Human colonization Human colonization is a broader category than the related subconcept of colonialism, because whereas colonialism refers to the establishment of settler colonies, trading posts, and plantations, colonization encompasses all large-scale emigrations of an established population to a ‘new’ location, such as immigration, the establishment of expatriate communities, and the use of guest workers.
Last Glacial Maximum The time of maximum extent of the ice sheets during the last glaciation (the Wiirm or Wisconsin glaciation), approximately 20 000 years ago. The conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum in Australia persisted for probably 10 000 years.
Sahul The name given to the single Pleistocene-era continent which combined Australia with New Guinea and Tasmania.
Australia is an island continent exceeding 3.1 million square kilometers. It comprises a very old, relatively flat landscape and is the driest continent on earth. The modern land mass covers over 40° of latitude with a diverse range of environments: from the dominant arid core to rainforest and temperate forests on the margins to alpine areas in the southeast. The period of human history has been influenced by rising and falling sea levels and fluctuating climatic conditions. At various times in the past, as a result of lowered sea levels associated with glacial periods, the Australian continent was joined to Papua New Guinea and Tasmania - known as Sahul. Environmental change drove shifts in vegetation structure and faunal populations. There was significant contraction and expansion of the continental land mass as a result of sea level fluctuations through the last glacial cycle with sea levels at their lowest during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) (c. 30-19 ka). When Europeans arrived and settled here around 230 years ago they were met by an indigenous population of mobile hunter-gatherers with sophisticated cultural and spiritual systems, including c. 250 languages, a material culture with few formal tools but including some sophisticated items such as an aerodynamic foil - the boomerang, and an environment with a unique vegetation and fauna. The nature of the climate and landscape in Australia has provided limited preservational opportunities for organic remains with archaeological investigations focused predominately on caves and rockshelters. Shell middens, open sites such as lithic scatters, stone arrangements, quarries, and a diverse array of rock art have also provided insights into the histories of indigenous Australians.
Historically, the focus has been on the timing and pathways of human colonization of the continent, the physical anthropology of these populations and the possible links to Late Pleistocene faunal extinctions (see Oceania: Historical Archaeology in Australia). As yet none of these issues has been clearly resolved but a complex picture has emerged of environmental change and the dynamic nature of human adaptive responses at the local and regional level. While considerable attention has been focused on the Pleistocene, the Holocene has also received concerted archaeological research of a similar scale. Some of these issues are addressed here and key examples are presented to provide an insight into the nature of the Australian archaeological record.
World History
