Availability:
Available to internal and external students in second semester of every year.

Coordinator: A/Professor M. Morwood

Residential School:
Nil

Online level:2

Objectives: Students who successfully complete this unit should:

• understand how archaeology yields information about the past and be able to critically assess the evidence.
  
• know some of the major events that occurred in this region over the 50,000 year history of people in the region, and the nature of the evidence on which it is based.
• understand the context of Australian archaeology: what went before; what the environment was like and how this changed.
  
• know more about of the many different indigenous societies in Australia and New Guinea.
  
• understand some of the processes, which produced differences between these indigenous societies.
  
• appreciate some of the political problems inherent in archaeological research and management.

Content: This unit provides an introduction to Australian Aboriginal archaeology in a world context. It begins by studying where the first human colonisation of Australia fits into the record of the origins of modern human biology and behaviour. It will utilise a just-released textbook that should revitalise the study of Australia's human past. This will be used to provide a thorough survey of what is known about the archaeology of the first Australians.

There are two lectures and a two hour practical per week.

Prescribed Text:
Mulvaney, D.J. and Kamminga, J. 1999. The Prehistory of Australia, Allen and Unwin.