Up until the 1950’s, it was widely believed that Australia wasn’t inhabited by the Aboriginals until 10,000 years ago. The breakthrough use of Carbon 14 dating extended the date to around 40,000 years ago.
New techniques such as optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), are giving evidence for an earlier date for arrival. Charles Dortch has dated recent finds on Rottnest Island, Western Australia at 70,000 years BP and following the analysis of pollen and charcoal, there were suggestions of people using fire to clear land in the Lake George basin in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales as early as 120,000 years ago. Furthermore, thermoluminescence dating of the Jinmium site in the Northern Territory suggested a date of human inhabitants 200,000 years ago.
Although the latter two results received wide press coverage at the time, they are generally not accepted by most archaeologists for various technical reasons.
Oldest Petroglyphs in the World
The Burrup Peninsula is home to the world’s largest of petroglyphs. There are over a million petroglyphs in this area with depictions of the extinct Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) and possibly the first ever representation of the human face. They are also the oldest; they are thought to be at least 10,000 years old, but many argue they are up to 30,000 years old.
Although not as representational as the Burrup petroglyphs, the Ewaninga Conservation Reserve, about 35km south of Alice Springs, contains about 1000 petroglyphs. These are distributed among the rock outcrops to the south and south-east of the claypan and consist of circles, lines and other geometric motifs. There are also some examples of animal tracks.
The precise age of these petroglyphs are unknown, but the motifs and weathering suggest an age as great as 30000 years. In her book, Rock Art of the Dreamtime: images of ancient Australia, Josephine Flood describes the petroglyphs as Panaramitee-style, which, based on dating of other Paranamitee sites, could give a date as early as 40000 years ago.
Numerous Panaramitee sites occur in the Olary region of South Australia, in the Cleland Hills in Australia’s desert core and at Sturts Meadow near Mootwingee in western New South Wales.
Some of the engravings at Olary have been dated to over 40,000 years, but remarkably similar ones were made right up to the time of first contact with Europeans in central Australia.
Earlier Human Evidence
Evidence of paint used by artists around 60,000 years ago has been found at rock shelters at Malakunanja and Nauwalabila, in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Used pieces of ochre probably for rock painting or body decoration has been found at both these sites, and stone tools have also been found dating from 53-60,000 years ago. The Lake Mungo region is also of interest with the discovery of stone tools dating from about 50,000 years.
The discovery of human remains at Lake Mungo in 1974 by the archaeologist Dr James Bowler proved to be one of the most significant finds in Australia and indeed the world. Mungo Man is currently the earliest evidence found of cultural sophistication, in this case, the anointing of the body with ochre before or during burial.
Unfortunately, this poor fellow has also been the subject of much controversy. He was initially thought to be between 28,000 and 32,000 years old, but following an electron spin resonance test on bone fragments in 1987, he was estimated to be 31,000, plus or minus 7000 years.
In 1999, Mungo Man created a frenzy of excitement and vigorous debate when Australian National University scientists combined data from uranium-thorium dating, electron spin resonance dating and optically stimulated luminescence dating, and estimated him to be 62,000 years. This rewrote the history of human occupation in Australia and had profound implications for the origins of modern man.
Four years later in 2003, a group of scientists from several Australian universities examined stratigraphic evidence and used four different dating methods and now Mungo Man is widely accepted as being 40,000 years old. He can still claim the accolade of having the second oldest anatomically modern human remains found outside of Africa to date.
Also found at the site was the less famous ‘Mungo Lady’, who is thought to be of a similar age to Mungo Man. Her burnt remains are the earliest evidence of ritual cremation in the world.
As the arrival debate continues, doubt has been cast on the age of some of Australia’s ancient sites, but what is known for sure is that the first Australians had colonised the country by 50,000 years and by 40,000 years ago, they had art and ritual burial.
Who Were the First Australians?
Where the first inhabitants came from opens yet another can of worms: Asian genetic studies have shown there are similarities between Aborigines, Melanesians and Indians. However, if the suggested date of 60,000 years ago for initial settlement is used, Aborigine population may derive from an early African population which migrated along the south coast of Asia at a much faster rate than other populations migrating across the continents of the Holocene.
This makes anatomically modern people movement in Australia much earlier than anatomically modern people movement in Europe, which is thought to have occurred about 40,000 years ago. At this time, the Neanderthals were still present in Europe and the two groups lived alongside each other until the Neanderthals disappeared around 28,000 years ago.
