The past 50,000 years: An archaeological view

The ‘beginnings’ of Australian history are always difficult to determine. In addition to Indigenous systems of knowledge with their own epistemologies, understanding ancient Australia involves the disciplines of archaeology, anthropology and linguistics, as well as history. These disciplines developed out of earlier forms of knowledge whereby European explorers, settlers, naturalists, ethnologists, antiquarians and collectors sought to ascertain the Australian past. In the absence of written records, archaeologists have played a leading role in reconstructing this past. Initially relying on the stratified sequence of excavated material to produce a relative chronology of cultural change, from the 1950s they were able to employ new methods of dating their discoveries – first radiocarbon dating and later electron spin resonance and luminescence methods. During the 1950s it was commonly believed that people had occupied Australia no earlier than 10,000 years ago, during the last Ice Age, and it was only in 1962 that radiocarbon dates exceeded 10,000 years. The earliest known occupation stretched to 20,000 years ago by 1965, 30,000 years by 1969 and 40,000 by 1973.