tag:theconversation.com,2011:/es/topics/first-australians-28184/articlesFirst Australians – The Conversation2023-06-21T20:03:31Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2014752023-06-21T20:03:31Z2023-06-21T20:03:31ZBefore the colonists came, we burned small and burned often to avoid big fires. It’s time to relearn cultural burning<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526150/original/file-20230515-9834-i2fvqh.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C823%2C791&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fire Lore</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For 60,000 years, many First Nations peoples managed the land that sustained us. Fire, for us, was not destructive. It created new life. We believe bringing back <a href="https://culturalburning.org.au/">cultural burning</a> is an important step towards creating a more just and sustainable future. </p>
<p>We are from the Githabul and Ngarakbul peoples of the Yoocum Yoocum Moeity. Our traditional lands span what is now northern New South Wales and southern Queensland. But the knowledge of how to burn and when to burn spans the entire continent. </p>
<p>We want to pass this knowledge on, from First Nations to the ones who came later. Farmers, landholders, people with bush blocks – these are the people who need this knowledge. </p>
<p>Over a decade ago, we ran a workshop for Jayn Hobba, a non-Indigenous woman who has a nature reserve property outside Stanthorpe. We taught her about the art of tree thinning and cultural burns. </p>
<p>She writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Working alongside traditional owners who are the fire, soil and water keepers of their culture, I’ve also gained much practical knowledge in thinning out native black cypress, conserving old growth eucalyptus and mosaic cool burning. A decade later, I can see culturally appropriate fire regimes and conservative thinning of vegetation are benefiting the ecosystems and reducing fuel load.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="cultural burn" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/526146/original/file-20230515-2492-w2qwnn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cultural burns are cool burns which do not escape into the canopy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">FIRE LORE</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Why is cultural burning undertaken?</h2>
<p>Every group burned country differently. The knowledge of what to burn – and when to burn – is known as lore. By burning the right areas at the right time, we burn off the fuel loads and keep Australia’s fire-loving trees from starting dangerous fires. </p>
<p>The way we burn is known as mosaic cool burning – burn this area, leave this area – which produces a pattern of newer and older growth across the landscape. Traditionally, these mosaics produced new growth attracting kangaroos and wallabies, which could then be hunted. </p>
<p>Our thousands of years of cultural burning made much of Australia look like a park – stands of trees, large tracts of grass and shrub, as historian Bill Gammage <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-biggest-estate-on-earth-how-aborigines-made-australia-3787">has detailed</a>. </p>
<p>After the colonists came, much knowledge was lost. Cultural burning, too, could have been lost. But it survived. </p>
<h2>How does it differ from hazard reduction burns?</h2>
<p>Cultural burns are cool, low intensity burns which stay on the ground. Hazard burns are usually hot burns, done with more intensity. </p>
<p>Cool burns are best done at night or early in the morning. Many Australian trees sweat flammable oils during the day, making it a more dangerous time. Early morning dew helps to cool the fire. The wind is often gentle during a morning burn, assisting us as we direct the fire. </p>
<p>Cool fires do not bake seeds or nutrients into the soil, nor do they destroy root systems. Because the flames are so low, they cannot leap up to set tree canopies on fire and can only char the bottom bark. </p>
<p>Cool fires help change ground vegetation by reducing the density of plants such as bracken fern and casuarina, which lead to high fuel loads. Hot fires will encourage their regrowth.</p>
<p>If fires are started too early in the season, thick shrub grows afterwards which adds to fuel loads. If fires are started too late, dried-out fuel can make fires more intense and even lead trees to explode. </p>
<p>Hazard reduction burns are performed to control overgrowth of bush. If cool burns aren’t done, fallen branches, leaf litter and dead trees keep building up and up. Australia’s trees are very messy – many of them shed bark and leaves and branches to encourage fire. </p>
<p>First Nations people did everything they could to avoid intense, destructive bushfires. By burning small and burning often, we made sure the fuel never built up to extreme levels. </p>
<p>But after we were colonised, cultural burning almost entirely stopped. Forests grew back, <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-rainforest-was-once-a-grassland-savanna-maintained-by-aboriginal-people-until-colonisation-138289">covering some grasslands</a>. Fuel began to build up. And immense bushfires began. Black Friday, 1939. Black Saturday, 2009. And the devastating Black Summer of fire in 2019-2020. These show us what happens when we do not burn country properly. </p>
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<p>
<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-rainforest-was-once-a-grassland-savanna-maintained-by-aboriginal-people-until-colonisation-138289">This rainforest was once a grassland savanna maintained by Aboriginal people – until colonisation</a>
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<h2>How is it done?</h2>
<p>Cultural burning is complex and nuanced. To do it properly, you need thorough knowledge of the natural environment. You can’t simply walk into a field or forest and set it alight. </p>
<p>Fire lore is passed on from knowledge holders to initiates. We are taught to read signs in the land and signals in the environment to know when to burn, from different grasses drying out to trees beginning to flower, seed or fruit, to animal breeding and migration. </p>
<p>The reason for this is simple. Burning at the wrong time in the wrong place risks a cool burn running hot. As our firefighters know, it’s very hard to find the right time to do burns. </p>
<p>Each country contains its own season for fire – the time when fire can help cleanse, reset and safekeep the land, ready for the rebirth that comes after burning. </p>
<h2>The return of cultural burning</h2>
<p>The Black Summer had many causes, ranging from climate change to misuse of land and bad land and water use. The absence of cultural burning and traditional land management practices <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-26/cultural-burning-to-protect-from-catastrophic-bushfires/100241046">made matters worse</a>. </p>
<p>Cultural burning and land management <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-09/indigenous-cultural-fire-burning-method-has-benefits-experts-say/11853096">can improve</a> soil health, dampen down the impact of weeds and invasive species, control pests, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00867-1">sequester carbon</a> and improve runoff and water quality.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RM72NtXxyLs ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Cultural burning was used to protect against large-scale fires like those which burned through the NSW town of Tathra in 2018.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Cultural burning could help create a better future</h2>
<p>Using fire in this way is an ancient artform. We consider it a sacred tool. </p>
<p>As we grapple with ever-larger bushfires, it’s time to start involving Traditional Owners more in talks, negotiations and planning – especially when it affects our own country. Our knowledge of this continent may help save lives, land, flora and fauna – and help protect all of us from the ravages of climate change. </p>
<p>Our organisation and others like it work with non-Indigenous Australian landowners and farmers to undertake cultural burns – and to pass on the lore. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/world-first-research-confirms-australias-forests-became-catastrophic-fire-risk-after-british-invasion-176563">World-first research confirms Australia's forests became catastrophic fire risk after British invasion</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201475/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robbie is also Director for the Natural Design Research Institute. </span></em></p>Before the colonists came, we managed the land with careful use of cool burns. To stop giant bushfires, we have to learn again how to care for country.Robbie Williams, Traditional Owner, Indigenous KnowledgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987412023-01-29T11:38:12Z2023-01-29T11:38:12ZAlbanese promises National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs and pivots towards the modern and mainstream in new cultural policy<p>The Albanese government’s cultural policy, released Monday, “puts First Nations first”, while also promising regulated Australian content on streaming services and a shift to greater support for the popular in the arts.</p>
<p>The policy reflects the government’s view that arts policy – especially the Australia Council’s priorities – has become too elitist, and should be tilted more towards mainstream and commercial culture.</p>
<p>The initiatives for Indigenous culture include funding the establishment of a National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs. </p>
<p>To be announced by Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke the policy, called Revive and funded by $286 million over four years, has as its centrepiece the setting up of Creative Australia, which will be the government’s new principal arts investment and advisory body.</p>
<p>Creative Australia’s governing body will continue to be called the Australia Council in what, however, is a total revamp.</p>
<p>Creative Australia will “expand and modernise the Australia Council’s work”, with an extra $200 million over four years. The overhaul is seen as the biggest in the council’s history.</p>
<p>Funding decisions will be at arms length from the government. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-response-to-alice-springs-crisis-poses-early-indigenous-affairs-test-for-albanese-198590">Grattan on Friday: Response to Alice Springs crisis poses early Indigenous affairs test for Albanese</a>
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<p>A statement by Albanese and Burke has been released ahead of the full policy. </p>
<p>Within Creative Australia there will be four new bodies </p>
<ul>
<li><p>A First Nations-led body, to give Indigenous people autonomy over decisions and investment </p></li>
<li><p>Music Australia, to invest in the Australian contemporary music industry </p></li>
<li><p>Writers Australia, to support writers and illustrators to create new works </p></li>
<li><p>A Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, “to ensure creative workers are paid fairly and have safe workplaces free from harassment and discrimination”.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Albanese and Burke say Revive “puts First Nations first – recognising and respecting the crucial place of these stories at the heart of our arts and culture”. </p>
<p>In addition to the Creative Australia First Nations’ body the government will </p>
<ul>
<li><p>legislate to protect First Nations knowledge and cultural expressions, including dealing with harm caused by fake art </p></li>
<li><p>develop a First Nations creative workforce strategy </p></li>
<li><p>fund the establishment of both the Alice Springs gallery and an Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Perth </p></li>
<li><p>provide $11 million to set up a First Nations Languages Policy Partnership between Indigenous representatives and Australian governments.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>“Revive also commits the government to regulating Australian content on streaming platforms, improving lending rights and incomes for Australian writers, [and] increased funding for regional art,” Albanese and Burke say. </p>
<p>At present there is no requirement on streaming services to provide a certain amount of Australian content. The government will consult in the next six months, before legislating, with the aim of the regulatory regime coming into operation mid next year. No figure has been set for the Australian content. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-labor-mp-warns-alice-springs-crime-crisis-is-impeding-voice-debate-198312">Federal Labor MP warns Alice Springs crime crisis is impeding Voice debate</a>
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<p>The government says that $241 million is new money while $45 million is redirected from a COVID insurance scheme that is no longer needed. </p>
<p>Albanese said the government’s policy “builds on the proud legacies of earlier Labor governments”. </p>
<p>Burke said that under the policy “there will be a place for every story and a story for every place. </p>
<p>"It is a comprehensive roadmap for Australia’s arts and culture that touches all areas of government, from cultural diplomacy in foreign affairs to health and education. </p>
<p>"Our artists are creators and workers. This sector is essential for our culture and for our economy”. </p>
<p>The industry is worth $17 billion and employs an estimated 400,000 people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The policy, called Revive and funded by $286 million over four years, establishes Creative Australia which will be the government’s principle arts investment and advisory bodyMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1649522021-08-13T22:21:30Z2021-08-13T22:21:30ZLight and shade: how the natural ‘glazes’ on the walls of Kimberley rock shelters help reveal the world the artists lived in<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/415981/original/file-20210813-21-28293z.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C155%2C5160%2C3003&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Kimberley region is host to <a href="https://theconversation.com/this-17-500-year-old-kangaroo-in-the-kimberley-is-australias-oldest-aboriginal-rock-painting-154181">Australia’s oldest known rock paintings</a>. But people were carving engravings into some of these rocks before they were creating paintings. </p>
<p>Rock art sites on Balanggarra Country in the northeast Kimberley region are home to numerous such engravings. The oldest paintings are at least 17,300 years old, and the engravings are thought to be even older — but they have so far proved much harder to date accurately.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414463/original/file-20210804-20-17dho34.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cupules, or circular man-made hollows, ground into a dark mineral coating at a rock art site on the Drysdale River, Balanggarra country.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Damien Finch</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But in research <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abf3632">published today in Science Advances</a>, we report on a crucial clue that could help date the engravings, and also reveal what the environment was like for the artists who created them. </p>
<p>Some of the rocks themselves are covered with natural, glaze-like mineral coatings that can help reveal key evidence. </p>
<h2>What are these glazes?</h2>
<p>These dark, shiny deposits on the surface of the rock are less than a centimetre thick. Yet they have detailed internal structures, featuring alternating light and dark layers of different minerals.</p>
<p>Our aim was to develop methods to reliably date the formation of these coatings and provide age brackets for any associated engravings. However, during this process, we also discovered it is possible to match layers found in samples collected at rock shelters up to 90 kilometres apart. </p>
<p>Radiocarbon dating suggests these layers were deposited around the same time, showing their formation is not specific to particular rock shelters, but controlled by environmental changes on a regional scale. </p>
<p>Dating these deposits can therefore provide reliable age brackets for any associated engravings, while also helping us better understanding the climate and environments in which the artists lived.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=425&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414914/original/file-20210805-27-fl3od0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=534&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marsupial tracks scratched into a glaze like coating at a rock art shelter in the north east Kimberley.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Cecilia Myers/Dunkeld Pastoral Company; illustration by Pauline Heaney/Rock Art Australia</span></span>
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<h2>Microbes and minerals</h2>
<p>Our research supports <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/gea.1021">earlier findings</a> that layers within the glaze structure represent alternating environmental conditions in Kimberley rock shelters, that repeated over thousands of years. </p>
<p>Our model suggests that during drier conditions, bush fires produce ash, which builds up on shelter surfaces. This ash contains a range of minerals, including carbonates and sulphates. We suggest that under the right conditions, these minerals provided nutrients that allowed microbes to live on these shelter surfaces. In the process of digesting these nutrients, the microbes excrete a compound called oxalic acid, which combines with calcium in the ash deposits to form calcium oxalate. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A: dark coloured, smooth mineral coating at a Kimberley rock shelter; B: alternating layering, as seen in the field; C: alternating layering as seen in a cross-sectioned coating under a microscope.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photos by Cecilia Myers; microscope image by Helen Green</span></span>
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<p>As this process repeats over millennia, the minerals become cemented together in alternating layers, with each layer creating a record of the conditions in the rock shelter at that time.</p>
<p>Samples of the glazes were collected for analysis in close collaboration and consultation with local Traditional Owners from the Balanggarra native title region, who are partners on our research project. Using a laser, we vaporised tiny samples from the coatings to study the chemical composition of each layer. The dark layers were mostly made of calcium oxalate, while lighter layers contained mainly sulphates. We propose darker layers represent a time when microbes were more active and lighter layers represent drier periods. </p>
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<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-is-erasing-the-worlds-oldest-rock-art-159929">How climate change is erasing the world’s oldest rock art</a>
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<h2>Linking the layers</h2>
<p>These dark calcium oxalate layers also contain carbon that was absorbed from the atmosphere and digested by the microbes that created these deposits. This meant we could use a technique called <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">radiocarbon dating</a> to determine the age of these individual layers. </p>
<p>Using a tiny drill, we removed samples from distinct dark layers in nine glazes collected from different rock shelters across the northeast Kimberley.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=260&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414912/original/file-20210805-15-jsprpt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=327&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A: micro-drilling samples from individual layers for radiocarbon dating; B: Laser ablation maps showing the distribution of the element calcium within the different layers; C: radiocarbon dating of individual layers identified four key growth periods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Andy Gleadow; illustration by Pauline Heaney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite coming from different locations, these layers all seem to have been deposited at the same time, during four key intervals spanning the past 43,000 years.</p>
<p>This suggests the formation of each layer was determined mainly by shifts in environmental conditions throughout the Kimberley, rather than by the distinct conditions in each particular rock shelter.</p>
<p>The records held by these glazes over such a large time period - including the most recent ice age - means they could help us better understand the environmental changes that directly affected human habitation and adaptation in Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/414952/original/file-20210806-17-bkibgr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hypothetical example of how layered mineral coatings can be used to date engraved rock art in Kimberley rock shelters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pauline Heaney</span></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Stories in stone</h2>
<p>Research we <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-01041-0">published earlier this year</a> shows how the subjects painted in early Kimberley rock art changed from mostly animals and plants around 17,000 years ago, to mostly decorated human figures about 12,000 years ago. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/this-17-500-year-old-kangaroo-in-the-kimberley-is-australias-oldest-aboriginal-rock-painting-154181">This 17,500-year-old kangaroo in the Kimberley is Australia's oldest Aboriginal rock painting</a>
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<p><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618216305018?via%3Dihub">Other</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.11.030">researchers</a> have discovered that during this 5,000-year period there were rapid rises in sea level, in particular around 14,500 years ago, as well as increased rainfall. </p>
<p>We interpret the change in rock art styles as a response to the social and cultural adaptations triggered by the changing climate and rising sea levels. Paintings of human figures with new technologies such as spear-throwers might show us how people adapted their hunting style to the changing environment and the availability of different types of food.</p>
<p>By dating the natural mineral coatings on the rock surfaces that acted as a canvas for this art, we can hopefully better understand the world in which these artists lived. Not only will this give us more certainty about the position of particular paintings within the overall <a href="https://rockartaustralia.org.au/rock-art/rock-art-sequence/">Kimberley stylistic rock art sequence</a>, but can also tell us about the environments experienced by First Nations people in the Kimberley. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>We thank the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, the Centre for Accelerator Science at the Australian National Science and Technology Organisation, Rock Art Australia and Dunkeld Pastoral Co for their collaboration on this research.</em>_</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Rock Art Australia, The Ian Potter Foundation and an Australian Postgraduate Award and the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering .</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Damien Finch receives funding from the Australian Research Council, Rock Art Australia, an Australian Postgraduate Award and the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering .</span></em></p>Indigenous artists have been engraving rock shelters for millennia - long before the Kimberley’s celebrated rock art paintings. Now the rocks’ natural coatings are yielding clues to the engravings’ creation.Helen Green, Research Fellow, The University of MelbourneDamien Finch, Research fellow, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1423712021-04-29T20:10:11Z2021-04-29T20:10:11ZThe First Australians grew to a population of millions, much more than previous estimates<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/388747/original/file-20210310-15-jri8cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3800%2C2808&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Jason Benz Bennee</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>We <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">know</a> it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">more than 60,000 years</a> since the first people entered the continent of Sahul — the giant landmass that connected New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania when sea levels were lower than today.</p>
