Roonka 108 was buried with a kangaroo incisor
tooth headband which later became cemented to
the cranial vault through the action of secondary
carbonates in the dune.
http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/Roonka.html
Coobool Creek
• The Coobool Creek skeletons were collected
from a site near 'Doherty's Hut' at Coobool
Crossing on the Wakool River between Swan
Hill and Deniliquin in southern New South
Whales.
• Recent AMS date of 7200 ± 60 years BP
• The combined effects of large size and a shared
cultural practice (artificial cranial deformation)
gives several of the crania from Coobool Creek,
Nacurrie and Kow Swamp-Cohuna a visual and
statistical appearance which is apparently
unique to the central Murray Valley region
http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/CC.html
Cranial Deformation at Coobool
Creek
http://www-personal.une.edu.au/~pbrown3/CC.html
Technology in Australia
• Scrapers and other stone tools made from
flint were common in the early Holocene.
• Around 3000 B.C. standardized, finely
made tools were made.
– Southeast-Backed artifacts (flakes with steep
retouch)
– Northwest-leaf shaped points.
Backed Artifacts
from Mussel Shelter
from Loggers Shelter
http://arts.anu.edu.au/arcworld/resources/paa/ba/photo.htm
Points
A series of refitted knapping floors at increasing distances from
quarries reveal the progressive modification of bifacial points and
cores as material is transported through the landscape. An example
of this modification is the progressive conversion of unifacial points
into bifacial points as they are carried across the landscape.
http://arts.anu.edu.au/arcworld/aboutus/hiscock.htm
Tasmania
• The same environmental shifts were responsible for
changes in settlement, foraging, and social patterns in
Tasmania, notably the complete cessation of fishing
around 1800 BC.
• Hunters shifted to hunting terrestrial game and fat-rich
seals and birds, minimizing lean fish.
• Open forests and grassland replaced some closed
forests c. 2000 BC, this may have been intensified by
Aboriginal burning practices.
• Rockshelters above 1000 m ASL were occupied more
after 2000 BC as inland resources rose in use.
• The isolated Bass Strait Islands were abandoned c.
2000 BC while use of less remote islands intensified.
Later Tasmania
• The time between 2000 and 500 BC involved alterations to
territory size and residential locations, reorganization of
seasonal movements, and changing social and political
organization.
• This is consistent with the abandonment and relocation of
artistic and ritual activities on Tasmania, where carved
panels at Mount Cameron West were abandoned.
• Ngarrabulgan mountain, previously used for camping,
hunting, and social events was abandoned in the last 1000
years, as mythologies describing dangers were established.
Early art panels show uniform images across broad areas;
late panels display regional distinctiveness, marking the
emergence of regional political and social entities.
• Increasing cemeteries and large base camps may reflect
increased territoriality.
Some Southwestern Tasmanian sites
Why did the Tasmanian’s stop
eating fish?
• Seems to have ceased around 1800 B.C.
• Several Theories:
– No ecological reason, cultural decision.
– Change to “fat-rich” foods such as seal and
sea birds.
– Environmental change meant inlands easier
to forage.
Tasmanian Tiger?
• The last one died in Tasmania at the zoo
in 1936.
• It went extinct on Australia much earlier,
due to the introduction of the dog.
Austronesia
• The islands of the Pacific Ocean, including
Indonesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and
Polynesia.
• The Austronesian dispersal is recent, particularly
in Oceania, where they comprised the first
settlers, arriving within the past 3500 to 800
years.
• Languages indicate that the primary dispersal
was not uniform or continuous, as they share a
common ancestor and spread outwards from a
homeland.
Early Agriculture in Austronesia
• Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands witnessed two
dispersals of agricultural populations: pre-Austronesian,
and Austronesian.
• Pre-Austronesian people arrived by at least 4000 BC in
the New Guinea highlands, favorable for farming and
free of malaria.
• Taro, yams, bananas, and sugarcane were grown.
• The absence of cereals and domesticated animals led to
small, scattered populations.
– Pigs were not introduced until c. 1000 BC by Austronesians, and
the American sweet potato arrived as late as AD 1550.
• Lowland New Guinea had a low population and endemic
malaria, and no agricultural colonization of Australia
occurred: it was the last completely hunter-gatherer
continent to survive until European contact.
Taiwan
• Between 3000 and 2000 BC, the Neolithic complex termed
Dabenkeng developed on Taiwan, with incised and cordmarked pottery, stone adzes, rice, pigs, dogs, and possibly
chickens.
• Recent discoveries at sites such as Nanguanli indicate a
style that developed out of the Dabenkeng, mainly after
2000 BC.
• This post-Dabenkeng has linked Dabenkeng culture to the
early Austronesians through materials such as
Dabenkeng-type pottery with cord-marked, red-painted,
and red-slipped decoration, stone barkcloth beaters,
perforated slate projectile points, shouldered stone adzes,
baked clay spindle whorls, tanged reaping knives of shell,
and shell bracelets and earrings.
• Many of these also occur at sites in the Philippines,
Indonesia, and Melanesia.
Dispersals to Southeast Asia and
Madagascar
• In the Philippines, Sarawak, Sabah, the Talaud Islands,
northern Sulawesi, and the northern Moluccas
archaeological traces of the Austronesian expansion of the
2nd and early 1st millennia BC are found in rockshelters
and shell midden sites with pottery, shell artifacts, and
polished stone adzes, and rice husks.
