Sub sections:
Cases 11 - 20
Case 11 - Australian Palaeoanthropology - The Earliest Australians This display shows material from central Java which was first occupied by populations of Homo erectus about 1 million years ago. Evidence is sketchy but suggests that modern Australoid populations, including Australian Aboriginals, developed in situ from this earlier Homo erectus population at about the same time as similar developments elsewhere in the world. The colonisation of Australia occurred after this evolutionary change in Asia. Case 12 - Australian Palaeoanthropology - The Pleistocene This display illustrates aspects of Australian Aboriginal life from the time Australia was colonised, about 55,000 years ago, until the end of the last Ice Age, 10,000 years ago. Included are a range of artefacts made from stone and other materials and illustrations of rock art of the period. The first Australians shared the continent with a range of large animals now extinct, known as megafauna. Bone fragments from some of these animals are also on display. It is uncertain whether Aboriginal hunting and firing or environmental changes were the cause of their extinction. Case 13 - Australian Palaeoanthropology - The Holocene This deals with changes that occurred in Aboriginal society from about 4,000 years ago to the period of European and Macassan contact. During this time there were substantial changes in stone artefact technology and food getting. These appear to be associated with a major increase in the Aboriginal population. The European contact period is marked by many other developments (eg. use of metal, glass and tobacco pipes) including the decimation of Aboriginal populations. Case 14 - Australian Aboriginal Life - Desert Culture This case is one of two illustrating the cultural diversity of Australian Aboriginal life. It depicts aspects of Aboriginal life in the desert regions. A range of tools and weapons is included (eg. shields and boomerangs). Many of these implements were multipurpose. Case 15 - Australian Aboriginal Life - Rainforest Culture This illustrates aspects of Aboriginal life in the rainforest area of North East Queensland. The range of material culture, plus information on economic activities provides a marked contrast to the arid zone display. Note the difference in weapon types, shields, spear throwers and basketry. Case 16 - Baliem Valley Culture This display concerns the Dani people who occupy the Grand Valley of the Baliem in the Highlands of Irian Jaya. The display includes information on settlement type, the horticultural economy, warfare, and the effects of outside contact. People of the Sepik River region on the north coast of New Guinea are renowned for the richness of their decorative arts. This display includes a number of decorated items from the Sepik (eg. pots, carvings, ornaments). It also includes information on local food staples, warfare and exchange. Case 18 - Aspects of Fijian Culture Fiji comprises a cluster of over 300 islands on the boundary between Melanesia and Polynesia in the Pacific. This display includes a number of Fijian tools, weapons and ornaments It also provides information on Fijian geography, prehistory and history. The islands were first settled by people using a distinctive pottery, Lapita, about 3,300 years ago. Since that time many cultural changes have occurred including the appearance of a different pottery tradition. The making of tapa cloth and the drink kava or yangona is characteristic of this region. Case 19 - Cyprus: The Stone Age This case contains the oldest Cypriot material from the J.R. Stewart collection and is the first display in a series covering the Stone Age, Early Bronze Age, bottom & Late Bronze Age, Iron Age and the Roman period in Cyprus. This display starts at the bottom with the first colonists in the Neolithic I period which is characterized by the use of stone implements, agriculture, domesticated animals and hunting. The Neolithic II period is characterized by the addition of pottery to the above culture. In Cyprus there was a gap of about 1,500 years between the above two periods suggesting the Neolithic II or Sotira Culture may have started with a new colonization. The Chalcolithic period saw further cultural changes with new pottery styles and the first appearance of metal implements. The transition from this period to the Early Bronze Age is a shadowy one. Case 20 - Cyprus: The Early Bronze Age The Early Bronze Age is divided into three phases starting with Early Cypriot I (2500 B.C.-2075 B.C.) the Early Cypriot II (2075 B.C.-2000 B.C.) and the Early Cypriot III (2000 B.C.-1900 B.C.). This was the period where Professor J.R. Stewart did most of his excavation work and later wrote the section on the Early Bronze Age for the Swedish Cyprus Expedition reports in 1962. This period is characterized by an increase in population with colonists from Anatolia introducing new pottery forms and advanced metal technology. However, the range of bronze tools and weapons remained limited and the technology of manufacture relatively basic. The economy of the island remained essentially agricultural and the mining and trading of copper was not yet playing a major role. The Characteristic pottery is Red Polished Ware which was undecorated or incised in the EC I, but became more decorated with a greater variety of form in the EC II and EC III. A second fabric, known as Black Polished Ware also came into regular use towards the end of the period. No Cypriot Bronze Age objects have been found outside Cyprus and only a few objects from Crete and Egypt in the EC III phase indicate little outside trade and the relative isolation of Cyprus in this period. |