<p>But where the earliest people moved across the landscape, how fast they moved, and how many were involved, have been shrouded in mystery.</p>
<p>Our latest research, <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21551-3">published today</a> shows the establishment of populations in every part of this giant continent could have occurred in as little as 5,000 years. And the entire population of Sahul could have been as high as 6.4 million people.</p>
<p>This translates to more than 3 million people in the area that is now modern-day Australia, far more than any previous estimate.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-mapped-the-super-highways-the-first-australians-used-to-cross-the-ancient-land-154263">We mapped the 'super-highways' the First Australians used to cross the ancient land</a>
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<p>The first people could have entered through what is now western New Guinea or from the now-submerged Sahul Shelf <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-to-australia-more-than-50-000-years-ago-96118">off the modern-day Kimberley</a> (<a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">or both</a>).</p>
<p>But whichever the route, entire communities of people arrived, adapted to and established deep cultural connections with Country over 11 million square kilometres of land, from northwestern Sahul to Tasmania.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing a much larger landmass as Australia is joined to both Tasmania and New Guinea due to lower sea levels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382818/original/file-20210205-18-1nj215v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of what Australia looked like for most of the human history of the continent when sea levels were lower than today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>This equals a rate of population establishment of about 1km per year (based on a maximum straight-line distance of about 5,000km from the introduction point to the farthest point).</p>
<p>That’s doubly impressive when you consider the harshness of the Australian landscape in which people both survived and thrived. </p>
<h2>Previous estimates of Indigenous population</h2>
<p>Various attempts have been made to calculate the number of people living in Australia before European invasion. Estimates vary from <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-colonisation-was-no-accident-say-the-numbers-13730">300,000 to more than 1,200,000</a> people.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3238.0.55.001">2016 census figures</a> show an estimated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population of about 798,400. </p>
<p>But records prior to the modern era are unreliable because Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were only fully included in the national census from 1971, after the historic <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs%40.nsf/mediareleasesbyCatalogue/E31B62F372FC7BCECA2581320029DC01">1967 Referendum</a>.</p>
<p>Before 1971, population estimates were attempted by anthropologists and government authorities. For example, the <a href="https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/EFE13D17AAA8FF7BCA257AF00015216E/$File/13010_1930%20section%2024.pdf">1929 census</a> reported 78,430 Aboriginal people.</p>
<p>Then, in 1930, the first thorough <a href="https://www.ausstats.abs.gov.au/ausstats/free.nsf/0/EFE13D17AAA8FF7BCA257AF00015216E/$File/13010_1930%20section%2024.pdf">Australia-wide survey</a> of Aboriginal populations estimated a minimum population of 251,000 at the time of European invasion.</p>
<p>This was based on accounts of European settlers adjusted by anthropological concepts about group sizes and ideas about environmental productivity.</p>
<p>Yet almost all of these older estimates are uncertain because of haphazard or incomplete data collection, and even a healthy dose of guesswork.</p>
<h2>A new approach needed</h2>
<p>We developed an entirely different approach to tackle the question of how many people were in Sahul, and through which parts they would have moved first as they adapted to a range of challenging new landscapes.</p>
<p>We developed a simulation model grounded in the principles of human ecology and behaviour, based on anthropological, ecological and environmental data.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wl22Hm6XFhM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Animation of our model shows the spread of people across Sahul. Source: Corey Bradshaw.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, we estimated the number of people the landscape could support based on climate and vegetation models that recreated ecosystems during the time of the first peopling of Sahul.</p>
<p>We also gathered real-world anthropological information on immigration and emigration rates, long-distance movement, human survival and fertility. We even looked at the probability of disasters such as bushfires and cyclones.</p>
<p>After running 120 scenarios of the model many times each, our research found that after expanding to all corners of the continent, the population of Sahul could have been as high as 6.4 million people, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago.</p>
<h2>How good is our model?</h2>
<p>We tested our predictions by comparing the model’s results against the ages and locations of the oldest known archaeological sites from Australia and New Guinea.</p>
<p>If the model predicts realistic movements (even though it’s unlikely we’ll ever know exactly what occurred), we expect its results should at least partially match the patterns observed from the archaeological data.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the locations of the oldest archaeological sites in Sahul." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382681/original/file-20210205-22-3t1opt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=460&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map showing the locations of the oldest archaeological sites in Sahul.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Ulm</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>That’s exactly what we found.</p>
<p>For example, while previous modelling says the <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">northern route</a> of entry through New Guinea would probably have been <em>easier</em> for people to negotiate, our model suggests the <a href="https://theconversation.com/island-hopping-study-shows-the-most-likely-route-the-first-people-took-to-australia-93120">southern route</a> through modern-day Timor and into the Kimberley was potentially the <em>dominant</em> entry point.</p>
<h2>Why our estimate is higher than others</h2>
<p>Our model covers the entire landmass of Sahul, including both New Guinea and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-coastal-living-is-at-risk-from-sea-level-rise-but-its-happened-before-87686">now-submerged continental shelves</a>, which represent about 30% of the total landmass of Sahul. No previous population estimates have included this expansive region.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-first-discovery-of-its-kind-researchers-have-uncovered-an-ancient-aboriginal-archaeological-site-preserved-on-the-seabed-138108">In a first discovery of its kind, researchers have uncovered an ancient Aboriginal archaeological site preserved on the seabed</a>
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<p>There is also plenty of precedent for the population densities our estimates imply.</p>
<p>If you divide our total 6.4 million population estimate by the land area available at the time (11,643,000 km²), it comes out to around 55 people per 100 km². This compares well to <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Continent_of_Hunter_Gatherers/tTy-I8no1MwC" title="Continent of Hunter-Gatherers: New Perspectives in Australian Prehistory">estimated</a> densities of 34 people per 100 km² in some coastal regions of Australia, and 437 people per 100 km² in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00889357">swidden-farming</a> agricultural societies in New Guinea. </p>
<p>Population estimates immediately following European invasion are also likely to be low because of the heavy death rates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffered from exposure to European diseases <a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/smallpox-epidemic">such as smallpox</a>, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-great-australian-silence-50-years-on-100737">devastating history</a> of genocide committed by colonists.</p>
<p>Our findings add to the new evidence constantly being revealed to paint a more complete picture of life so long ago. </p>
<p>With sophisticated modelling tools combined with an ever-increasing pool of data covering all aspects of pre-European life in Australia, and guided by Indigenous knowledge, we are coming to appreciate the complexity, prowess, capacity and resilience of the ancestors of Indigenous people in Australia. </p>
<p>The more we look into the deep past, the more we learn about the extraordinary ingenuity of these ancient and enduring cultures.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142371/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan N Williams is an associate director for EMM Consulting Pty Ltd, an Australian employee-owned environmental consulting firm. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frédérik Saltré receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kasih Norman receives funding from the Leakey Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>It took just 5,000 years for large and well-organised groups of people to populate all corners of the continent.Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversityAlan N Williams, Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW SydneyFrédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversityKasih Norman, PhD Candidate, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of WollongongSean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1542632021-04-29T20:09:35Z2021-04-29T20:09:35ZWe mapped the ‘super-highways’ the First Australians used to cross the ancient land<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397750/original/file-20210429-14-ymshqj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=646%2C0%2C2658%2C2000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided/The Conversation</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>There are many hypotheses about where the Indigenous ancestors first settled in Australia tens of thousands of years ago, but evidence is scarce. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-ago-at-lake-mungo-the-true-scale-of-aboriginal-australians-epic-story-was-revealed-98851">Few archaeological sites</a> date to these early times. Sea levels were much lower and Australia was connected to New Guinea and Tasmania in a land known as Sahul that was 30% bigger than Australia is today.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01106-8">latest research</a> advances our knowledge about the most likely routes those early Australians travelled as they peopled this giant continent.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-first-australians-grew-to-a-population-of-millions-much-more-than-previous-estimates-142371">The First Australians grew to a population of millions, much more than previous estimates</a>
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<p>We are beginning to get a picture not only of <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-incredible-journey-the-first-people-to-arrive-in-australia-came-in-large-numbers-and-on-purpose-114074">where those first people landed in Sahul</a>, but how they moved throughout the continent.</p>
<h2>Navigating the landscape</h2>
<p>Modelling human movement requires understanding how people navigate new terrain. Computers facilitate building models, but they are still far from easy. We reasoned we needed four pieces of information: (1) topography; (2) the visibility of tall landscape features; (3) the presence of freshwater; and (4) demographics of the travellers. </p>
<p>We think people navigated in new territories — much as people do today — by focusing on prominent land features protruding above the relative flatness of the Australian continent.</p>
<p>To map these features, we built the most complete digital elevation model for Sahul ever constructed, including areas now underwater.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map showing the landmass of Australia connected to New Guinea and Tasmania" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=642&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384382/original/file-20210216-16-1gyswkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=807&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the Sahul landmass would have looked more than 50,000 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We used this digital elevation model to understand what was visible to early travellers. Essentially, from each point in the continent we asked “what can you see from here?” This moving window calculates the largest “viewshed” map ever created. When our virtual travellers move, they reorient based on visible terrain everywhere they go. The figure above shows the prominence of features across the continent as increasingly yellow shades against the blue background.</p>
<p>You can clearly make out features such as the the New Guinea Highlands, the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, the Great Dividing Range in the east, and the Hamersley Range in the Pilbara region of Western Australia.</p>
<p>But navigation using prominent landscape features isn’t enough to tell us where the most commonly travelled routes were. </p>
<p>For this we also need to take into account other factors, such as the physiological capacity of people travelling on foot, how difficult the terrain was to traverse, and the distribution of available freshwater sources in a largely arid continent.</p>
<h2>Billions and billions of routes</h2>
<p>We put all these different bits of information together into a mega-model, known as From Everywhere To Everywhere (<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440312001379" title="Geospatial modeling of pedestrian transportation networks: a case study from precolumbian Oaxaca, Mexico">FETE</a>), and created more than 125 billion possible pathways from everywhere on the continent to everywhere else. Each route represents the most efficient way to move from one location to another. This was the largest movement simulation of its kind ever attempted.</p>
<p>This gives us an idea of the relative ease or difficulty of walking across all of Sahul.</p>
<p>We cannot possibly examine every metre of the 125 billion pathways we created, so we needed a way to weight the relative importance of likely pathways. To do this, we compared all plausible pathways with the distribution of the oldest known archaeological sites in Sahul, providing weighted probabilities for each path.</p>
<p>This provided a scale going from the “most likely” to the “least likely” chosen paths.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2zLcYePhCW4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Super-highways of the initial peopling of Sahul, with known archaeological sites older than 35,000 years indicated by the grey dots. Megan Hotchkiss Davidson, Sandia National Laboratories (map) and Cian McCue, Moogie Down Productions (animation).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most likely pathways in the map above are what we are calling the “super-highways” of Indigenous movement. The next most likely paths are marked by dotted lines.</p>
<p>This allows us to discard many of the billions of paths as less likely to be chosen, helping us focus on those that were the most probable.</p>
<p>We now have a first glimpse into where Indigenous Australians likely travelled tens of thousands of years ago.</p>
<h2>Pathways well trodden</h2>
<p>These super-highways might have been more than just routes used for the initial peopling of Sahul.</p>
<p>Several of the super-highways our models identified echo well-documented Aboriginal trade routes criss-crossing the country. This includes Cape York to South Australia via Birdsville in the trade of <a href="http://entheology.com/plants/duboisia-hopwoodii-pituri-bush/">pituri</a> native tobacco, and the trade of Kimberley <a href="https://www.dpaw.wa.gov.au/management/marine/marine-parks-wa/fun-facts/402-baler-shell">baler shell</a> into central Australia.</p>
<p>There are also striking similarities between our map of super-highways and the most common trading and stock routes used by early Europeans. They followed already well-known routes established by Aboriginal peoples.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An old map showing routes across Australia." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384384/original/file-20210216-22-izoenn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=585&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Early routes of European explorers in Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Universal Publishers Pty Ltd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These Aboriginal exchange routes and the relatively recent trade routes of early Europeans cannot be used directly to validate a map from tens of thousands of years ago. But there are strong similarities that might suggest an extraordinary persistence of routes across the entire time period of human occupation of Australia.</p>
<p>Our findings also point to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-first-discovery-of-its-kind-researchers-have-uncovered-an-ancient-aboriginal-archaeological-site-preserved-on-the-seabed-138108">now-submerged continental shelves</a> of Sahul as important conduits for human movement.</p>
<p>We infer that early populations spread across the broad plains on the western and eastern margins of the continent (now under water) and through the region that now forms the Gulf of Carpentaria, which connected Australia to New Guinea.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-ancient-aboriginal-star-maps-have-shaped-australias-highway-network-55952">How ancient Aboriginal star maps have shaped Australia's highway network</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is worth noting these early people traversed and lived in all environments of Australia, ranging from the tropics to the arid zone. The ease of adaptation to all ecosystems is remarkable and one of the reasons for the success of the human species across the globe today.</p>
<p>Professor <a href="https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/lynette-russell">Lynette Russell</a> (Deputy Director of the ARC <a href="http://EpicAustralia.org.au">Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage</a> and Co-Chair of its Indigenous Advisory Committee), who was not involved directly in the study, noted:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[This] modelling establishes the infrastructure for detailed local and regional studies to engage respectfully with Indigenous knowledges, ethnographies, historical records, oral histories, and archives.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The fundamental rules we described apply even to questions about how the first migrations of people out of Africa might have occurred, and how people ultimately proceeded to inhabit the rest of the planet. </p>
<p>This work might even have implications for humanity’s future, if climate scenarios require large-scale migrations. Learning from those who have been present in Sahul from more than 60,000 years ago could help us anticipate migration patterns in the future.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan N Williams is an associate director for EMM Consulting Pty Ltd, an Australian employee-owned environmental consulting firm. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frédérik Saltré receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devin White and Stefani Crabtree do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>We now have a glimpse into where early Indigenous Australians likely travelled all those tens of thousands of years ago.Stefani Crabtree, Assistant Professor for Social-Environmental Modeling @ Utah State University and Associate Investigator ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage and ASU-SFI Biosocial Complex Systems Fellow, Santa Fe InstituteAlan N Williams, Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW SydneyCorey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversityDevin White, R&D Manager for Autonomous Sensing & Perception (Sandia National Laboratories) and Research Assistant Professor of Anthropology (UTK), University of TennesseeFrédérik Saltré, Research Fellow in Ecology for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversitySean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1527602021-01-25T18:54:34Z2021-01-25T18:54:34ZBurnt ancient nutshells reveal the story of climate change at Kakadu — now drier than ever before<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/380378/original/file-20210125-23-mctaqm.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C3450%2C2281&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">S. Anna Florin.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archaeological research provides a long-term perspective on how humans survived various environmental conditions over tens of thousands of years.</p>
<p>In a paper <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-020-01379-8">published today</a> in Nature Ecology and Evolution, we’ve tracked rainfall in northern Australia’s Kakadu region over the past 65,000 years. We wanted to know how major changes in rainfall may have affected the region’s Aboriginal communities through time.</p>
<p>Our findings suggest the Kakadu region wasn’t as prone to dry spells as surrounding areas — and it likely functioned as a place of refuge for early Australians as they struggled through harsh and arid conditions.</p>
<h2>Learning lessons from leftovers</h2>
<p>To generate a rainfall record spanning 65,000 years, we used ancient food waste left behind by the First Australians living at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter on Mirarr country in the Kakadu region.</p>
<p>This site boasts the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">earliest known evidence</a> of humans living in Australia. It also boasts plenty of <em>Pandanus spiralis</em>, a native plant commonly called “pandanus” or “screw pine”.</p>
<p>This plant, known as “anyakngarra” to the Mirarr people — the Traditional Owners of Madjedbebe — is very important to them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Anyakngarra fruit grows on a tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379880/original/file-20210121-23-hw5njp.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Anyakngarra (<em>Pandanus spiralis</em>) fruit. The tree is native to northern Australia and ubiquitous around the Top End’s waterholes and floodplains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Its leaves are used for weaving, its trunk to create dye, its fruit flesh is used in a drink and its nuts (the seed kernels within the fruit) are consumed as a rich source of fat and protein.</p>
<p>Anyakngarra’s nuts were also <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14723-0">eaten by the First Australians 65,000 years ago</a>. Discarded nut shells have been preserved as burned fragments, disposed of in fireplaces over time. </p>
<p>These small remnants have proven hugely useful for our research team, which includes archaeologists, environmental scientists and Traditional Owners.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/65-000-year-old-plant-remains-show-the-earliest-australians-spent-plenty-of-time-cooking-131761">65,000-year-old plant remains show the earliest Australians spent plenty of time cooking</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>In a nutshell</h2>
<p>By analysing the isotopic composition in ancient anyakngarra nutshells, we could track rainfall at Madjedbebe. Specifically, we detected how much water (and therefore rainfall) was available to anyakngarra plants in the past.</p>
<p>This analysis is possible due to photosynthesis – the process by which plants convert carbon dioxide in the air into sugars. Anyakngarra plants absorb two isotopes of carbon from the atmosphere: ¹²C and ¹³C. Isotopes are different types of atoms within a chemical element that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons. Chemically, the isotopes of carbon are the same, but each has a different atomic “weight”.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-an-isotope-10688">Explainer: what is an isotope?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>When environmental conditions are favourable, an anyakngarra plant will preferentially absorb more ¹²C than ¹³C. But if a plant is stressed by its environment, such as when it’s waterlogged due to seasonal flooding, it begins to absorb more ¹³C.</p>
