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    Aboriginal Australia: Early Indigenous Prehistory

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    moses
    Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia between 40,000 to 65,000 years ago, developing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle with spiritual and artistic traditions using stone tools. When Europeans first arrived, estimates suggest the population was at least 350,000. Archaeological evidence indicates the first Australians likely arrived by sea from Southeast Asia during an ice age when land bridges existed, making them early mariners. The earliest known human remains in Australia were discovered at Lake Mungo dating back at least 30,000 years, indicating early evidence of religious rituals. Aboriginal mythology and art, such as cave paintings, date back over 30,000 years and remain an important part of Aboriginal culture and identity.

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    Aboriginal Australia: Early Indigenous Prehistory

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    moses
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    Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia between 40,000 to 65,000 years ago, developing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle with spiritual and artistic traditions using stone tools. When Europeans first arrived, estimates suggest the population was at least 350,000. Archaeological evidence indicates the first Australians likely arrived by sea from Southeast Asia during an ice age when land bridges existed, making them early mariners. The earliest known human remains in Australia were discovered at Lake Mungo dating back at least 30,000 years, indicating early evidence of religious rituals. Aboriginal mythology and art, such as cave paintings, date back over 30,000 years and remain an important part of Aboriginal culture and identity.

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    Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia between 40,000 to 65,000 years ago, developing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle with spiritual and artistic traditions using stone tools. When Europeans first arrived, estimates suggest the population was at least 350,000. Archaeological evidence indicates the first Australians likely arrived by sea from Southeast Asia during an ice age when land bridges existed, making them early mariners. The earliest known human remains in Australia were discovered at Lake Mungo dating back at least 30,000 years, indicating early evidence of religious rituals. Aboriginal mythology and art, such as cave paintings, date back over 30,000 years and remain an important part of Aboriginal culture and identity.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    18 views2 pages

    Aboriginal Australia: Early Indigenous Prehistory

    Uploaded by

    moses
    Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia between 40,000 to 65,000 years ago, developing a hunter-gatherer lifestyle with spiritual and artistic traditions using stone tools. When Europeans first arrived, estimates suggest the population was at least 350,000. Archaeological evidence indicates the first Australians likely arrived by sea from Southeast Asia during an ice age when land bridges existed, making them early mariners. The earliest known human remains in Australia were discovered at Lake Mungo dating back at least 30,000 years, indicating early evidence of religious rituals. Aboriginal mythology and art, such as cave paintings, date back over 30,000 years and remain an important part of Aboriginal culture and identity.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Aboriginal Australia

    Main article: History of Indigenous Australians

    See also: Prehistory of Australia and Aboriginal history of Western Australia

    Early Indigenous prehistory

    Rock painting at Ubirr in Kakadu National Park. Evidence of Aboriginal art in Australia can be traced back some
    30,000 years.

    Indigenous Australians are believed to have arrived in Australia 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, and
    possibly as early as 65,000 years ago. [4][5][6] They developed a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, established
    enduring spiritual and artistic traditions and used stone technologies. At the time of first European
    contact, it has been estimated the existing population was at least 350,000, [7][8] while recent
    archaeological finds suggest that a population of 750,000 could have been sustained. [9][10]
    There is considerable archaeological discussion as to the route taken by the first colonisers. People
    appear to have arrived by sea during a period of glaciation, when New Guinea and Tasmania were
    joined to the continent; however, the journey still required sea travel, making them among the world's
    earlier mariners.[11] Scott Cane wrote in 2013 that the first wave may have been prompted by
    the eruption of Lake Toba. If they arrived around 70,000 years ago, they could have crossed the
    water from Timor, when the sea level was low, but if they came later, around 50,000 years ago, a
    more likely route would have been through the Moluccas to New Guinea. Given that the likely
    landfall regions have been under around 50 metres of water for the last 15,000 years, it is unlikely
    that the timing will ever be established with certainty. [12]
    Kolaia man wearing a headdress worn in a fire ceremony, Forrest River, Western Australia. Aboriginal
    Australian religious practices associated with the Dreamtime have been practised for tens of thousands of
    years.

    The earliest known human remains were found at Lake Mungo, a dry lake in the southwest of New
    South Wales.[13] Remains found at Mungo suggest one of the world's oldest known cremations, thus
    indicating early evidence for religious ritual among humans. [14] According to Australian Aboriginal
    mythology and the animist framework developed in Aboriginal Australia, the Dreaming is
    a sacred era in which ancestral totemic spirit beings formed The Creation. The Dreaming
    established the laws and structures of society and the ceremonies performed to ensure continuity of
    life and land. It remains a prominent feature of Australian Aboriginal art. Aboriginal art is believed to
    be the oldest continuing tradition of art in the world. [15] Evidence of Aboriginal art can be traced back
    at least 30,000 years and is found throughout Australia (notably at Uluru and Kakadu National
    Park in the Northern Territory, and also at Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park in Sydney).[16][17][18] In terms
    of age and abundance, cave art in Australia is comparable to that of Lascaux and Altamira in
    Europe.[19][20]
    Manning Clark wrote that the ancestors of the Aborigines were slow to reach Tasmania, probably
    owing to an ice barrier existing across the South East of the continent. The Aborigines, he noted, did
    not develop agriculture, probably owing to a lack of seed bearing plants and animals suitable for
    domestication. Thus, the population remained low. Clark considered that the three potential pre-
    European colonising powers and traders of East Asia—the Hindu-Buddhists of southern India, the
    Muslims of Northern India and the Chinese—each petered out in their southward advance and did
    not attempt a settlement across the straits separating Indonesia from Australia.
    But trepang fisherman did reach the north coast, which they called "Marege" or "land of the trepang".
    [21]
     For centuries, Makassan trade flourished with Aborigines on Australia's north coast, particularly
    with the Yolngu people of northeast Arnhem Land.

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