The prehistory of Australia is the period ranging between the arrival of the first human groups on the continent (towards 40 to 45.000 years before our era) and the arrival of Europeans in 1606, which marks the beginning of the Histoire of Australia. It is question of Préhistoire rather than of history insofar as no hard copy is available concerning the human events occurred during this period.
The arrival of the first populations
See also: Settlement of Oceania
It is generally allowed that the first human populations arrived to Australia between 45.000 and 40.000 years before J. - C. During the last glaciation, the sea level was much lower than today. The Australian coast was located at the sea level of Timor, and the Australia and the New Guinea formed only one continent, called Sahul. They were connected by an isthmus located at the level of the Mer of Arafura, Golfe of Carpentaria and strait of Torres. According to the current theory, the ancestral groups would have sailed at small distances starting from the islands of current the Indonesia, to reach Sahul. Then, by terrestrial way, they would have dispersed on the whole of the continent. Archaeological testimonys show upstream the presence of human dwellings Swan River, in Western Australia, approximately 40.000 years ago; it seems that the Tasmanie, it so accessible by terrestrial way at the time, was reached towards.
The presence of plant species and animal similar in Australia, New Guinea and in the close islands indonésiennes is another consequence of these old ways of terrestrial passage, which disappeared when the sea level went up, at the end from the last Ice Age. Since, the sea level is relatively stable, and recovers the passage which formerly connected Australia to New Guinea.
In the tradition of the Indigenous of Australia, the history of the continent starts with what one can translate by the “Temps of the dream”, a myth of the creation which tells the origin of the people, the animals and the geomorphological configuration of the Australian continent (see also the article Cosmogonie). The traditions of the “Time of the dream” were, and are perpetuated still today by oral songs and accounts in all Australia. The arrival of Matthew Flinders with Albany (Western Australia) and the Japanese attack on Darwin in 1942 were integrated in the ritual dances and ceremonies, and in a certain manner, belong from now on to this mythology.
Environmental consequences
The discovery of ashes by the archeologists seems to show that, during the period following the arrival of human, the fires multiplied in prehistoric Australia; it is supposed that the hunters made use of it to fold back game, to stimulate the rebirth of the vegetation in order to attract the animals, or to open a way in impenetrable forests. The areas very densément wooded became sparser forests, and the already sparse forests became meadows. The species resisting fire became prevalent: for example, the Eucalyptus, the Acacia S and plants fatty.The evolution of fauna was more radical: the Australian Mégafaune, disappeared very quickly, as well as many other smaller species. One counts 60 species of vertebrate thus exterminated, in particular the group of the Diprotodon S (of the herbivorous Marsupiaux of the size of an hippopotamus), some species of birds, Kangourou S of which a carnivorous species, a species of Lézard measuring nearly five meters, and a tortoise with dimensions comparable with that of a small car. The direct cause of these extinctions in mass is not known with certainty: fire, hunting, climate changes, or the combination of these factors can be blamed, but it is generally thought that the intervention of the man in a way or of another contributed there. Without large herbivores to control the vegetation, and to recycle the nutrients of the ground in their excrements, erosion became faster and more destroying fires, thus making evolve/move quickly the landscape.
It is difficult to evaluate the population which lived Australia before European colonization. There exist assumptions making state of a population separated in three distinct ethnicities, or of a single ethnic origin. However, because of the politization of this problem, the theory of the single origin, which supports ethnic solidarity, was privileged. In fact, there exists elements relatively little making it possible to argue in a direction or the other. The study of the genome did not make it possible to take a decision between a model resting on a settlement by successive waves and a model resting on a single establishment.
Climate change, insulation and contacts
Between and it, the aridity of the continent increased; the climate was colder and less wet than today. At the end of the Pleistocene, towards, the isthmus which crossed the strait of Torrès, that which connected the island Kangourou to the continent and the plain of Bottom (which was between the current province of Victoria and the Tasmanie) were again immersed. The end of the diluvial period was rather abrupt. For some, it would be evoked in the legends aboriginals: one finds there accounts evoking of fish falling from the sky and the tsunamis.Consequently, the Aborigènes of Tasmanie were insulated on the geographical level. Towards, the populations living the island Kangaroo and the small islands of the Détroit of Bottom disappeared.