<p>The isotopic composition (the ratio of ¹²C to ¹³C) is recorded in the sugars used by the plant for new tissue growth, including for the seasonal growth of nuts.</p>
<p>A higher proportion of ¹³C in a nutshell indicates that the plant it came from was waterlogged during its growth season. From this, we can conclude it likely experienced higher levels of rainfall.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Anyakngarra fruit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379888/original/file-20210121-17-2j1vuy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pictured is the anyakngarra fruit, which has a fleshy section (now dried and fibrous) a hard nutshell and multiple white seeds (or nuts) inside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Like an oasis in a desert</h2>
<p>Over the past 72,000 years, humans have lived through an ice age in which there were two particularly cold periods called “stadials”. During stadials, glaciers extended to cover parts of North America, northern Europe, northern Asia and Patagonia (in South America). </p>
<p>The height of the second stadial in this ice age was called the <a href="https://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers/999/">Last Glacial Maximum</a>. While this occurred 22,000 to 18,000 years ago, intense cold and dry conditions in Australia started as early as 30,000 years ago.</p>
<p>During this time, water availability was the main challenge in arid northern Australia (rather than low temperatures). The country’s arid zone expanded dramatically and parts of central Australia may have been temporarily abandoned by Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>Yet the “palaeoclimatic” record we generated for Madjedbebe indicates that, although glacial stages did lead to less rainfall, the Kakadu region remained relatively well-watered during these periods.</p>
<p>Our records show that for as long as people have been around, rainfall at Madjedbebe is unlikely to have dropped below current levels. Thus, this area would have helped early Australians survive during long dry spells and may have also attracted others from surrounding areas. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C55%2C841%2C518&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A site at the Madjedbebe is rock shelter in the Northern Territory." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C55%2C841%2C518&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/379886/original/file-20210121-21-sgld7l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This is our research site, the Madjedbebe rock shelter in the Alligator Rivers region of the Northern Territory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dominic O'Brien/Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Changing with the seasons</h2>
<p>Our findings are supported by other archaeological evidence from Madjedbebe. For instance, our research has revealed more stone tools were left at this site during the glacial periods. This implies more people gathered there at these times.</p>
<p>Also, because the Kakadu region was still drier during glacial periods as compared to inter-glacial periods, people had to travel further for food and other important resources. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>This is supported by evidence of an increased number of tools being brought to the site from further away. This points to increased mobility and new social arrangements being made as people adjusted to life in a harsher environment. </p>
<h2>The challenge moving forward</h2>
<p>Notably, over the past 65,000 years the driest time in the Kakadu region was not during the Last Glacial Maximum. It is today.</p>
<p>Rather than being the result of less rainfall occurring, this is likely due to higher evaporation caused by warmer inter-glacial temperatures. Aboriginal communities currently living in the Kakadu region are experiencing unprecedented aridity. </p>
<p>These difficult conditions are exacerbated by the threat of invasive plants and animals and disruption to cultural practices of landscape management, such as vegetation burning.</p>
<p>While the people of Kakadu have spent thousands of years adapting to environmental change, the scale and intensity of today’s anthropogenic impacts on regional climates and local landscapes poses an altogether different challenge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152760/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>S. Anna Florin has received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and the Dan David Foundation. She is currently funded by the Irinjilli Research Training Program at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Fairbairn receives funding from AINSE
</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Clarkson has received funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). He is currently funded as an ARC Future Fellow.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Shulmeister has received funding from the Australian Research Council through Discovery and LEIF grants as well as through NSF in the US and Chinese NSF. He has also received AINSE and ANSTO funding. He is currently funded by the Marsden Fund in New Zealand, and the Brian Mason Technical and Scientific Trust (NZ).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicholas R Patton receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC), and the Australia's Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patrick Roberts receives funding from the Max Planck Society and the European Research Council.</span></em></p>Tiny nutshell fragments, found at a rock shelter in the Kakadu region, have helped researchers track past climate change in the region.Anna Florin, Research fellow, University of WollongongAndrew Fairbairn, Professor of Archaeology, The University of QueenslandChris Clarkson, Professor in Archaeology, The University of QueenslandJames Shulmeister, Professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of CanterburyNicholas R Patton, Ph.D. Candidate, University of CanterburyPatrick Roberts, Research Group Leader, Max Planck Institute of GeoanthropologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1140742019-06-17T19:54:46Z2019-06-17T19:54:46ZAn incredible journey: the first people to arrive in Australia came in large numbers, and on purpose<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265511/original/file-20190325-36276-12v4jq2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2272%2C1704&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The first people to walk along the shores of northern Australia arrived more than 50,000 years ago.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Corey Bradshaw</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The size of the first population of people needed to arrive, survive, and thrive in what is now Australia is revealed in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42946-9">two</a> <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0902-6" title="Minimum founding populations for the first peopling of Sahul">studies</a> published today.</p>
<p>It took more than 1,000 people to form a viable population. But this was no accidental migration, as our work shows the first arrivals must have been planned.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-coastal-living-is-at-risk-from-sea-level-rise-but-its-happened-before-87686">Australia's coastal living is at risk from sea level rise, but it's happened before</a>
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<p>Our data suggest the ancestors of the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Melanesian peoples first made it to Australia as part of an organised, technologically advanced migration to start a new life. </p>
<h2>Changing coastlines</h2>
<p>The continent of Australia that the first arrivals encountered wasn’t what we know as Australia today. Instead, New Guinea, mainland Australia, and Tasmania were joined and formed a mega-continent referred to as Sahul.</p>
<p>This mega-continent existed from before the time the first people arrived <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-coastal-living-is-at-risk-from-sea-level-rise-but-its-happened-before-87686">right up until about 8,000-10,000 years ago</a> (try this interactive <a href="http://sahultime.monash.edu.au/explore.html">online tool</a> to view the changes of Sahul’s coastline over the past 100,000 years).</p>
<p>When we talk about how and in what ways people first arrived in Australia, we really mean in Sahul.</p>
<p>We know people have been in Australia for a very long time — at least for the past 50,000 years, and possibly substantially <a href="https://epicaustralia.org.au/rewriting-history-australias-oldest-known-campsite/">longer than that</a>.</p>
<p>We also know people ultimately came to Australia through the islands to the northwest. Many Aboriginal communities across northern Australia have <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/The_World_of_the_First_Australians.html?id=KjYvRxUzzgMC">strong oral histories</a> of ancestral beings arriving from the north.</p>
<p>But how can we possibly infer what happened when people first arrived tens of millennia ago? </p>
<p>It turns out there are several ways we can look indirectly at: </p>
<ul>
<li><p><em>where</em> people most likely entered Sahul from the island chains we now call Indonesia and Timor-Leste</p></li>
<li><p><em>how many</em> people were needed to enter Sahul to survive the rigours of their new environment.</p></li>
</ul>
<h2>First landfall</h2>
<p>Our two new studies – published in <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-42946-9">Scientific Reports</a> and <a href="http://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-0902-6">Nature Ecology and Evolution</a> – addressed these questions.</p>
<p>To do this, we developed demographic models (mathematical simulations) to see which island-hopping route these ancient people most likely took.</p>
<p>It turns out the northern route connecting the current-day islands of <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/vUifaoM8QZx">Mangoli</a>, <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/eg7CADr5Zqz">Buru</a>, and <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/aw9iGg8kJUs">Seram</a> into <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/5h2vD3AjFWk">Bird’s Head</a> (West Papua) would probably have been easier to navigate than the southern route from <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/CcrAEzR7d332">Alor</a> and Timor to the now-drowned Sahul Shelf off the modern-day <a href="https://goo.gl/maps/knum3sJEeAo">Kimberley</a>.</p>
<p>While the <a href="https://epicaustralia.org.au/get-australia-50000-years-ago/">southern route</a> via the Sahul Shelf is less likely, it would still have been possible.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-to-australia-more-than-50-000-years-ago-96118">How to get to Australia ... more than 50,000 years ago</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265788/original/file-20190326-36260-1bazv4w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=661&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Modelled routes for making landfall in Sahul. Sea levels are shown at -75 m and -85 m. Potential northern and southern routes indicated by blue lines. Red arrows indicate the directions of modelled crossings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Bird</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/island-hopping-study-shows-the-most-likely-route-the-first-people-took-to-australia-93120">Island-hopping study shows the most likely route the first people took to Australia</a>
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<p>Next, we extended these demographic models to work out how many people would have had to arrive to survive in a new island continent, and to estimate the number of people the landscape could support. </p>
<p>We applied a unique combination of:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>fertility, longevity, and survival data from hunter-gatherer societies around the globe</p></li>
<li><p>“hindcasts” of past climatic conditions from <a href="http://kiwi.atmos.colostate.edu/cmmap/learn/modeling/whatIs1.html">general circulation models</a> (very much like what we use to forecast future climate changes)</p></li>
<li><p>well-established principles of population ecology.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Our simulations indicate at least 1,300 people likely arrived in a single migration event to Sahul, regardless of the route taken. Any fewer than that, and they probably would not have survived – for the same reasons that it is unlikely that an <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientists-race-to-save-the-sumatran-rhino-as-last-male-in-malaysia-dies-118103">endangered species can recover</a> from only a few remaining individuals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/even-if-you-were-the-last-rhino-on-earth-why-populations-cant-be-saved-by-a-single-breeding-pair-93733">Even if you were the last rhino on Earth... why populations can't be saved by a single breeding pair</a>
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<p>Alternatively, the probability of survival was also large if people arrived in smaller, successive waves, averaging at least 130 people every 70 or so years over the course of about 700 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265514/original/file-20190325-36256-y30fnr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As sea levels rose, Australia was eventually cut off from New Guinea around 8,000 to 10,000 thousand years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Corey Bradshaw</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A planned arrival</h2>
<p>Our data suggest that the peopling of Sahul could not have been an accident or random event. It was very much a planned and well-organised maritime migration.</p>
<p>Our results are similar to findings from several <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/109/44/17758" title="The great human expansion">studies</a> that also suggest this number of people is required to populate a new environment successfully, especially as people spread out of Africa and arrived in new regions around the world. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-epic-story-a-tale-of-amazing-people-amazing-creatures-and-rising-seas-115701">Australia’s epic story: a tale of amazing people, amazing creatures and rising seas</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<p>The overall implications of these results are fascinating. They verify that the first ancestors of Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Melanesian people to arrive in Sahul possessed sophisticated technological knowledge to build watercraft, and they were able to plan, navigate, and make complicated, open-ocean voyages to transport large numbers of people toward targeted destinations. </p>
<p>Our results also suggest that they did so by making many directed voyages, potentially over centuries, providing the beginnings of the complex, interconnected Indigenous societies that we see across the continent today.</p>
<p>These findings are a testament to the remarkable sophistication and adaptation of the first maritime arrivals in Sahul tens of thousands of years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/114074/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey J. A. Bradshaw receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Weyrich receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Bird receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>New research shows just how many first people were needed to create a viable population in what is now Australia.Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Matthew Flinders Fellow in Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders UniversityLaura S. Weyrich, ARC Future Fellow, Metagenomic Cluster Lead at the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, UoA Node Leader for the ARC Center of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of AdelaideMichael Bird, ARC Laureate Fellow, JCU Distinguished Professor, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversitySean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1021112018-09-20T06:29:49Z2018-09-20T06:29:49ZAboriginal people lived in Australia’s desert interior 50,000 years ago, earlier than first thought<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/233561/original/file-20180825-149493-1wh5y68.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=294%2C0%2C5168%2C2629&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Karnatukul during excavation in 2014, note the square holes dug below the rock walls..</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Veth</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>New evidence shows that people have lived inland in Western Australia for more than 50,000 years. That’s 10,000 years earlier than previously known for Australian deserts. </p>
<p>The finding comes from archaeological work performed at the request of the traditional custodians of the land, and published today in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202511">PLOS One</a>.</p>
<p>The research took place at the desert rock shelter site of Karnatukul (previously known as Serpent’s Glen), around 800 kilometres southeast of Exmouth - more than 1,000km from where the coastline would have been at this earlier time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/when-did-aboriginal-people-first-arrive-in-australia-100830">When did Aboriginal people first arrive in Australia?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>It shows that people occupied the sandy deserts of interior Australia very soon after settling the <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">north of the continent</a> more than 50,000 years ago.</p>
<p>The paper reports some of the earliest evidence of people living in deserts, not just in Australia, but anywhere in the world.</p>
<h2>Excavations old and new</h2>
<p>Karnatukul was first <a href="https://www.australianarchaeologicalassociation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/OConnor-et-al-1998.pdf">investigated</a> by archaeologists in the 1990s. At that time it became known as the oldest Western Desert site, occupied at least 25,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Our current excavation was undertaken to better understand more recent occupation evidence. We were trying to understand pigment art that was produced at the site during the past <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440314000910?via%3Dihub">1,000 years</a>. </p>
<p>As well as finding rich evidence for a range of activities in recent times, our investigation doubled the earliest known occupation dates for this site.</p>
<p>Charcoal associated with artefacts was recovered in two squares dug beneath the site’s main rock art panel. Both squares returned similar archaeological sequences - both with their earliest radiocarbon determinations hovering close to the radiocarbon technical dating barrier which is 50,000 years.</p>
<h2>Early tool shows technological innovation</h2>
<p>More than 25,000 stone artefacts were recovered from the current excavations of Karnatukul, along with pigments, charcoal from many hearths, and a small amount of animal remains - a glimpse into the diet of the site’s occupants. Most of these remains date to the last millennium. </p>
<p>But one of our significant finds shows these early desert peoples were technological innovators. An early backed microlith – a pointed tool with one sharp edge blunted with small flakes, called backing - was found in deposits dated to around 43,000 years ago. Such tools are used as either <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/the-first-archaeological-evidence-for-death-by-spearing-in-australia/E7C597E0CF13DBA8EF76738797BE3101">a spear barb</a> or for processing wood and other organic materials. </p>
<p>This tool is at least 15,000 years older than other known Australian examples. Other specimens have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-of-early-human-life-in-australias-arid-interior-67933">recovered</a> from the arid zone in South Australia, dated to around 24,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Microscopic analysis of residues and working edges on this tool reveal it was fastened by resin to a composite implement (such as to a wooden handle) and it broke <a href="https://australianmuseum.net.au/image/stone-tools-hafting">in that haft</a>, presumably while being used. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234419/original/file-20180831-195328-1hhq2mt.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Backed artefact dated to 43,000 years ago showing evidence of use on its working edge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These technological adaptations - backing and hafting - are much earlier than had been previously demonstrated in Australia. </p>
<p>These types of tools were produced in enormous quantities across most of southern and eastern Australia, in the recent past. Indeed, Karnatukul has a large collection (more than 50) of this tool type dating to the last millennium, when the site was used as a home base. </p>
<h2>Adapting to a changed environment</h2>
<p>It has been argued <a href="https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1525/ap3a.2002.12.1.163">previously</a> that these specialised tools became more common as a people responded to increased climatic volatility and less secure food resources, with an intensified El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) regime after 4,000 years ago.</p>
<p>These current findings support the notion that the First Australians adapted with ingenuity and flexibility as they quickly dispersed into every bioregion across the country.</p>
<p>For instance, evidence for <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03122417.2016.1164379">the earliest ground-edged axe</a> use in the world comes from the Kimberley. </p>
<p>The very early presence of people in the interior deserts of Australia, as well as their very early use of a backed microlith, changes how we understand the adaptive and technological sophistication of early Aboriginal peoples.</p>
<p>The arid zone has often been characterised as an extreme environment occupied only by transient dwellers. Several European explorers perished in their early attempts to explore and traverse Australia’s arid core.</p>
<h2>Cultural connections to the land</h2>
<p>The site is in the remote Carnarvon Ranges of the Western Desert. Known as Katjarra, these ranges are at the heart of <a href="https://www.nativetitle.org.au/find/pbc/7321">Mungarlu Ngurrarankatja Rirraunkaja</a> ngurra (country), in the <a href="https://www.centraldesert.org.au/program-region-item/birriliburu">Birriliburu</a> Indigenous Protected Area (<a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/indigenous-affairs/environment/indigenous-protected-areas-ipas">IPA</a>). Located in the Little Sandy Desert, this remote IPA covers an area the size of Tasmania.</p>
<p>Katjarra is of very high cultural significance to its traditional custodians. </p>
<p>This archaeological evidence for the earliest desert peoples in Australia was found within 100m of the place where the Federal Court convened in 2008 for the Birriliburu Native Title Determination.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=357&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234424/original/file-20180831-195319-1668rd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">(Then) Justice Robert French at the Birriliburu Native Title determination in 2008 presenting senior custodians with a statement of the determination.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the site is also only about 40km from the historic Canning Stock Route (CSR), a 1,800km track forged through the sandy deserts by Alfred Canning in 1906-07, reliant on numerous Aboriginal water sources, identified and named for for him by local Aboriginal people. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=535&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234819/original/file-20180904-45166-57lb7a.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=672&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Location of Karnatukul, in the Carnarvon Ranges (Katjarra), near the Canning Stock Route.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span></span>