• Sites include Andarayan, Gua Sireh, Bukit Tengkorak,
Magapit, and Nagsabaran
• Pollen studies from Taiwan, Java, and Sumatra indicate
clearance for agriculture from c. 2000 BC onwards.
• The few sites known date the Neolithic colonization to the
2nd or 1st millennia BC. Madagascar and the Comoro
Islands were probably only reached by Austronesians in
the mid-1st millennium AD, or Iron Age.
Northern Phillipines Sites
http://www.nmp.gov.tw/main/07/7-3/3-3-2/4.065-093.pdf
Callao Cave, 1500 B.C.
Callao
Cave Red
Slipped
Pottery,
Neolithic
The Colonization of Oceania
• In the western Pacific, between 1400 and
900 BC, Neolithic sites of the Lapita
cultural complex were established from the
Admiralty Islands to Samoa, correlating
with a linguistic spread.
• Settlers found rich resources and malariafree areas not subject to high infant
mortality rates. Site sizes and numbers
indicate rapid population growth.
Lapita Economy
• The Lapita had a mixed horticultural and maritime
economy. Village settlements about 1 to 8 ha in size
contain sherds, earth ovens, hearths, postholes, and
other features. Inter-island exchange brought obsidian
and other stone.
• The Mariana Islands were settled before 1500 BC by
users of pottery similar to Lapita.
• Their Chamorro language can be traced to the northern
Philippines, and the open-sea crossing of at least 2500
km represents a truly great voyage.
• The Palau Islands were occupied around 1500 BC, while
the Carolines, were not settled before c. AD 1.
Naitabale-Lapita in Fiji
• The Naitabale settlement was probably established
about 1000 BC by a group of Lapita people whose
ancestors had come from the Solomon Islands.
• The distinctive Lapita pottery that identifies the culture of
these early settlers was found in abundance at the
Naitabale settlement.
• In the course of excavations at Naitabale in 2002, a
complete human skeleton was discovered in beach sand
more than 1.5 metres below the ground surface.
• The skeleton was covered by undisturbed layers of
sediment (sand and silt) in which Lapita pottery was
found.
Facial Reconstruction of Lapita
burial on Fiji, ca. 3000
http://www.frimlin.com/links/2005/08/reconstructed-face-of-lapita-culture.php
The Settlement of Polynesia
• Lapita colonists reached Tonga and Samoa by about
1000 BC.
• Pottery grew simpler over time and eventually went out
of use in Samoa and southern Micronesia c. AD 300.
• Pottery-making continued in New Guinea and Melanesia.
Clay sources don't explain this -- some islands lacked
clay but others had excellent sources.
• Rice, millet, and spinning and weaving were also lost;
Austronesians may have experienced "bottleneck"
losses of cultural knowledge.
Polynesia
• Polynesians invented the double sailing canoe
allowing colonization with transported
domesticates, and terraced and canal irrigated
agricultural systems were impressive.
• New Zealand's palisaded earthwork fortifications
and Eastern Polynesia's massive stone
platforms used by competing chiefs in the
Hawaiian, Society, and Marquesas Islands.
Easter Island
• Easter Island is over 2,000 miles from the nearest
population center, (Tahiti and Chile), making it one of the
most isolated places on Earth.
• It is best known for the giant stone monoliths, known as
Moai, that dot the coastline.
• The early settlers called the island "Te Pito O Te Henua"
(Navel of The World).
• Admiral Roggeveen, who came upon the island on
Easter Day in 1722, named it Easter Island.
• Today, the land, people and language are all referred to
locally as Rapa Nui.
http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rapanui.html
Location of Easter Island
http://www.crystalinks.com/easterisland.html
Who were the Easter Islanders?
• In 1722 when, on Easter Sunday, Dutch commander
Jacob Roggeveen speculated reported a mixed race
island with both dark skinned and light living together.
Some were even described as having red hair and being
sun-burnt looking.
• According to Thor Heyerdahl, Easter Island was settled
in stages over a period of years by at least two different
cultures. One from Polynesia and the other from South
America, possibly Peru, where mummies of red -headed
individuals have been found along side those of black
hair.
• Contemporary archeologists think it's an open and shut
case - the first and only people ever to live on Easter
Island were from an individual group of Polynesians that,
once finding Easter, then had no contact with any other
races.
Statues on Eastern Island
http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rapanui.html
How were statues moved
• American Geologist Charles Love, in a
series of experiments, successfully moved
a replica moai by placing it on two logs cut
to fit into the bottom of the statue.
• When raised onto a track of wooden
rollers he found that his 10 ton moai could
be moved 145 feet in just a few minutes
using 25 men and two ropes.
http://mysteriousplaces.com/Easter_Island/html/contro2.html
Reconstruction of moving Moai
http://mysteriousplaces.com/Easter_Island/html/contro2.html
Exploring Easter Island
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/easter/expl
ore/
Population Overload
• The population of Easter Island reached its peak
at perhaps more than 10,000, far exceeding the
capabilities of the small island's ecosystem.
• Resources became scarce, and the once lush
palm forests were destroyed - cleared for
agriculture and moving the massive stone Moai.
• In this regard, Easter Island has become, for
many, a metaphor for ecological disaster.
• Thereafter, a thriving and advanced social order
began to decline into bloody civil war and
cannibalism.
http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/rapanui.html