The elements brought by the Linguistic and the Génétique make it possible to affirm that, for one long period, there were contacts between the aboriginals of the north of Australia and the populations austronésiennes living current the New Guinea and the islands which surround it, but the marketing activity seeming of to have been the feature dominating, without there are interethnic unions, nor of colonization strictly speaking. It is also necessary to announce the temporary and localized presence of a habitat austronésien on the northern coast of Australia, and reciprocally of an indigenous habitat on the archipelago indonésien.
Culture and techniques
The 5.000 last years were characterized by a general improvement of the climate, an increase in the temperature and precipitations, as well as the development of a complex tribal culture. The tribes aboriginals exchanged mainly songs, dances, but also of the invaluable stones, seeds, weapons, food… The linguistic type Pama-Nyunga was present on the whole of the continent except for south-east and the Ground of Arnhem. One also at that time observes a remarkable continuity between the religious designs in all Australia. The initiation of young people and the young girls was marked by particular festivals and rites. The behaviors were subject to strict rules with regard to the responsibility within the widened family circle, uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters and in-laws. The system of Parenté into force in the majority of the communities determined a division in two parts, with restrictions concerning the marriage between members of one of the two parts of the community.
The political power belonged to old of the group rather than to hereditary chiefs, and the quarrels were judged within the group according to a complex system of tribal laws. The Vendetta S seem to have been current thing, but the organized war with large scales was rare, undoubtedly because of the multiple bonds of marriage or blood between the individuals and the communities.
Considerable technical innovations took place during the 3.000 years which preceded colonization. The quartz was used to produce tools and was worked with skill by the indigenous craftsmen. The Dingo arrived from the South Asia. Lastly, agriculture developed with small scales in the Western Victoria, and the culture of the Igname around Geraldton.
It is generally estimated that in 1788 there was approximately a half-million Australian Aborigènes (the highest estimates speak about a million inhabitants). These populations were divided into cultural and linguistic groups distinct. The majority lived hunting, and had a rich person cultural heritage transmitted orally as of the elaborate techniques of management of the grounds (the traces of the ecological disaster which had succeeded on first arrivals of population was for a long time unobtrusive). In the most populated most fertile areas and, the habitat was semi-permanent. In the Basin of Murray, the economy based on hunting and the gathering which one found everywhere else on the continent had mainly yielded the place to the Pisciculture.
One does not know large thing about the number of the indigenous people and diversity of their cultures and their languages. As on the American continent, the introduced diseases decimated the indigenous populations good before the majority of the people came into contact with Europeans. At the time of the unloading of James Cook, it could have existed to 500 tribes speaking several hundreds about dialects.
Contacts with the not-Australian people
The people living on the northern coast of the continent (area of Kimberley, Ground of Arnhem, Gulf of Carpentaria and course York) had many visits lasting of the millenia. The people and the goods circulated easily between Australia and the New Guinea before the disappearance of the isthmus which connected them because of the rise of the sea level, there is 6000 years. However, the trade and the cultural exchanges continued through the strait of Torres, broad 150 km but where navigation was easy thanks to the multiple islands which strew it and with the reefs which level in many points. The islands were populated by populations of culture mélanésienne, and the interactions thus continued by this way. Traditional displacements between Australia, New Guinea and Indonesia make plausible the thesis according to which Chinese and Arab merchants would have visited the northern shore of the continent as of the 9th century. Figurines known as " of Bradshaw" found in the area of Kimberley also seem to attest passage of Indians in the neighborhoods of the beginning of the Christian era.
The fishermen indonésiens " Bajini" come from the Moluques fished off the Australian coasts during centuries. The merchants of Sulawesi regularly attended the northern shore of Australia to fish Holothurie S there resold thereafter with the Chinese, who appreciated them much, and this at least since the beginning of the 17th century.
The cultural exchanges seem to have been intense, as testify some paintings on rock and bark to the Aboriginals, the introduction of technologies like the boats dug in a tree trunk, the Tabac, the pipe, vocabulary come from Sulawesi, but also the presence of people of Malayan origin within the Australian communities aboriginals, and conversely.
See too
Related articles
Simple: Ancient Australia
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