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<p>Because of the CSR, the Carnarvon Ranges have been at risk of unwitting damage from tourists – as modern desert crusaders travel this <a href="https://permits.canningstockroute.net.au/">challenging and remote 4WD track</a>. For example, many of the site’s surface grindstones - used for millennia to process seeds - have been collected and used by tourists to make camp fires, and there is graffiti where some travellers felt it necessary to add their names to rock features. </p>
<p>The Carnarvon Ranges are currently closed to unaccompanied tourists. The custodians have a responsibility for the safety of visitors on their country, intrinsically tied to the duty of ensuring that people do not unknowingly visit restricted and culturally powerful sites.</p>
<p>So the challenge now is how to protect this site of ancient occupation.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/time-to-honour-a-historical-legend-50-years-since-the-discovery-of-mungo-lady-97785">Time to honour a historical legend: 50 years since the discovery of Mungo Lady</a>
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<p>The Birriliburu IPA has a management plan for this vast cultural and natural desert estate. Traditional Owners and younger rangers work in this IPA to care for country and to continue their long-held connections to this place.</p>
<p>Guided tours of this highly significant area with traditional custodians would ensure the protection of heritage places and visitors, as well as providing for sustainable tourism opportunities. </p>
<p>That way, people would still be able to experience a place that revolutionises our understanding of the first Australians who made one of the world’s driest continents their home. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/234425/original/file-20180831-195325-8rsxcl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traditional custodians celebrate the Birriliburu determination in 2008.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jo McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/102111/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo McDonald receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She held the Rio Tinto Chair of Rock Art Studies from 2012-2017.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Veth receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Kimberley Foundation Australia.</span></em></p>They were looking to study rock art at a remote desert site but what they found showed people had been using the place almost since the first people arrived in Australia.Jo McDonald, Director, Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, The University of Western AustraliaPeter Veth, Kimberley Chair in Rock Art and Professor of Australian Archaeology, Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1008302018-08-06T19:41:08Z2018-08-06T19:41:08ZWhen did Aboriginal people first arrive in Australia?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230666/original/file-20180805-41360-ta5eid.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Humans would have first seen Kata Tjuta very shortly after arriving in Australia 50,000 years ago</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alan Cooper</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many Aboriginal Australians would say with conviction that they have always been here. Their ancestors and traditional learnings tell them of this history, and their precise place within it.</p>
<p>Our review of the scientific evidence, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808385115">published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>, suggests that for all practical purposes, this is indeed the case. </p>
<p>Their ancestors arrived shortly after 50,000 years ago – effectively forever, given that modern human populations only moved out of Africa 50,000-55,000 years ago.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-aboriginal-people-had-a-long-and-settled-connection-to-country-73958">DNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country</a>
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<h2>Long connection to country</h2>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-aboriginal-people-had-a-long-and-settled-connection-to-country-73958">Earlier genetic analysis of historic Aboriginal hair samples</a> confirmed the incredibly long and deep relationships between individual Aboriginal groups and their particular country. The small locks of hair were collected during anthropological expeditions across Australia from the 1920s to the 1960s. </p>
<p>Analysis of maternal genetic lineages revealed that Aboriginal populations moved into Australia around 50,000 years ago. They rapidly swept around the west and east coasts in parallel movements - meeting around the Nullarbor just west of modern-day Adelaide.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230497/original/file-20180803-41366-1amh03k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=786&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Map of the original colonisation of Australia showing different genetic markers carried by Aboriginal populations (in red), and the vegetation zones at the time. Archaeological dates are shown in black, with 1 kya = 1,000 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature21416">Nature, Tobler et al.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Archaeological sites and dates (shown above) closely match the genetic estimates. This indicates a very rapid movement throughout Australia 48,000-50,000 years ago.</p>
<h2>Out of Africa</h2>
<p>It was only a few thousand years earlier that a small population of modern humans moved out of Africa. As they did, they met and briefly hybridised with Neandertals before rapidly spreading <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/328/5979/710.full">around the world</a>.</p>
<p>They became the genetic ancestors of all surviving modern human populations outside of Africa, who are all characterised by a distinctive small subset of Neandertal DNA – around 2.5% – preserved in <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/358/6363/655">their genomes</a>. </p>
<p>This distinctive marker is found in Aboriginal populations, indicating they are part of this original diaspora, but one that must have moved to Australia almost immediately after leaving Africa.</p>
<h2>How to get to Australia 50,000 years ago</h2>
<p>The movement from Africa to Australia culminated in a series of hazardous sea voyages across island southeast Asia. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-to-australia-more-than-50-000-years-ago-96118">Recent studies suggest</a> the last voyage, potentially between Timor/Roti and the northern Kimberley coast, would have involved advanced planning skills, four to seven days paddling on a raft, and a total group of more than 100 to 400 people.</p>
<p>The possibility that earlier waves of modern human populations might have moved out of Africa before 50,000 years has also been <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature19792">raised</a>.</p>
<p>But in our <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808385115">review of these events</a>, we point out that there is no convincing fossil evidence to support this idea beyond the Middle East.</p>
<p>One of the most important claimed potential early sites is in northern Australia, at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in Arnhem Land. Human presence here was <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">recently declared</a> at more than 65,000 years ago.</p>
<p>This 65,000-year date has rapidly become accepted as the age for colonisation of Australia. It has appeared widely in the <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/commonwealth-games-2018/at-last-indigenous-culture-comes-first-as-commonwealth-games-opens-in-style-20180404-p4z7sw.html">media</a> and <a href="https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au/essay/2018/03/moment-of-truth/extract">elsewhere</a>, in <a href="https://www.referendumcouncil.org.au/event/uluru-statement-from-the-heart">political statements</a> and <a href="https://www.pm.gov.au/media/speech-closing-gap-report-2018">comments by the Prime Minister</a>.</p>
<p>But there is good reason to question a 65,000-year date, and the extent to which this contrasts with the sudden wave of archaeological sites that sweep across Australia shortly after 50,000 years ago. </p>
<p>These sites include <a href="https://theconversation.com/cave-dig-shows-the-earliest-australians-enjoyed-a-coastal-lifestyle-77326">Barrow Island</a> and Carpenters Gap in the Kimberley, Devils Lair south of Perth, Willandra Lakes in NSW, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-of-early-human-life-in-australias-arid-interior-67933">Warratyi rockshelter</a> in the Flinders Ranges.</p>
<p>This rapid archaeological manifestation at 50,000 years is a perfect match for the genetic evidence from Aboriginal maternal, paternal, and genomic lineages, and a far better fit with the extinction of Australia’s megafauna around <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-analysis-finds-no-evidence-that-climate-wiped-out-australias-megafauna-53821">42,000 years ago</a>.</p>
<h2>An age limit for human migration</h2>
<p>One of the most interesting ways we can date the dispersal of modern humans around the globe, including Australia, is through that original interbreeding event with Neandertals as we left Africa.</p>
<p>About a decade ago, an ancient human leg bone <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/oldest-known-human-genome-sequenced-1.16194">was found</a> on the banks of a Siberian river by an ivory hunter. Radiocarbon-dated at 43,000-45,000 years ago, the entire genome of this individual, named Ust’-Ishim after the site, was sequenced using the latest ancient DNA technology. </p>
<p>The genomic sequence revealed the bone contained the standard 2.5% Neandertal DNA signal carried by all non-Africans. But it was still present in large continuous blocks and had yet not been dispersed into fragments around the genome as we see in more recent ancestors and ourselves.</p>
<p>In fact, the size of the blocks showed that the 43,000-45,000-year-old Ust’-Ishim specimen could only be a maximum of 230-430 generations after that initial Neandertal liaison, dating our movement out of Africa to no more than <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/20/5652">50,000-55,000 years ago</a>.</p>
<h2>50,000 years, or more than 65,000 years?</h2>
<p>Given the evidence is so strong that the ancestors of modern human populations only started moving around the world 50,000-55,000 years ago, could the human activity at Madjedbebe really be more than 65,000 years old? </p>
<p>One of the major limitations of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">Madjedbebe study</a> is that the stone artefacts themselves weren’t dated, just the surrounding sand layers.</p>
<p>As a result, over time, even the slightest downward movement of the artefacts within the unconsolidated sand layers at Madjedbebe would make them appear too old. </p>
<p>We identify a range of factors which are common around the site, such as termite burrowing and heavy rainfall, that could cause stone artefacts to <a href="http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1808385115">sink</a>. </p>
<p>Many archaeological signs suggest activity at Madjedbebe is actually much younger than 65,000 years, and overall, the extent to which the site is an outlier to the rest of the Australian record should raise a red flag.</p>
<h2>Connection to country</h2>
<p>Either way, Aboriginal Australians have effectively been on their country as long as modern human populations have been outside of Africa.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-to-australia-more-than-50-000-years-ago-96118">How to get to Australia ... more than 50,000 years ago</a>
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<p>How does this help us better understand Aboriginal history? By appreciating the enormous depth of time that Aboriginal groups have been on their own particular country, and the extent to which all their history, knowledge, and ancestors form part of that country.</p>
<p>It is this gulf between a European history of constant migration and global dispersal, and the profoundly deep Aboriginal connection to one particular part of the world, that leads to failures to comprehend why being on country is not simply “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/mar/10/remote-communities-are-lifestyle-choices-says-tony-abbott">a lifestyle choice</a>”, but a fundamental part of their identity. </p>
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<p><em>Dr Graham Brown, a research associate from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, was a contributor on this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/100830/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Cooper receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan N Williams is affiliated with Extent Heritage Pty Ltd</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nigel Spooner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Aboriginal Australians have effectively been on their country for as long as modern human populations have been outside of Africa. We have a limit as to how long ago that was: around 50,000 years.Alan Cooper, Director, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of AdelaideAlan N Williams, Associate Investigator, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSW SydneyNigel Spooner, Adjunct professor, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/977852018-07-05T20:05:54Z2018-07-05T20:05:54ZTime to honour a historical legend: 50 years since the discovery of Mungo Lady<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225879/original/file-20180703-116129-1sp5ap6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's been 50 years since the find of burnt bones in ancient soil, eroded from deep in shoreline dune in NSW.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jim Bowler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><strong>WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this article contains the images and names of deceased persons.</strong></p>
<hr>
<p><em>It was a discovery that changed the way we think of human habitation in Australia. But 50 years on, the man who made the find believes the story has still to reach a conclusion.</em> </p>
<p><em>The article is part of our occasional long read series <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/zoom-out-51632">Zoom Out</a>, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>This month we celebrate an event 50 years ago in western New South Wales that changed the course of Australian history. On July 15 1968, the discovery of burnt bones on a remote shoreline of an unnamed lake basin began a story, the consequences of which remain sadly unfinished today.</p>
<p>It’s the story of a legend, the discovery of <a href="http://www.nma.gov.au/online_features/defining_moments/featured/mungo-lady">Mungo Lady</a>, the first in the series of steps that led to the creation of the <a href="https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/167">Willandra Lakes World Heritage</a> area. </p>
<p>But it’s a story where the making of a legend has fallen off the national radar, leaving a legacy of shame.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fifty-years-ago-at-lake-mungo-the-true-scale-of-aboriginal-australians-epic-story-was-revealed-98851">Fifty years ago, at Lake Mungo, the true scale of Aboriginal Australians' epic story was revealed</a>
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<p>At a time when we afford so much effort to remember those in Australia’s more recent history, is it not time to honour those who helped tell so much of the ancient history of our land?</p>
<h2>A timely discovery</h2>
<p>It was just one year after the circuit-breaking <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2017/May/The_1967_Referendum">1967 referendum</a>. Aboriginal people were being heard.</p>
<p>For me it was the beginning of a journey to explore the geological legacy of climatic change in our ice age landscapes, the ancient dunes, lakes and rivers.</p>
<p>I had recently joined the Australian National University Department of Geography and had chosen dry lake basins as possible rain gauges for ancient wet climates.</p>
<p>I was mapping ancient shorelines and finding strange objects, freshwater shells high above water levels, stone tools lying on erosion surfaces, fallen from above but with no certainty of their original undisturbed sites. People had been there long before me.</p>
<p>I reported my suspicions of ancient shoreline occupation of this now-dry basin to archaeological colleagues at the Australian National University. I later named the basin Lake Mungo, after the pastoral property lease that covered the major part of the basin, Mungo Station.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d114077.65528850946!2d142.9764200155365!3d-33.71871068348736!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x6ae7f27f13b520ef%3A0x3f38c9ad66983ef2!2sLake+Mungo!5e1!3m2!1sen!2sau!4v1530589706381" width="100%" height="700" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>From geological analysis I was confident the lakeshore dune suggested origins at least 20,000 years ago. My archaeological colleagues immediately dismissed this with the warning: “Bowler, geologists should stick to stones. Leave the archaeology to us.”</p>
<p>That warning never anticipated the finding of bones in lake-shore stones.</p>
<p>Concerned to resolve the puzzle, I was studying freshwater shells deep in the dune core of this ancient lake margin. According to my field notes that was on July 15 1968, although it was incorrectly reported for a time as July 5. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226106/original/file-20180704-73312-1p9mj6g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diagrammatic cross-section through the site of suspected hearth, later identified as cremation site of Mungo I, arrowed. A (upper): Sketch from field notes of July 15 1968. B (lower): Details published in proceedings of the 1968-69 seminars (Aboriginal Man and Environment in Australia, Eds. Derek John Mulvaney & Jack Golson, 1971, ANU Press, 389ps)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jim Bowler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If those shells represented a human <a href="https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/midden">midden</a> (a refuse heap), it involved occupation much older than accepted at the time. But was it human agency? Birds can carry shells.</p>
<h2>Burnt bones uncovered</h2>
<p>Returning to camp in the late afternoon, an interesting block of soil carbonate lay exposed on an erosion surface. Nothing special in itself, but this contained a substantial concentration of burnt bones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226110/original/file-20180704-73326-1xjtzgl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">View east across southern end of Lake Mungo. The red dot shows the location of Mungo I (Mungo Lady) remains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jim Bowler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Firmly cemented in soil carbonate, this reflected a fire of great antiquity. The organised burning of large mammalian bones, recorded in field notes as a probable hearth, clearly involved human agency. Ironically, this was the first item of archaeological evidence clearly in an undisturbed position.</p>
<p>Duly marked for future location, I reported these findings in an October 1968 archaeological seminar at the ANU. The photographs shown then of burnt bones of such obvious antiquity spoke for themselves.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/226105/original/file-20180704-73309-16zgc1q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An enlargement showing fragments of burnt bones (arrowed) believed then to be part of a human hearth.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jim Bowler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The scepticism of my archaeological colleagues diminished. Despite an immediate invitation, it took another six months, until March 1969, to lead a team of soil scientists and archaeologists to the site.</p>
<p>Finding the bones exactly as I had left them eight months earlier, that clear sunny day generated immense excitement. Dr Rhys Jones, breaking away fragments of cemented bones, recognised remnants of a human cranium.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=367&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225881/original/file-20180703-116139-n7j2j9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=461&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The March 1969 photograph of the site on the day of archaeological recovery of bones.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the late John Mulvaney</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Suddenly, this was not just the reflection of human activity, we were in the presence of humanity itself. Australian archaeology took a leap forward!</p>
<h2>A very modern human from many years ago</h2>
<p>Collected into Professor John Mulvaney’s suitcase, the bones were delivered in Canberra to Dr Alan Thorne, the ANU physical anthropologist. His meticulous cranium reconstruction demonstrated the remains of a fully modern young woman.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=402&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225877/original/file-20180703-116135-1ga1ac4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=505&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mungo I (Mungo Lady) cranium reconstructed from cremation remains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of the late Dr Alan Thorne</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dated by later work to 40,000 years ago, that small modern cranium had impacts far beyond its size. It remains today as the world’s earliest evidence of cremation.</p>
<p>It brought to a close the long and, to Indigenous peoples, the offensive practice of cranial profiling, the measure used to test differences between ancient and modern cranial features.</p>
<p>Following its earliest introduction by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Henry-Huxley">Thomas Huxley</a> in 1863 – a man known as Charles Darwin’s “bulldog” – the gathering of Aboriginal skeletal remains became a virtual industry. Grave robbers competed to supply university anatomy departments and museums around the world. </p>
<p>Alone, but now announced on the international stage, Mungo Lady’s clearly modern cranium brought it to an end. At 40,000 years ago, she was just like us!</p>
<h2>Mixed blessings</h2>
<p>To Aboriginal Australians, the removal of bones and the Thorne reconstruction brought mixed blessings.</p>
<p>Firstly, removal of remains without permission evoked memories of more grave robbing. For a time, cross-cultural tensions developed between scientific and Indigenous cultures.</p>
<p>Some nine years later, friendly dialogue led to the signing of an historical accord, a collaborative agreement between the two groups – scientists and traditional owners – each learning from the other. That agreement holds to the present day.</p>
<p>Secondly, Mungo Lady’s voice, declaring her rightful place in this landscape, stirred Aboriginal women into action, especially traditional owners among the three tribal groups – Mutthi Mutthi, Barkindji and Ngiyampaa.</p>
<p>As though by canonisation, she became a saintly figure, especially to the central pioneering elder, the late Alice Kelly, together with her companions from related tribal groups, Alice Bugmy, Tibby Briar and Elsie Jones.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=711&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225878/original/file-20180703-116117-wa98ub.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=894&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The late Alice Kelly (left) and Alice Bugmy (right) at the site of Mungo Lady, 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jim Bowler</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These four pioneering women stood together to assert Aboriginal ownership, to challenge the bureaucracy and ensure the legacy of Mungo Lady held pride of place in the history of Australia’s occupation.</p>
<p>Sadly, that resolve has been betrayed. The story of her heritage management is no less than disaster.</p>
<h2>The remains today</h2>
<p>Returned to traditional owners by Alan Thorne in 1992, the skeletal remains of this legendary person lie today in anonymous solitude with those of the later discovery, Mungo Man, out of sight and out of mind in storage at Lake Mungo visitor precinct. No monument, no place for respectful gratitude, no place to honour. </p>
<p>In late 2013, the NSW government, without warning, summarily dismissed all management structures, Central Management, the Elders Council and the scientific advisory group. For the last four years, there has been no management in place, no one to care.</p>
