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Science 5 January 1979:
Vol. 203. no. 4375, pp. 21 - 28
DOI: 10.1126/science.203.4375.21
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Articles

Australian Prehistory: New Aspects of Antiquity

J. Peter White 1 and James F. O'Connell 2

1 Reader in Prehistory in the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney, N.S.W. 2006, Australia
2 Research Fellow in the Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 2600

Human occupation of greater Australia occurred by 50,000 years ago, probably through deliberate voyaging by a small group of people. Later migrations, if any, are unlikely to have significantly changed the original genetic and cultural make-up While early Aborigines may have hunted extinct megafauna, the data do not support a rapid "Pleistocene overkill" hypothesis. Finally, aspects of Australian Aboriginal economy, especially plant utilization, and technology—the small tool tradition, ground stone hatchets and boomerangs—are of considerable antiquity and probably originated locally.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Gene Flow and Natural Selection in Oceanic Human Populations Inferred from Genome-Wide SNP Typing.
R. Kimura, J. Ohashi, Y. Matsumura, M. Nakazawa, T. Inaoka, R. Ohtsuka, M. Osawa, and K. Tokunaga (2008)
Mol. Biol. Evol. 25, 1750-1761
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Dentochronological Separation Estimates for Pacific Rim Populations.
C. G. Turner and C. G. TURNER II (1986)
Science 232, 1140-1142
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Melanesian Prehistory: Some Recent Advances.
J. P. White, J. P. White, and J. Allen (1980)
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