<p>A costly new plan of management was delivered by consultancy in early 2014, but there remains, even today, no management group to give it to. The governments of both NSW and federally have turned their backs on this legendary issue.</p>
<p>Traditional owners, scientists and the Australian public have been deprived of that fundamental right to honour the dead to whom our history owes so much.</p>
<p>But the nation owes a special debt to this ancient lady. In death, together with her Aboriginal women pioneers, she has changed the way we see ourselves across the cultural divide.</p>
<h2>Time to honour a Lady</h2>
<p>So a message for Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/we-must-remember-pm-opens-100m-monash-centre-in-france-20180424-p4zbex.html">A$100 million appeared no problem for that worthy Monash memorial</a> to our dead in France.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/mungo-man-returns-home-there-is-still-much-he-can-teach-us-about-ancient-australia-87264">Mungo Man returns home: there is still much he can teach us about ancient Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It’s time now to cut through the tangled web of bureaucratic inertia, to bring the remains of those legendary Mungo figures, Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, from storage to a central place of honour.</p>
<p>The nation needs a vision, the inspiration to build the contemplative space where stories of ice age land and ice age people join to illuminate what it means to be Australian.</p>
<p>The Willandra Lakes World Heritage area provides the place. To do less adds additional shame to an already failed heritage trust.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97785/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Bowler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s been half a century since Jim Bowler discovered Mungo Lady, which changed the course of Australian history. But now he says the find has fallen off the national radar, leaving a legacy of shame.Jim Bowler, Professorial Fellow,School of Earth Sciences,(Geology), The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/961182018-05-20T19:48:57Z2018-05-20T19:48:57ZHow to get to Australia … more than 50,000 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218337/original/file-20180509-34038-18ofom4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Sunset looking across Port Warrender to the Mitchell Plateau on the Kimberley coast. It is in Wunambal Gaambera country.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.markjonesfilms.com.au">Mark Jones Films (with permission)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Over just the past few years, new archaeological findings have revealed the lives of early Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory’s Kakadu potentially as early as <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">65,000 years ago</a>, from the Kimberley and Pilbara regions of Western Australia by about <a href="https://theconversation.com/cave-dig-shows-the-earliest-australians-enjoyed-a-coastal-lifestyle-77326">50,000 years ago</a>, and the Flinders Ranges of South Australia by around <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-of-early-human-life-in-australias-arid-interior-67933">49,000 years ago</a>.</p>
<p>But how was it even possible for people to get to Australia in the first place? And how many people must have made it to Australia to explain the diversity of Aboriginal people today?</p>
<p>In a study published in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.04.027">Quaternary Science Reviews</a> this week, we use new environmental reconstructions, voyage simulations, and genetic population estimates to show for the first time that colonisation of Australia by 50,000 years ago was achieved by a globally significant phase of purposeful and coordinated marine voyaging.</p>
<h2>Past environments</h2>
<p>Australia has never been connected by dry land to Southeast Asia. But at the time that people first arrived in Australia, <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-coastal-living-is-at-risk-from-sea-level-rise-but-its-happened-before-87686">sea levels were much lower</a>, joining the Australian mainland to both Tasmania and New Guinea.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-coastal-living-is-at-risk-from-sea-level-rise-but-its-happened-before-87686">Australia's coastal living is at risk from sea level rise, but it's happened before</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our analysis using new high-resolution mapping of the seafloor shows that when sea levels were 75m or lower than present, a string of more than 100 habitable, resource-rich islands were present off the coast of northwest Australia.</p>
<p>These islands were <a href="https://theconversation.com/island-hopping-study-shows-the-most-likely-route-the-first-people-took-to-australia-93120">directly visible</a> from high points on the islands of Timor and Roti and as close as 87km.</p>
<p>This chain of now mostly submerged islands - the Sahul Banks - was almost 700km long. They represented a very large target for either accidental or purposeful arrival.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218026/original/file-20180508-46353-ts06zx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Northwest Australia showing a now submerged string of islands between Australia and Timor/Roti. The present coastline is shown as a black line. The coastline with sea level 75m lower than present is shown as a grey line.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robin Beaman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How difficult was it to get to Australia?</h2>
<p>Combining modelled winds and ocean currents with particle trajectory modelling, we simulated voyages from three sites on the islands of Timor and Roti. This is similar to the approach used to model the movements of wreckage from the missing <a href="https://blogs.csiro.au/ecos/mh370/">Malaysia Airlines flight MH370</a>.</p>
<p>In our model, we simulated the “launch” of 100 vessels from each site on February 1 each year for 15 years. The date was chosen to correspond to the main summer monsoon period when winds are generally blowing to the east-southeast, thereby maximising the chance of successful crossings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218024/original/file-20180508-46347-73zqus.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Model results for vessel launches from Timor and Roti, showing ‘accidental’ drift voyaging where only wind and currents affect movement. Yellow dots show the islands closest to Timor/Roti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Condie/Robin Beaman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/218025/original/file-20180508-46328-hfnjgo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=526&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Model results for vessel launches from Timor and Roti, showing ‘purposeful’ voyaging simulated by paddling. Yellow dots show the islands closest to Timor/Roti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Scott Condie/Robin Beaman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results clearly indicate that accidental arrival by drifting alone is very unlikely at any time. But the addition of even modest paddling towards the Sahul Banks islands results in a high proportion of successful arrivals over four to seven days. The highest probability of a successful landfall is associated with launching points on western Timor and Roti.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_3wrBK7rMIo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Vessel colour begins to fade after six days of voyaging, indicating likely diminishing success rates. The present coastline is shown in dark grey. The coastline with sea level 75m lower than present is shown in light grey (Animation by Rebecca Gorton, CSIRO).</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How many people did it take to colonise Australia?</h2>
<p>Researchers have long speculated about how many people originally colonised Australia. Some have <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Fp-l8IEAFHQC&pg=PA409&lpg=PA409">argued</a> that Australia must have been colonised by accident, perhaps by just a few people. </p>
<p>Others have suggested a steady trickle of colonists. Estimates of the founding population have ranged from <a href="https://theconversation.com/australias-colonisation-was-no-accident-say-the-numbers-13730">1,000 to 3,000</a>.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-aboriginal-people-had-a-long-and-settled-connection-to-country-73958">genetic evidence</a> shows that Australia was colonised in a single phase, perhaps at multiple locations, but with very limited gene flow after initial colonisation.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-aboriginal-people-had-a-long-and-settled-connection-to-country-73958">DNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country</a>
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<p>The diversity of mitochondrial DNA lineages found in Aboriginal populations allows us to estimate the minimum size of the original colonising population. Mitochondrial DNA is only inherited from mothers.</p>
<p>Aboriginal mitochondrial DNA diversity alone represents at least nine to ten separate lineages. </p>
<p>Assuming that every mitochondrial lineage was represented in the founding population by four to five females (such as a family group containing a mother and her sister, and two daughters) the currently known nine to ten lineages would equate to around 36-50 females.</p>
<p>This is a conservative estimate, as founding populations of fewer than ten females per lineage have a low chance of long-term survival due to variations in reproductive success.</p>
<p>If an overall, again conservative, female to male ratio of 1:1 is assumed for the colonising party, the inferred founding population would be around 72-100 people. It was likely much larger (perhaps 200-300) because of the strong potential for related family groups to share similar mitochondrial lineages, which would be underestimated as a single founding lineage.</p>
<p>Clearly, a population of even the minimum estimated size is unlikely to have arrived accidentally on Sahul.</p>
<h2>What does it all mean?</h2>
<p>A lot of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Fp-l8IEAFHQC&pg=PA409&lpg=PA409">earlier thinking</a> about how people arrived in Australia was based on the assumption that the first modern humans to sweep out of Africa and colonise the distant lands of Australia and New Guinea were somehow more limited in their cognitive and technological capacities than later humans (that is, all of “us”). </p>
<p>Therefore, models routinely assumed that people island-hopped short distances rather than making long journeys, probably ending up in Australia by accident.</p>
<p>Our results show that colonisation of Australia and New Guinea was no accident. Colonisation of Australia was more likely achieved by purposeful and coordinated marine voyaging, undertaken in the knowledge that land existed to the south of Timor/Roti.</p>
<p>The crossing to Australia was two to three times longer than the multiple previous shorter crossings required to reach the islands of Timor and Roti. This last voyage to reach Australia would have required watercraft construction, sailing and navigation technology, planning ability, information sharing and provisions to sustain an open ocean voyage over four to seven days.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/island-hopping-study-shows-the-most-likely-route-the-first-people-took-to-australia-93120">Island-hopping study shows the most likely route the first people took to Australia</a>
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<p>Purposeful voyaging on this scale clearly required advanced cognitive, linguistic, symbolic and technological capabilities. Critically, this finding places a unique global time-stamp on the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1834-4453.1992.tb00297.x">cognitive abilities of our ancestors</a>.</p>
<p>In the same way that we have <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15721250-500-ancient-mariners-early-humans-were-much-smarter-than-we-suspected/">underestimated the abilities of our human ancestors</a>, we have <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1834-4453.1992.tb00297.x">underestimated the ability of early modern humans</a> to plan, coordinate and undertake large-scale coordinated maritime voyaging across open water to reach Australia. The settling of Australia represents the earliest known maritime diaspora in the world.</p>
<p>This emerging picture of modern humans with advanced maritime capabilities deliberately settling the driest continent on the planet reminds us we still have much to learn about the complexity and adaptability of the First Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96118/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Cooper receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Bird receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Veth receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Kimberley Foundation Australia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robin Beaman receives funding from Geoscience Australia and the Qld Dept of Environment and Science. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Scott Condie receives funding from a wide range of government organisations, foundations and industry. </span></em></p>The first people to make it to Australia could have navigated their way by sea crossing, reaching the north-west coastline of the island continent more than 50,000 years ago.Sean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversityAlan Cooper, Director, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of AdelaideMichael Bird, ARC Laureate Fellow, JCU Distinguished Professor and Landscapes Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversityPeter Veth, Kimberley Foundation Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art and Professor of Australian Archaeology, Centre for Rock Art Research and Management, The University of Western AustraliaRobin Beaman, Research Fellow, College of Science and Engineering, James Cook UniversityScott Condie, Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIROLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/959192018-05-03T20:21:03Z2018-05-03T20:21:03ZThe Dreamtime, science and narratives of Indigenous Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/217130/original/file-20180501-135803-tkypa4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lake Mungo and the surrounding Willandra Lakes of NSW were established around 150,000 years ago. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sunset-over-famous-walls-china-mungo-580536352?src=BM3RK99LNXsfkXUcrXCK0Q-1-0">from www.shutterstock.com </a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>This article is an extract from an essay <strong>Owning the science: the power of partnerships</strong> in <a href="https://griffithreview.com/editions/first-things-first/">First Things First</a>, the 60th edition of Griffith Review.</em></p>
<p><em>We’re publishing it as part of our occasional series Zoom Out, where authors explore key ideas in science and technology in the broader context of society and humanity.</em></p>
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<p>Scientific and Indigenous knowledge systems have often been in conflict. In my view, too much is made of these conflicts; they have a lot in common.</p>
<p>For example, Indigenous knowledge typically takes the form of a narrative, usually a spoken story about how the world came to be. In a similar way, evolutionary theories, which aim to explain why particular characters are adapted to certain functions, also take the form of narratives. Both narratives are mostly focused on “origins”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-when-did-australias-human-history-begin-87251">Friday essay: when did Australia’s human history begin?</a>
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<p>From a strictly genetic perspective, progress on origins research in Australia has been particularly slow. Early ancient DNA studies were focused on remains from permafrost conditions in Antarctica and cool temperate environments such as northern Europe, including Greenland.</p>
<p>But Australia is very different. Here, human remains are very old, and many are recovered from very hot environments.</p>
<p>While ancient DNA studies have played an important role in informing understanding of the evolution of our species worldwide, little is known about the levels of ancient genomic variation in Australia’s First Peoples – although some progress has been made in recent years. This includes the landmark recovery of genomic sequences from both contemporary and ancient Aboriginal Australian remains.</p>
<h2>Found, or revealed?</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.visitmungo.com.au/who-was-mungo-lady">Mungo Man and Mungo Lady</a> have been the subject of both Indigenous and scientific narratives.</p>
<p>From a scientific perspective, in 1968 the burnt remains of a woman were recovered at Lake Mungo by Jim Bowler, a young geologist. Six years later, after heavy rain, Bowler was riding his motorbike around the lake and again found human remains, this time of a man.</p>
<p>From an Indigenous perspective, it was not that Jim Bowler discovered these ancient people but that they found him. And of course, one is struck by the apparent coincidence that they both revealed themselves to the same person, albeit six years apart.</p>
<p>Professor <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/jim-bowler-145173">Jim Bowler</a> is a distinguished scientist who has close ties with, and an understanding of, Australia’s First Peoples, so Mungo Lady and Mungo Man chose well.</p>
<h2>Since the Dreamtime</h2>
<p>Perhaps the most well-known conflict between scientific and Indigenous perspectives relates to the origins of Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<p>From an Indigenous perspective, Aboriginal Australians have always been on this land – since the Dreamtime. From a scientific perspective, there is strong evidence that they have been here for more than 65,000 years – not quite “always”.</p>
<p>From my perspective, though, 65,000 years seems pretty close to “always”, and, moreover, it is likely that people became Aboriginal Australians when they first set foot on this land. So, in this sense, they have indeed always been here.</p>
<p>When a <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/98/2/537">publication by Professor Alan Thorne</a>, a prominent Australian anthropologist, and his colleagues from the Australian National University appeared in the journal PNAS in 2001, it drew worldwide attention. The authors reported the recovery of short <a href="https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/basics/mtdna">mitochondrial DNA</a> from Mungo Man, as well as the other ancient remains of a number of people from the Willandra Lakes region.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-are-mitochondria-and-how-did-we-come-to-have-them-83106">Explainer: what are mitochondria and how did we come to have them?</a>
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<p>The results from their analysis, which included an evolutionary tree of recovered DNA sequences, suggested that Mungo Man was genetically different to the other ancient people they studied, who were closely related to the Aboriginal Australians of today.</p>
<p>This implied that contemporary Aboriginal Australians replaced another population of humans that lived here first.</p>
<p>This conclusion caused widespread offence among Aboriginal people, though it was difficult for them to reject the scientific claims. Some <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2001/01/01/2813404.htm">scientists argued</a> that Thorne’s results were highly unlikely to be correct, given the age of the remains and the hot environment in which they had been interred. It was not, however, possible to refute these claims without a detailed understanding of the methods used and the opportunity to redo the experiment.</p>
<p>Some politicians and commentators seized on the result to <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-might-there-have-been-people-in-australia-prior-to-aboriginal-people-43911">argue against constitutional recognition of Aboriginal Australians</a>, suggesting there was considerable doubt about their First Peoples status.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-might-there-have-been-people-in-australia-prior-to-aboriginal-people-43911">FactCheck: might there have been people in Australia prior to Aboriginal people?</a>
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<h2>Big personalities</h2>
<p>Big personalities have dominated Australian archaeology and anthropology, and influenced its development – Alan Thorne prominent among them. He first became involved in the Lake Mungo excavations under the archaeologist Jim Bowler in 1969, reconstructing the remains of the skeleton of Mungo Lady.</p>
<p>Five years later he also reconstructed Mungo Man and led excavations at other important burial grounds in Victoria. Thorne was very well known for his work on the multiregional evolution hypothesis, a model of human evolution that disputed the more widely known recent African origin (or “<a href="https://theconversation.com/worlds-scientists-turn-to-asia-and-australia-to-rewrite-human-history-88697">out of Africa</a>”) hypothesis.</p>
<p>For more than a decade after Thorne’s research was published, his work on Mungo Man and other ancient people from Willandra went largely unchallenged, despite the distress it caused to Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<p>Then, in 2010, with the permission of the Paakantji, Ngyiampaa and the Mutthi Mutthi peoples of the Willandra Lakes, my colleagues and I from the Australian Research Centre for Human Evolution were able to resample these important remains.</p>
<p>With the advantages of technology that had developed in the preceding decade, we repeated much of the original work. The new technology meant that we were able to recover much smaller amounts of DNA (if it was still present in the remains) and sequence it.</p>
<p>In 2016, we also <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/113/25/6892">published the results</a> in PNAS journal. Our findings provided <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-dna-study-confirms-ancient-aborigines-were-the-first-australians-60616">strong evidence</a> to refute the claims made by Thorne and his colleagues, showing it was not possible to recover any DNA that unequivocally belonged to Mungo Man.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-dna-study-confirms-ancient-aborigines-were-the-first-australians-60616">New DNA study confirms ancient Aborigines were the First Australians</a>
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<p>We did, however, recover five distinct DNA sequences from his remains. But these sequences revealed no ancient DNA damage patterns, indicating that they were not ancient sequences – and genetic analysis showed that they were European in origin. Clearly these were sequences from people who left their DNA on the bone material after handling Mungo Man’s remains.</p>
<h2>New techniques, new light</h2>
<p>Our study set the record straight. We refuted the claim that Mungo Man was a member of an earlier group of people that previously inhabited Australia and not an Aboriginal Australian.</p>
<p>Perhaps of equal importance, we were able to recover substantial coverage of the mitochondrial genome from another ancient Willandra Lakes man, who was buried only a few hundred metres from Mungo Man.</p>
<p>The remains contained about 1% human DNA; from them, we were able to recover two complete mitochondrial genomes. One of these was a previously unidentified Aboriginal Australian mitochondrial genetic type, almost certainly from the remains themselves. The other was European in origin, and certainly a contaminant.</p>
<p>It appeared that this man was from within the Holocene period (that is, the period since the last Ice Age that ended around 11,700 years ago); we know this because the skeletal remains were not heavily mineralised. His teeth exhibited a pattern of wear typical of Aboriginal hunter-gatherer populations and included no evidence of cavities or tooth decay. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/worlds-scientists-turn-to-asia-and-australia-to-rewrite-human-history-88697">World's scientists turn to Asia and Australia to rewrite human history</a>
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<p>Combined with the lack of mineralisation in the bone and its position in the soil layers at Lake Mungo, various authors have suggested that the remains were a few thousand years old. This is important, because it means that he represents the best “proxy” currently available for Mungo Man.</p>
<p>The fact that he was buried so close to the oldest-known Australian, albeit much later, suggests a common place and country. This is particularly significant given that the environmental conditions were very different at the times of the two burials, which were about 40,000 years apart.</p>
<p>Hence, nuclear gene studies of this man, currently underway, will be especially relevant to our understanding of Mungo Man himself. And because the nuclear genome is much larger than the mitochondrial, it will reveal much more information.</p>
<p>Such nuclear genome studies enable us to establish kinship relationships between people living now and ancient peoples. Such studies will take substantial time and effort, and will require the development of new innovative genomic tools.</p>
<p>Ethical considerations demand Aboriginal involvement in both the design and operation of such new techniques, as well as new research relationships with Indigenous communities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95919/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lambert receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>New techniques for genetic analysis are helping us build more detailed and accurate stories about the ancient histories of the first Australians.David Lambert, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/931202018-04-01T20:29:22Z2018-04-01T20:29:22ZIsland-hopping study shows the most likely route the first people took to Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211422/original/file-20180321-165547-1h6a328.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The view from Indonesia's Rote Island towards Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kasih Norman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The First Australians were among the world’s earliest great ocean explorers, undertaking a remarkable 2,000km maritime migration through Indonesia which led to the discovery of Australia at least <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">65,000 years ago</a>.</p>
<p>But the voyaging routes taken through Indonesia’s islands, and the location of first landfall in Australia, remain a much debated mystery to archaeologists. </p>
<p>Our research, published earlier this year in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.11.023">Quaternary Science Reviews</a>, highlights the most likely route by mapping islands in the region over time through changing sea levels.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cave-dig-shows-the-earliest-australians-enjoyed-a-coastal-lifestyle-77326">Cave dig shows the earliest Australians enjoyed a coastal lifestyle</a>
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<h2>A disputed route</h2>
<p>Some archaeologists have argued for an <a href="https://australianmuseum.net.au/the-spread-of-people-to-australia">initial human migration into Australia through New Guinea</a>. This is because islands across northern Indonesia are relatively close together, and people could easily see to the next island they wished to voyage to. </p>
<p>First landfall on Australia has been argued to be both more difficult and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03122417.2012.11681932">less likely</a> than first landfall at New Guinea, as the final crossing distance from Timor to the continental shelf was more than 80km. It was also thought that the Australian landmass was not visible from any Indonesian island. </p>
<p>Despite this, it was proposed that now submerged islands off the Australian continental shelf were visible from Timor. But until recently, computer technology and ocean floor data sets were not developed enough to know for sure.</p>
<h2>A drowned continent</h2>
<p>When people first migrated to Indonesia, reaching Australia by 65,000 years ago, they found a landscape that looked <a href="http://sahultime.monash.edu.au/explore.html">very different</a> from today. During an ice age known as Marine Isotope Stage 4, which stretched from roughly 71,000 to 59,000 years ago, western Indonesia formed part of the Pleistocene continent of Sunda, while Australia and New Guinea were joined to form Sahul. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/211416/original/file-20180321-165568-1bvtx4m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The grey area shows the extent of the ice age continents of Sunda and Sahul, much of which is now under water.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kasih Norman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rise in global ocean levels at the end of the last ice age at around 18,000 years ago flooded continental shelves across the world, reshaping landmasses. This event drowned the ancient continent of Sunda, creating many of Indonesia’s islands, and split the continent of Sahul into Australia and New Guinea. </p>
<p>This means that what is now under the ocean is very important to understanding where the First Australians might have made landfall.</p>
<h2>On the horizon</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379117307333">new research</a> uses computer analyses of visibility between islands and continents. We included landscape surface height data of regions of the ocean floor that were above sea level – and dry land – during the last ice age. </p>
<p>The powerful computer programs we used work out what a person standing at a particular location can see in a 360 degree arc around them, all the way to their horizon. </p>
<p>Running more than 10,000 analyses allowed us to pinpoint where people could see to, from any location on any island or landmass in the whole of Island South East Asia. </p>
<p>But because we knew that so many Indonesian islands, and so much of Sahul, were drowned at the end of the last ice age, we also included ocean floor (bathymetric) data in our analyses. </p>
<h2>Island-hopping</h2>
<p>We discovered that in the deep past (between 70,000 to 60,000 years ago, and potentially for much longer), people could see from the Indonesian islands of Timor and Rote to a now drowned island chain in the Timor Sea. </p>
<p>From this island chain it was possible to sight the Australian continental shelf, which in the last ice age formed a massive fan of islands extending towards Indonesia. Much of this landscape is now more than 100m below the surface of the Timor Sea.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=901&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210461/original/file-20180315-104639-1d6kpc3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1132&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Regions with visibility between islands and continents during the last ice age are shown by the connective white lines. Dark grey regions represent the now submerged ice age continent of Sahul, light grey shows landmasses above modern sea level.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kasih Norman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As the island chain sat at the midpoint between southern Indonesia and Australia, it could have acted as a stepping-stone for Australia’s first maritime explorers. </p>
<h2>To Australia</h2>
<p>Including the areas of the ocean floor that were dry land in the last ice age means we were able to show that people could see from one island to the next, allowing them to island-hop between visually identifiable landmasses all the way to northern Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/ice-age-art-and-jewellery-found-in-an-indonesian-cave-reveal-an-ancient-symbolic-culture-75390">Ice age art and 'jewellery' found in an Indonesian cave reveal an ancient symbolic culture</a>
</strong>
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<hr>
<p>These new findings potentially solve another mystery: all of the oldest archaeological sites for Sahul are found in northwest Australia. If people island-hopped from Timor and Rote they would have arrived on the now submerged coastline close to all of Australia’s most ancient occupation sites, such as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature22968">Madjedbebe</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277379194900809">Nauwalabila</a> and <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379117302640">Boodie Cave</a>.</p>
<p>But while we might be closer to understanding where people first reached Australia, signs of the earliest explorers to reach Indonesia have been more elusive.</p>
<p>A team of researchers from the Australian Research Council’s new Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (<a href="https://epicaustralia.org.au/">CABAH</a>) and their partner institution, Indonesia’s National Centre for Archaeology, have now begun the search on Rote and West Timor for the earliest evidence of the region’s first human maritime explorers, the likely ancestors of the First Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/93120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kasih Norman received funding to undertake this research from the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE Research Award ALNGRA15001) and from the Australian Archaeological Association Student Research Grant.</span></em></p>There is plenty of debate over what route was taken by the first people to reach Australia. New research reveals a likely route through a now submerged chain of islands.Kasih Norman, PhD Candidate, University of WollongongLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/820752017-08-09T19:44:45Z2017-08-09T19:44:45ZOld teeth from a rediscovered cave show humans were in Indonesia more than 63,000 years ago<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181330/original/file-20170808-22960-1nnwweq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lida Ajer cave - a small but well decorated front entrance.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Julien Louys</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Modern humans were present in Southeast Asia about 20,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature23452">published in Nature today</a>.</p>
<p>An international research team led by Macquarie University applied new archaeological techniques to a longstanding question - were the human teeth discovered more than 120 years ago from Lida Ajer cave really modern human? The techniques allowed us to identify and date ancient human teeth from this Sumatran cave.</p>
<p>These teeth are the key to understanding when humans first travelled through the region, and provide the first evidence of modern humans in rainforests. It was a journey that eventually led humans to Australia.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">Buried tools and pigments tell a new history of humans in Australia for 65,000 years</a>
</strong>
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</p>
<hr>
<h2>An early discovery</h2>
<p>The Lida Ajer cave, in the Padang Highlands of Sumatra, was originally excavated in the late 1880s by the Dutch scientist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Eugene-Dubois">Eugene Dubois</a>, who found two human teeth. He was already famous for finding “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Java-man">Java Man</a>”, the first evidence of a missing link between humans and other great apes. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181039/original/file-20170804-29775-1q88yjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=591&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lida Ajer modern human tooth (left top) with its corresponding scanned image (left bottom) compared to an orangutan tooth (right).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tanya Smith and Rokus Awe Due</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But the evidence had been ignored when considering the path of human dispersal out of Africa and across to Asia, mostly because ofr doubts over the age and identification of the teeth.</p>
<p>Our study aimed to establish a solid age for the evidence and test whether the teeth did indeed belong to a modern human.</p>
<p>The hardest part was trying to find the cave site again, almost 120 years on from Dubois’s excavation. We only had a sketch of the cave and a rough map from a copy of Dubois’ original field notebook. It took myself, Rokus Awe Due from the Indonesian Centre for Archaeology, and many locals more than a week of constant searching.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=422&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/181493/original/file-20170809-26039-o66l9d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=531&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Dubois’ field sketches of Lida Ajer cave location copied directly from his field notebook. His rough sketch of the cave location close to Payakumbuh village has annotations added to make the features clearer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Naturalis museum, the Netherlands/Kira Westaway</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We stumbled across the cave almost by accident. The minute I saw a large rock column in the entrance, I knew we had found the cave dug by Dubois many years earlier. It was important to find the cave again to sample the sediments in which the fossils were found. That way we could make sure that resulting age was reliable.</p>
<h2>Dating the teeth</h2>
<p>To establish the importance of this evidence we used advanced modern dating techniques and state-of-the-art imaging methods to confirm the age and identity of the teeth. These techniques would not have been available to Dubois. </p>
<p>The tooth analysis allowed us to look at the internal structure of the teeth, exposing the enamel thickness and the junctions between the enamel and dentine. These junctions are crucial for distinguishing modern human teeth from other ape teeth such as orangutans, and other much older human species.</p>
<p>We applied a range of different dating techniques (luminescence, uranium series and electron spin resonance dating) to improve the accuracy of the fossil age. </p>
<p>As the techniques measure different events, such as the last exposure to sunlight and the timing that cave rock deposits were laid down, any agreement between techniques indicates the resulting age is likely to be solid. </p>
<p>Our results indicate that the human teeth were laid down in the cave between 73,000 and 63,000 years ago, implying that modern humans were living on the landscape at that time. </p>
<h2>A rainforest route</h2>
<p>The evidence from the fossils in the cave suggests that the modern humans were living in a rainforest environment. This is surprising because the oldest previous evidence of rainforest use by modern humans in Southeast Asia was from 45,000 years ago.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d8171021.653967908!2d96.11135065110386!3d-0.3185224354204432!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x0%3A0x0!2zMMKwMTknMDYuNyJTIDEwMMKwMzUnMzcuNiJF!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sau!4v1502242279217" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>This cave site, shown on the map above, is not within the accepted route of modern humans dispersing through this region, which is considered to be more to the east of Sumatra or closer to Borneo. It was thought that modern humans preferred a coastal route and yet we now have evidence of modern humans inland in western Sumatra.</p>
<p>One of the co-authors on this study is Julien Louys, a palaeontologist currently at Griffith University. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Living in dense rainforests requires complex hunting technology and knowledge that the first humans out of Africa would not have possessed and yet we find evidence of modern humans in rainforests as soon as they arrived in Southeast Asia.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perhaps the conditions at the coast were not suitable for survival? It’s hard to imagine what the coast of Sumatra would have looked like. The sea level would have been between <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2699.2000.00489.x/abstract">lower than today</a> so this evidence would now be under water.</p>
<p>But we do know that surviving in a rainforest is difficult as it requires complex planning to find and secure enough food. The Lida Ajer evidence indicates that by at least 60,000 years ago, modern humans were capable of rising to this challenge. </p>
<h2>And on to Australia</h2>
<p>So what does this mean for the first Australians? If modern humans first arrived in Southeast Asia nearly 20,000 years earlier than previously accepted, then why did they wait until 60,000-50,000 years ago before crossing over to Australia, as was <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277379194900809">previously thought</a>?</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-lengthy-childhood-of-endangered-orangutans-is-written-in-their-teeth-77564">The lengthy childhood of endangered orangutans is written in their teeth</a>
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<p>Our study suggests that modern humans could potentially have made the crossing earlier. <a href="https://theconversation.com/buried-tools-and-pigments-tell-a-new-history-of-humans-in-australia-for-65-000-years-81021">Recent work</a> from northern Australia confirms this to be true, with evidence that humans have been living in the Madjedbebe cave site as early as 65,000 years ago.</p>
<p>So were the first Australasians much quicker at getting from Africa to Asia, much better at adapting to new environments, and much better at exploring new areas than we previously thought? </p>
<p>This evidence seems to suggests so, and indicates that Southeast Asian caves may have many more surprises left to uncover.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/82075/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kira Westaway receives funding from Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery grants DP1093049</span></em></p>The evidence of a much earlier presence of humans in Indonesia was found more than 100 years ago. But only now has the age of the fossil teeth been accurately dated.Kira Westaway, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/773262017-05-19T02:12:19Z2017-05-19T02:12:19ZCave dig shows the earliest Australians enjoyed a coastal lifestyle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168687/original/file-20170510-7921-1tzv3vh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Three main excavation squares within Boodie Cave.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Veth</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archaeological excavations in a remote island cave off northwest Australia reveal incredible details of the early use by people of the continent’s now-submerged coast.</p>
<p>Our latest <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.05.002">study</a> reveals that at lower sea levels, this island was used as a hunting shelter between about 50,000 and 30,000 years ago, and then as a residential base for family groups by 8,000 years ago.</p>
<p>As the dates for the first Aboriginal arrival in Australia are pushed back <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/australia%E2%80%99s-human-history-older-than-thought/8442848">further and further</a>, it is becoming clear how innovative the original colonists must have been. </p>
<p>The earliest known archaeological sites so far reported are found in inland Australia, such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-evidence-of-early-human-life-in-australias-arid-interior-67933">Warratyi</a> rock shelter in the Flinders Ranges and <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248415000846">Madjedbebe</a> in Arnhem Land. These places are a long way from the sea, and were once even more so when past sea levels were lower and the coast even more distant.</p>
<p>But we do know that the earliest Australians were originally <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1040618211001248">seafarers</a>. They came from island southeast Asia and no matter which route they followed had to make sea crossings of up to 90km to get here.</p>
<p>The earliest landfall on the continent is now likely to be at least 50m below the present ocean. Until now we have known very little about these first coastal peoples.</p>
<p>Our research, published this week in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.05.002">Quaternary Science Reviews</a>, begins to fill in some of these gaps. </p>
<h2>Island dig</h2>
<p>For the past five years an international team of 30 scientists has been working in collaboration with the Buurabalayji Thalanyji Aboriginal Corporation and Kuruma Marthudunera Aboriginal Corporation on Boodie Cave, a deep limestone cave on the remote Barrow Island, off the Western Australia coast. </p>
<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m14!1m8!1m3!1d953989.1308100478!2d115.4934908!3d-20.931621!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x2bf811ea0176a741%3A0xe7a33e37111c6248!2sBarrow+Island!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sau!4v1494809203135" width="100%" height="400" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<p>Since the initial early dates for Boodie Cave were <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/indigenous/secrets-unearthed-at-boodie-cave-humankind-just-got-a-little-older/news-story/fd52bbecb3b149ce7d522fecd806a1c5">reported in 2015</a>, our team has been forensically analysing the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental remains, as well as re-dating the site to build up a robust picture of the lives of the people who lived here.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169447/original/file-20170516-11952-178vvcr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PhD student Fiona Hook at the Boodie Cave excavation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kane Ditchfield</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The results from <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">radiocarbon</a> and <a href="https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=14&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjNvPXplOTTAhVKpJQKHfZSA9E4ChAWCDgwAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.springer.com%2Fcda%2Fcontent%2Fdocument%2Fcda_downloaddocument%2F9783319001692-c2.pdf%3FSGWID%3D0-0-45-1406124-p174983325&usg=AFQjCNExBYUxu0aluCg5iysjl2UF2yJl8Q&sig2=yUOCD1csd4zGGNWR4yggXw">optically stimulated luminescence</a> dating techniques from four independent dating laboratories show that Boodie Cave was first occupied between 51,100 and 46,200 years ago. </p>
<p>These dates make Boodie Cave one of the earliest known locations in the settlement of Australia and the earliest site anywhere near the coast.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/j4ufHcYIlbg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Project leader Peter Veth discusses the significance of the Boodie Cave discoveries.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Mainland connection</h2>
<p>When Boodie Cave was first occupied, Barrow Island was part of the mainland, with the shoreline between 10km and 20km further west. </p>
<p>The shoreline became even more distant as the planet moved into an ice age and sea levels dropped to 125m below present, around 20,000 years ago. Shortly thereafter global temperatures warmed and, as the ice melted, sea levels rose quickly.</p>
<p>Throughout this long period people returned again and again to Boodie Cave. The limestone that forms the cave provides ideal conditions for preservation, giving us incredible details about the people who lived there. </p>
<p>The cave contains one of Australia’s longest dietary records. These animal remains provide us with profound insights into what people were hunting and collecting from initial settlement onwards, and how they adapted to a new and ever-changing arid landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169446/original/file-20170516-11924-dgkwr2.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">PhD students Jane Skippington and Kane Ditchfield sorting material excavated from Boodie Cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bob Sheppard</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Besides wallabies, kangaroos and other terrestrial animals, the archaeological deposits contain marine shells transported from the distant coast. </p>
<p>In the deepest levels, when the shoreline was 20km or so distant, there are only four different types of shellfish that we have directly radiocarbon dated to 42,300 years ago. These shells represent the first direct evidence of marine resource use in Australia, and some of the earliest in our region.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=416&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168690/original/file-20170510-7924-9u68qe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marine shell dating up to 40,000 years ago was excavated from Boodie Cave, including this baler shell artefact dating to around 6,800 years ago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Fiona Hook</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With rising sea levels the coastline came closer to the cave and the number and variety of marine resources increased exponentially. </p>
<p>By 8,000 years ago, there are 40 different types of marine shells as well as exceptionally well-preserved remains of sea urchin, mud crab, reef fish, marine turtle, marine mammal and a variety of small and medium-sized terrestrial animals.</p>
<p>By 6,800 years ago the cave and the whole island was abandoned as rising sea levels finally cut it off from the mainland.</p>
<h2>Hunting shelter</h2>
<p>We argue that Boodie Cave was used as an inland hunting shelter between about 50,000 and 30,000 years ago before becoming a residential base for family groups by 8,000 years ago. </p>
<p>Dietary remains in addition to shell artefacts, incised shells, shell beads and thousands of stone artefacts show that Boodie Cave was a frequently visited location on the landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168691/original/file-20170510-7932-sg6rjf.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boodie Cave is located on the second bluff in the centre of the photograph.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kane Ditchfield</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our study clearly shows that not only were Aboriginal people continuing to use marine resources across a period of dramatic environmental change, but they were also exploiting a range of desert resources. This demonstrates a successful adaptation to both the coasts and deserts of northern Australia.</p>
<p>Recent <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-aboriginal-people-had-a-long-and-settled-connection-to-country-73958">genetic</a> studies suggest that colonisation was coastal, with people rapidly moving around the east and west coasts of Australia before meeting up in modern South Australia.</p>
<p>But the coasts along which the earliest Australians traversed were very different to today’s, not only in terms of ecology but also in distance. In some places the earlier coastline would have been hundreds of kilometres from its present position. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168693/original/file-20170510-7927-17qgivv.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Peter Veth (left) with Thalanyi elders Anne Hayes, Roslyn Davison and Jane Hyland at Boodie Cave on Barrow Island.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Veth</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sea levels rise</h2>
<p>Over the past 20,000 years sea level has risen 125m, submerging the continental shelves surrounding Australia and separating the mainland from New Guinea and Tasmania.</p>
<p>Our findings provide a unique window into the now-drowned Northwest Shelf of Australia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168692/original/file-20170510-7904-fwmlr9.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lead archaeologist Peter Veth excavating a rich layer of dietary remains and artefacts below the surface of Boodie Cave.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kane Ditchfield</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Boodie Cave provides the earliest evidence for coastal living in Australia and gives us an indication that coastal resources have been important to people since initial colonisation. </p>
<p>Nearly one-third of Australia’s landmass was drowned after the last ice age and along with it evidence for coastal use by some of the earliest Australians. </p>
<p>Thousands of archaeological sites have been <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v486/n7401/full/486034a.html">recorded</a> on the continental shelves of Europe, Asia and the Americas, but no submerged prehistoric sites have been reported anywhere off Australia. </p>
<p>These submerged landscapes of Australia open up an entirely new frontier of archaeological research and will shed even further light on the lives of the first people to arrive on Australian shores.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Ulm receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ingrid Ward receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Veth receives funding from The Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tiina Manne receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Part of the land inhabited by some of the early Australians is now submerged, but details of their life is now revealed in an excavation on an island off the continent’s north-west coast.Sean Ulm, Deputy Director, ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook UniversityIngrid Ward, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow on the ARC DP Deep History of Sea Country project administered by Flinders University, Flinders UniversityPeter Veth, Professor of Archaeology, The University of Western AustraliaTiina Manne, ARC DECRA Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/739582017-03-08T19:26:23Z2017-03-08T19:26:23ZDNA reveals Aboriginal people had a long and settled connection to country<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159880/original/image-20170308-14957-1fhegb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On expedition with Norman Tindale and local Aboriginal group at a rock shelter at Bathurst Head (Thartali) in eastern Cape York Peninsula, 1927
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Herbert Hale/South Australian Museum, Archives Norman Tindale Collection (AA 338/5/4/41) </span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Historic hair samples collected from Aboriginal people show that following an initial migration 50,000 years ago, populations spread rapidly around the east and west coasts of Australia.</p>
<p>Our research, <a href="http://www.nature.com/doifinder/10.1038/nature21416">published in Nature today</a>, also shows that once settled, Aboriginal groups remained in their discrete geographical regions right up until the arrival of Europeans a few hundred years ago.</p>
<p>So where does the evidence for this rapid migration and long settlement come from?</p>
<h2>Early expeditions</h2>
<p>In a series of remarkable expeditions that ran from the 1920s to 1960s, scientists travelled widely across the Australian outback. They recorded as much anthropological information as possible about Aboriginal Australians. </p>
<p>They recorded film and audio, drawings, songlines, genealogies and extensive physical measurements under tough outback conditions. This included packing in the equipment on camels for the early trips. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/159881/original/image-20170308-14934-4f53p9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Alan Rau, EO Stocker and Herbert Wilkinson on an expedition party departing for a day’s trip from Cockatoo Creek, Central Australia, 1931.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">South Australian Museum Archives Norman Tindale Collection (AA 338/5/7/8)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The extensive collections from the <a href="http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/collections/information-resources/archives/board-for-anthropological-research-aa-346">Board for Anthropological Expeditions</a> are now curated in the South Australian Museum. They contain the vast majority of the black and white film footage you may have seen of traditional Aboriginal culture, songs, hunting practices and ceremonies. </p>
<p>The metadata collected was voluminous. It now comprises possibly the best anthropological collection of an indigenous people in the world. </p>
<h2>Locked in the hair</h2>
<p>But perhaps the biggest scientific contributions may yet turn out to be hidden within small locks of hair. </p>
<p>These were collected with permission (such as it was given in the situation and era) for a minor project to study the variation of Aboriginal hair types across Australia.</p>
<p>But the hair clippings turn out to preserve an incredible record of the genetic diversity and distribution of Indigenous Australia prior to European disruption. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/R6LzbKszKhQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Importantly, the detailed genealogical data collected with each sample allows the genetic lineages to be placed on the map back through several generations. </p>
<p>This allowed us to reconstruct the genetic structure within Australia prior to the forced relocation of Aboriginal people to missions and stations, sometimes thousands of kilometres from their traditional lands.</p>
<h2>Reconnecting histories</h2>
<p>This project was only possible through partnership with Aboriginal families and communities. So we needed to design an ethical framework and protocol for such unprecedented work. </p>
<p>This was based on large amounts of archival research performed by our team members in the Aboriginal Family History Unit of the South Australian Museum, to locate and contact the original donors, or their descendants and family elders. </p>
<p>We arranged a meeting time, and then the combined team spent several days in each Aboriginal community talking to individual families about the project, and passing on copies of the archival material. </p>
<p>We discussed both the potential and pitfalls of genetic research, and answered common questions. These included why the results cannot be used for land claim issues (insufficient geographical resolution) or as a test of Aboriginality (which is a cultural, rather than genetic, association).</p>
<p>The feedback from communities was overwhelmingly positive. There was a strong interest in how a genetic map of Aboriginal Australia could help people of the stolen generation to reconnect with family and country. </p>
<p>It could also help facilitate the repatriation of Aboriginal samples and artefacts held in museums.</p>
<h2>The DNA results</h2>
<p>The initial genetic results not only reveal exciting insights into the deep genetic history of the continent, but also showcase the enormous potential of our project.</p>
<p>We mapped the maternal genetic lineages onto the birthplace of the oldest recorded maternal ancestor (sometimes two to three generations back) and found there were striking patterns of Australia’s genetic past. </p>
<p>There were many very deep genetic branches, stretching back 45,000 to 50,000 years. We compared these dates to records of the earliest archaeological sites around Australia. We found that the people appear to have arrived in Australia almost exactly 50,000 years ago. </p>
<h2>Early migration</h2>
<p>Those first Australians entered a landmass we collectively call “<a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/sahul-pleistocene-continent-172704">Sahul</a>”, where New Guinea was connected to Australia. </p>
<p>The Gulf of Carpentaria was a massive fresh water lake at the time and most likely a very attractive place for the founding population. </p>
<p>The genetic lineages show that the first Aboriginal populations swept around the coasts of Australia in two parallel waves. One went clockwise and the other counter-clockwise, before meeting somewhere in South Australia. </p>
<p>The occupation of the coasts was rapid, perhaps taking no longer than 2,000 to 3,000 years. But after that, the genetic patterns suggest that populations quickly settled down into specific territory or country, and have moved very little since.</p>
<p>The genetic lineages within each region are clearly very divergent. They tell us that people – once settled in a particular landscape – stayed connected within their realms for up to 50,000 years despite huge environmental and climate changes.</p>
<p>We should remember that this is about ten times as long as all of the European history we’re commonly taught.</p>
<p>This pattern is very unusual elsewhere in the world, and underlines why there might be such remarkable Aboriginal cultural and spiritual connection to land and country. </p>
<p>As Kaurna Elder, Lewis O’Brien, one of the original hair donors and part of the advisory group for the study, put it:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Aboriginal people have always known that we have been on our land since the start of our time, but it is important to have science show that to the rest of the world.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>There is more information on this work by the Aboriginal History Protect available in this <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrj2iJKdUdbzEicopZtCAGZ0T1M6b6zQT">series of videos</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73958/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alan Cooper receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ray Tobler is supported by an ARC Indigenous Discovery Award. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wolfgang Haak receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Aboriginal people stayed settled in places across Australia for 50,000 years until Europeans arrived, showing a strong connection with the land.Alan Cooper, Director, Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, University of AdelaideRay Tobler, Postdoctoral fellow, Australian National UniversityWolfgang Haak, Group Leader Molecular Anthropology, Max Planck Institute of GeoanthropologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/705892017-01-11T19:56:51Z2017-01-11T19:56:51ZAboriginal Australians co-existed with the megafauna for at least 17,000 years<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150865/original/image-20161220-26718-7zxlut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C625%2C3368%2C2399&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What it could have looked like when humans and megafauna lived together: a giant macropod _Procoptodon goliah_ in the foreground, while _Thylacinus cynocephalus_ hunts for prey nearby. A herd of _Zygomaturus_ can be see on the lake edge of the ancient Willandra system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Illustration by Laurie Beirne </span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia was once home to giant reptiles, marsupials and birds (and some not so giant), but the extinction of this megafauna has been the subject of a debate that has persisted since the 19th century. </p>
<p>Despite great advances in the available scientific techniques for investigating the problem, answering the key question of how they became extinct has remained elusive. </p>
<p>Indeed, the same questions as those asked in the 19th century by scientists, such as the British comparative anatomist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Owen">Sir Richard Owen</a> and the Prussian scientist and explorer <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ludwig-Leichhardt">Ludwig Leichhardt</a>, remain: were people responsible for their demise or was it climate change?</p>
<p>Our new research, published in the latest <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379116306011">Quaternary Science Reviews</a> journal, shows that early humans to Australian lived alongside some of the megafauna for many thousands of years before the animals became extinct. </p>
<h2>The First Australians</h2>
<p>Many researchers have previously argued that the megafauna became extinct soon after the arrival of the First Australians.</p>
<p>For example, it has been argued that perhaps <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/08/timradford">firing</a> of the landscape dramatically altered ancient Australia’s ecology. One species in particular, the giant flightless bird <a href="http://australianmuseum.net.au/genyornis-newtoni"><em>Genyornis newtoni</em></a> was investigated and shown to have succumbed to significant habitat change and direct <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-01-30/genyornis-giant-bird-extinction-mystery-points-to-first-people/7126882">predation</a>.</p>
<p>But the hypothesis for <em>Genyornis</em>‘ extinction has come under significant criticism due to the emergence of counter evidence. Firstly the egg shells thought to be from <em>Genyornis</em> are considered by leading palaeontologists to perhaps be from a much smaller <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-case-of-mistaken-identity-for-australias-extinct-big-bird-52856">megapode</a>.</p>
<p>The evidence for firing of the landscape, as studied through the genomes of fire sensitive plants, shows no record of plants going through genetic bottlenecks as a result of significant <a href="https://theconversation.com/did-fire-kill-off-australias-megafauna-19679">firing events</a>.</p>
<p>It seems that Aboriginal populations may not have been that large until much later in prehistory. Our genomic research has revealed that significant demographic changes did not occur until some <a href="https://theconversation.com/dna-reveals-a-new-history-of-the-first-australians-65344">10,000 years ago</a>. The genomic evidence suggests that for tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal populations were not that large. </p>
<p>More careful analysis of the record often reveals a very different picture.</p>
<h2>A dating game</h2>
<p>Critical to understanding when the megafauna became extinct is dating, and ideally, the application of multiple dating techniques will provide the finest resolution. If two different dating techniques arrive at similar dates, then this is a very good sign for the age of a species.</p>
<p>In recent years it has been suggested there are very few good dates for the extinction of megafauna. Some have argued that it is possible many of the 45 or so megafauna species thought to have become extinct after 50,000 years ago may have in fact slipped into the extinction abyss tens of thousands of years <a href="http://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/science/climate-change-not-human-activity-led-megafauna-extinction">before</a> the First Australians arrived. </p>
<p>One way of testing the various extinction models is by looking for megafauna in landscapes that show continuous Aboriginal occupation over the past 50,000 years. These landscapes should ideally also have conditions for the preservation of fossil bones.</p>
<p>There are very few localities like this but one exception in Australia is the <a href="https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/willandra">Willandra Lakes</a> World Heritage Area, in New South Wales.</p>
<p>If we can show that megafauna disappear soon after the arrival of the First Australians, then we have support for the rapid extinction model. If we show that megafauna and people co-existed for many years, then we may have to seek other explanations for their demise. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=252&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150682/original/image-20161219-24289-nge7q5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Searching for megafauna fossils in the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michael Westaway</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In theory this sounds quite straightforward, but unfortunately it is far from the case. While there are megafauna fossils found across the Willandra landscape, many of these have eroded out of their original burial contexts.</p>
<p>We can get age estimates on these fossils using uranium series (U-series) dating, but they only represent minimum age estimates. If we can find fossils still encased within their original sediments, then we can date the age of the sand grains using a technique called optically stimulated <a href="http://archaeology.about.com/od/lterms/g/luminescence.htm">luminescence dating</a> (OSL for short).</p>
<p>By dating the fossil directly with U-series we arrive at a minimum age estimate. By dating the sand grains that a fossil is found in we arrive at the maximum age range. </p>
<p>Unfortunately carbon dating does not work within the Willandra for megafauna fossils as there never seems to be enough collagen left in the bone to obtain a carbon date. </p>
<h2>A groundbreaking fossil find – in the museum</h2>
<p>After much field work spread over a number of years we had very little luck in finding <em>in situ</em> fossils. We found numerous specimens, but these were often isolated bones sitting on eroded surfaces.</p>
<p>But one specimen found a few decades before our search did provide an excellent dating opportunity.</p>
<p><em>Zygomaturus trilobus</em> was a large lumbering wombat-like marsupial, the size of a very large bull. We know very little about its ecology, and we know even less about when and how it became extinct. </p>
<p>A specimen of this extraordinary marsupial with its large flaring cheek bones (zygomatics) was excavated on two separate occasions in the 1980s, first by zoologist Jeanette Hope and later by archaeologists Harvey Johnston and Peter Clarke.</p>
<p>The upper jaw (maxilla) of the animal was sent to the Australian Museum in Sydney where it was kept encased in its original sediments. The lower jaw can be seen on display at <a href="http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/visit-a-park/parks/Mungo-National-Park">Mungo National Park</a>. </p>
<h2>Climate the catalyst for extinction?</h2>
<p>By taking sediment samples for OSL dating and by dating the fossil directly with U-series dating we were able to show that the specimen died sometime around 33,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Aboriginal people arrived in the Willandra <a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v421/n6925/abs/nature01383.html">some 50,000 years ago</a>. It is always possible that earlier evidence for the First Australians in that landscape will be found in the future. </p>
<p>The <em>Zygomaturus</em> specimen shows that people and megafauna co-existed for at least 17,000 years. Indeed the species seems to have existed up to the period where the climate began to change dramatically, known as the last glacial cycle leading up to the <a href="http://archaeology.about.com/od/lterms/g/last_glacial_ma.htm">Last Glacial Maximum</a>.</p>
<p>Of course our date at 33,000 years ago does not represent the extinction date of <em>Zygomaturus</em>, just the latest dated remains of this iconic species.</p>
<p>Perhaps deteriorating climatic condition saw the Willandra Lakes become a refuge for both megafauna and people, as the surrounding plains held less water. This may have brought species such as <em>Zygomaturus</em> and people into increased contact? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150690/original/image-20161219-24296-1dg0h2k.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A representation of <em>Zygomaturus</em> with real-life but small <em>Homo sapiens</em>, Mungo National Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jane McDonald</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This single fossil has changed the nature of the megafauna extinction debate. We can now abandon the rapid/over kill hypothesis and start to untangle how climate may have played a role, or how changes in Aboriginal population numbers may have impacted on the ecology of the megafauna?</p>
<p>We should start to build an understanding of how these animals played a role in the ecology of ancient Australia. Were they, for example, critical in the management of certain habitats, just as the megafauna of Africa are today?</p>
<p>We know next to nothing of the ecology of most of these species. </p>
<p>It is possible that some species of megafauna co-existed for even longer so much work remains to be done. There is still a great deal to learn about Australia’s ancient megafauna.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70589/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Westaway receives funding from the Australian Research Council. This research was supported by the Three Tribal Groups of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area and staff of Mungo National Park and the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rainer Grun receives funding from the Australian Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jon Olley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The extinction of the giant reptiles, marsupials and birds that once called Australia home has been the subject of much debate, including the role early Australians may have had on their fate.Michael Westaway, Senior Research Fellow, Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith UniversityJon Olley, Professor of Water Science, Griffith UniversityRainer Grun, Professor of Archaeogeochemistry, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/653442016-09-21T20:27:45Z2016-09-21T20:27:45ZDNA reveals a new history of the First Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138203/original/image-20160919-28373-rf507z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Professor Eske Willerslev talks to Aboriginal elders in the Kalgoorlie area in southwestern Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Preben Hjort, Mayday Film</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Understanding the history of Aboriginal Australians, their origins and how their population changed over some 50,000-plus years has always been an enormous challenge. </p>
<p>Many Aboriginal people have their own origin stories. Gudjugudju, a Gimuy Yidinji Elder from the rainforest people around Cairns, says:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The story which has been passed down from generations tells of three migrations that have occurred over many thousands of years, one of us coming to this ancient land first, then another at a period after the last Ice age which saw the formation of the Great Barrier Reef, the other is of a migration out of Cairns that went back through the Cape into the Torres Strait to PNG and further.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Equally, scientific narratives of Aboriginal origins have presented different accounts. But these have been difficult to establish in part due to the difficulty and limitations of the science involved.</p>
<p>It’s also because of the social context that both science and archaeology work in within Australia. </p>
<p>The first few decades of modern archaeological research into Australia’s ancient past was conducted with very little to no involvement of Aboriginal Australian people.</p>
<p>This was followed by decades of debate over ownership of the past. Initial DNA research proposals floundered because little to no consultation was undertaken.</p>
<p>A new period of community based research with Aboriginal people was forged through the <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/2041-2223-3-22">sensitive and highly consultative approach</a> pioneered by geneticist Sheila Van Holst Pellekaan. Her work with Aboriginal people set the standard for later scientific studies in Australia.</p>
<p>We can now provide an example of work undertaken in partnership with Aboriginal Australian people from all parts of Australia, from the deserts to urban and regional centres. The details of the research are <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature18299">published today in Nature</a>. </p>
<h2>The First Australians</h2>
<p>Our results show very clearly that Aboriginal Australian people living today are the descendants of the First People to enter Australia, who lived between 25,000 to 40,000 years ago.</p>
<p>There is substantial evidence of admixture or intermixing with Asian, Oceanic and European people within the last 200 years. But in the Aboriginal DNA is an ancient story of migration into this continent, far deeper in time than any other population group has so far revealed.</p>
<p>It shows ancient contact and gene flow between the ancestors of the First Australians and now extinct populations of Neanderthals and Denisovans. This is very similar to the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-sheds-light-on-the-origin-of-europeans-33907">gene flows reported</a> between Neanderthals, Europeans and Asians. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/138201/original/image-20160919-28371-exd8kc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Biological anthropologist Dr Michael Westaway obtains a saliva sample from Thanakwith Elder Thomas Wales, at Cape York, Australia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tom Cebula, Wall to Wall Media</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our paper supports the results of <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-dna-study-confirms-ancient-aborigines-were-the-first-australians-60616">earlier genomic research</a>. This includes the foundational study on the <a href="http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2011/09/dna-confirms-aboriginal-culture-one-of-earths-oldest/">first Aboriginal Australian genome</a> from Western Australia and ancient DNA recovered from fossil remains from Lake Mungo. </p>
<p>Our research discounts the political agenda of some individuals who have claimed that Aboriginal Australians may not have been the <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-we-should-recognise-as-first-australians-in-the-constitution-38714">First Australians</a>.</p>
<p>The research also helps clarify a number of key points that archaeologists have been debating since the 1960s, such as where the ancestors of Aboriginal Australian people likely first entered the continent.</p>
<h2>The first migration</h2>
<p>There has been considerable <a href="http://australianmuseum.net.au/the-spread-of-people-to-australia">debate</a> as to whether the First Australians took the northern route (through Papua and then down into Cape York) or a more southerly route, crossing from Timor into north-western Australia. </p>
<p>Our evidence reveals a picture of population expansion from north east Australia.</p>
<p>Around 10,000 years ago, sea levels rose and the land bridge between Papua and Cape York was flooded. Based on this, the genetic separation of Papuans and Aboriginal Australians was generally believed to have been initiated after this time. </p>
<p>But using large-scale genome data from Australians and Papuans we estimate the time of divergence between the two groups to be 37,000 years ago. This is much earlier than previously predicted.</p>
<p>This also suggests that barriers to intermarriage between Australia and Papua occurred much earlier than the creation of the barrier of Torres Strait. </p>
<p>Interestingly a significant barrier to gene flow within Australia also seems to have occurred at the time of the last great ice age, known as the Last Glacial Maximum (<a href="http://archaeology.about.com/od/lterms/g/last_glacial_ma.htm">LGM</a>).</p>
<h2>East and west Australians</h2>
<p>We see significant divergence between Aboriginal Australian people of north east and south west Australia. These groups are more genetically different than, for example, Native Americans and Siberians are from each other.</p>
<p>They are all Aboriginal Australians of course, but the onset of the LGM seems to have limited gene flow between east and west. As a result, the formation of a different population structure began some 31,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Further subdivisions among eastern and western Aboriginal Australians appeared to have occurred later. The phylogenetic relationships based on our genetic data correlated well with the divisions based on the Aboriginal (Pama-Nyungan) languages spoken by the people.</p>
<p>Some researchers have maintained for many years that the archaeological record shows significant population expansion in the last few thousand years before the arrival of Europeans.</p>
<p>Other archaeologists have disagreed, stating that demographic expansion can be a very difficult thing to prove from a record of carbon dates, stone tools and <a href="http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nswcultureheritage/ShellMiddens.htm">shell middens</a>.</p>
<p>These signatures are very prone to destruction by such things as erosion and sea level change. Much of the first coastline initially colonised by the First Australians now lies beneath the waves, locked in a drowned landscape.</p>
<p>The genetic evidence for population increase in north east Australia, one area that some archaeologists have argued was subject to significant population expansion, is actually earlier than expected. It seems to begin some 10,000 years ago, which is several thousand years earlier than evidence provided by archaeology. </p>
<p>Also our genome data do not show any significant gene flow events into <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ancient-australian-connection-to-india-55935">Australia from India</a> around 6,000 years ago, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-15/research-shows-ancient-indian-migration-to-australia/4466382">suggested by previous research</a>. </p>
<h2>Desert life</h2>
<p>What we did find was unique genetic variations specific to Aboriginal Australians that might have given them an improved ability to withstand cold and dehydration – potential adaptations to life in the desert.</p>
<p>Previous studies have shown the potential of DNA in understanding the ancestral relationships of Aboriginal Australian people. Genome sequencing in the past few years has revealed a far more complicated picture than first thought.</p>
<p>We can now tackle questions that have been debated for decades using the actual evidence from the biology of the First Australians. </p>
<p>It is crucial that we continue to make sure that such research is done in partnership with Aboriginal Australian people.</p>
<p>As noted by one of the key researchers in the project, Dr Craig Muller, who said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>We have developed close relationships with many individuals throughout the project, and collaborated closely with Aboriginal Elders in each language group who provided important cultural information. The Elders also guided us to the appropriate people to participate.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>A great example of how things have changed since the early years is that there are now new generations of young Aboriginal Australian researchers undertaking DNA research.</p>
<p>In parallel is the interest shown by many indigenous groups who are interested in this research and keen to partner with us. This suggests a wonderful future might lie ahead. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137679/original/image-20160914-4955-1v917g8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visit by representatives of the Willandra Aboriginal Elders to the Griffith University ancient DNA laboratory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Renee Chapman</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>Aboriginal leader Gudjugudju co-authored this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/65344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Westaway receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Bowern receives funding from the USA's National Science Foundation and the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lambert receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Human Frontier Program, the Marsden Fund of New Zealand and the Australia India Research Fund.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sankar Subramanian receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Wright does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>New DNA research working with Indigenous Australians is answering many of the questions about when and where the First Australians emerged many thousands of years ago.Michael Westaway, Senior Research Fellow, Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith UniversityClaire Bowern, Associate Professor, Yale UniversityDavid Lambert, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Griffith UniversityJoanne Wright, PhD Researcher in Ancient DNA, Griffith UniversitySankar Subramanian, Research Fellow in Genomics, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/638382016-08-11T11:28:52Z2016-08-11T11:28:52ZGrattan on Friday: There’s seldom been a harder time to get things done<p>We now find we’ve lost the art, which we had for a century, of running a census without a mega snafu. One can only imagine the fury that Malcolm Turnbull, who has been angry publicly, is unleashing in more private settings.</p>
<p>But while the census disaster is spectacular, quite a few other things are going poorly for the government. Indeed, the polity generally struggles these days to get much done.</p>
<p>Pre-election, significant tax reform went up in smoke. Talk of reworking the federation simply disappeared.</p>
<p>This week saw hopes quietly die for a vote next May to write recognition of the First Australians into our Constitution. The aspirational timing had been significant because it would have been the 50th anniversary of the successful 1967 referendum. The Referendum Council has announced it is extending its consultations and plans to present its report to the prime minister and opposition leader by mid-next year. There was hardly a murmur.</p>
<p>The prospect of a referendum being held before the next election must now be small. There is little chance of agreement on a question; many Indigenous leaders are giving priority to a treaty; right-wing Liberals and conservative commentators are dead against recognition and will work to prevent a vote being held (and if it is, campaign to frustrate the change).</p>
<p>Is Turnbull going to spend much political capital on this? Unlikely.</p>
<p>Then there is same-sex marriage. The polls tell us a majority of the population think this is a desirable reform, and it is supported by Turnbull and Bill Shorten. It’s one of those issues that’s both a big deal and not a big deal. In other words, it’s important in terms of equal rights, and very significant for a section of the community, while in personal terms it hardly affects most other people.</p>
<p>So it should be easy to sort, right? Wrong. Politicking within the Liberals produced the promise of a plebiscite, opposed by Labor which wants the decision made by a parliamentary vote. </p>
<p>Some in the marriage equality movement are stepping up their fight against a plebiscite; Labor is torn over whether to try to block the machinery to set one up; Turnbull for political reasons can’t go down any other route. </p>
<p>The way ahead is unclear. If the plebiscite is stopped in the Senate, presumably nothing could be done on same-sex marriage this term. If it is run, while the “yes” side would be favoured to win, bad feeling among those who back change could make their campaign more difficult.</p>
<p>On a completely different front, outgoing Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens gave a sharp lecture on Wednesday about how we are not facing up to the need to repair the budget.</p>
<p>Stevens pinged the problem. “At present, general public debate starts with commitment to the need for reform and for putting public finances on a sustainable medium-term track. But when specific ideas are proposed that will actually make a difference over the medium to long term, the conversation quickly shifts to rather narrow notions of ‘fairness’, people look to their own positions, the interest groups all come out and the specific proposals often run into the sand,” he said.</p>
<p>Stevens says we are “kidding ourselves” if we think we can avoid a “more hard-nosed conversation”.</p>
<p>Whether this conversation will come in time to head off the downgrading of Australia’s credit rating is another matter. After the Abbott government in 2014 bungled the opportunity to start serious budget repair, which led to the effort being pushed onto the backburner, how likely is it that the Turnbull government, with its tiny majority, will make seriously hard decisions? The backlash would be guaranteed and the backbench dangerously up in arms.</p>
<p>Finally, the publication this week by Guardian Australia of a mass of files detailing allegations and reports of abuse and self-harm on Nauru is a reminder – if one is needed – of the government’s failure to find permanent settlement arrangements for these people or those on Manus Island.</p>
<p>Immigration Minister Peter Dutton’s reaction has been (of course) to blame Labor for losing control of the borders and to point the finger at the refugees and asylum seekers. </p>
<p>“Some people have even gone to the extent of self-harming and people have self-immolated in an effort to get to Australia,” Dutton said on Thursday. We’ve reached the stage where a minister can say this of those who have set themselves alight and it passes with little notice.</p>
<p>The government’s message has been loud and clear: refugees from Nauru and Manus won’t be allowed into Australia. That policy carries the responsibility to find somewhere else for them to go. But this has been beyond the government and Dutton – who, however, has been more successful at a political level. </p>
<p>Thanks to the implications of Turnbull’s weak election result, Dutton was able to have himself elevated to cabinet’s national security committee, not because he or his portfolio justified it, but because he is a senior voice of the conservatives.</p>
<p>Turnbull’s loss of authority and lack of clear agenda or direction, combined with Shorten’s determination to pursue an Abbott-style continuous election campaign and the unpredictability of the Senate, make for a good deal of pessimism about the prospect of achieving major policy progress this term.</p>
<p>As for the more modest aim of delivering steady, competent government – well, it’s no wonder Turnbull is raging.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63838/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For the more modest aim of delivering steady, competent government – well, it’s no wonder Malcolm Turnbull is raging.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/606162016-06-08T06:57:39Z2016-06-08T06:57:39ZNew DNA study confirms ancient Aborigines were the First Australians<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125628/original/image-20160608-15024-1blsrwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The original excavation of Mungo Man, found near Lake Mungo in southwestern New South Wales, Australia.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wilfred Shawcross.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The question of whether Aboriginal People were the First Australians <a href="https://theconversation.com/factcheck-might-there-have-been-people-in-australia-prior-to-aboriginal-people-43911">may be unanimously accepted today</a> but research published back in 2001 suggested the contrary. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/01/1521066113.abstract">new study out this week</a> shows how we re-examined the research and our results put an end to that controversy.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/98/2/537.full">2001 study</a>, by the Australian National University’s Gregory Adcock and colleagues, attained international significance, although its conclusions have remained controversial.</p>
<p>The authors published what was argued to be DNA sequences from <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/mungo-man">Mungo Man</a>, the oldest Australian, and from the remains of nine other ancient Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<p>One of the most important landmark claims by the authors was that the ancient DNA sequence of Mungo Man showed high divergence from the sequences of contemporary humans, including those from Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<p>Hence they suggested that Mungo Man belonged to an early human lineage, which is not related to modern Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<h2>An ‘older’ First Australian?</h2>
<p>The implications of these claims were profound. They suggested multiple waves of migration to Australia, with an older more divergent population, which included Mungo Man, being replaced by a more recent population consisting of contemporary Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<p>The paper supported the hypothesis of modern human origins of the <a href="http://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/thorne-alan-gordon-16156">late Alan Thorne</a>, who was also from ANU and an author of the paper. </p>
<p>Thorne had argued that Aboriginal origins were the result of two independent migrations, one of which was from a population whose origins were firmly linked with ancient Java (Indonesia).</p>
<p>The report of an extinct modern human lineage recovered from ancient DNA, he argued, supported his views on modern human origins. He said that we could no longer consider modern human origins to be solely African.</p>
<p>Naturally, the suggestion that contemporary Aboriginal Australians were not the true First Peoples of Australia resulted in heated debate. </p>
<p>The scientists who had done the research had not necessarily said exactly this. But this was how it was being portrayed, including on the front page of The Australian newspaper.</p>
<p>These controversial findings were further challenged by other researchers who questioned the authenticity of the sequences reported. They highlighted problems with the methods used to analyse the DNA sequences they recovered and there were concerns about the validity of the conclusions by the authors.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that Adcock and his colleagues rebutted some of these criticisms. They defended their conclusions about modern human origins, particularly with regard to the phylogenetic placement of Mungo Man.</p>
<h2>Re-testing the results</h2>
<p>Given the obvious importance of these claims, particularly in terms of the social question of who the First Australians really were, it deserved serious re-evaluation. This was possible using more recent advances in DNA methods and powerful analytical approaches.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=300&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125629/original/image-20160608-15021-16gnelm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lake Mungo World Heritage Site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sherene Lambert (St Augustine's College, Ipswich, Australia)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To assess the results obtained by the original research we were given consent from the <a href="http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/world/willandra">Willandra Lakes</a> World Heritage Area Aboriginal Elders Committee – comprising the Parkindji, Ngiyampa and Muthi Muthi elders – to re-sample material from this important fossil series.</p>
<p>This research, <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/01/1521066113.abstract">published this week</a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, disputes these earlier claims.</p>
<p>Using more advanced second-generation DNA sequencing methods provides strong evidence that the DNA sequences originally reported by Adcock and colleagues were likely artefacts of the method used. </p>
<p>The polymerase chain reaction (<a href="http://www.yourgenome.org/facts/what-is-pcr-polymerase-chain-reaction">PCR</a>) technique used in the original study can produce unique hybrid molecules from different DNA templates. Whatever, the sequences reported previously were certainly not from Aboriginal Australians.</p>
<p>This new study was unable to replicate a single sequence published in the earlier study, with the exception of a sequence listed as belonging to Adcock himself, despite using some of the original extracts.</p>
<h2>Finding contamination</h2>
<p>The sample from Mungo Man that was re-sequenced in the new study contained sequences from five different European people, clearly representing contamination that may be due to handling throughout the years.</p>
<p>Among the other remains analysed was one man who was buried close to the location where Mungo Man was originally interred. The present study successfully recovered ancient DNA from this man. It represents the first recovery of a mitochondrial genome from an ancient Aboriginal person who lived before the arrival of Europeans.</p>
<p>The mitochondrial sequence was found to belong to a haplotype (grouping of human populations based on mitochondrial DNA) S2. This is exclusively found among contemporary Aboriginal Australian populations.</p>
<p>The present study is important for many reasons, but perhaps most importantly it has been planned and conducted, and is published, with the support of the Barkindji, Ngiyampaa and Muthi Muthi indigenous groups.</p>
<p>Finally, this new study refutes the earlier suggestion that another extinct lineage of people predated Aboriginal Australians. The archaeology and the genetics provide very strong evidence that our First People have been here over the past 50,000 years. This was long before people first arrived in Europe.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60616/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Lambert receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Westaway receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joanne Wright and Sankar Subramanian do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research first published in 2001 has been used to question of whether Aboriginal People were the First Australians. So why not re-test those results with improved techniques and equipment?David Lambert, Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Griffith UniversityJoanne Wright, PhD Researcher in Ancient DNA, Griffith UniversityMichael Westaway, Senior Research Fellow, Research Centre for Human Evolution, Griffith UniversitySankar Subramanian, Research Fellow in Genomics, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.