|
|
Re: ABORIGINES?
Dan Barnes (dbarnes@liv.ac.uk)
Wed, 16 Oct 1996 15:43:32 GMT
In article <53bm47$gk7@news.sdd.hp.com>, geroldf@sdd.hp.com says...
>
>In article <Pine.OSF.3.93.961005012049.25297A-100000@crab.jcu.edu.au>,
Sharyn Wo
>odcock <art-smw4@jcu.edu.au> writes:
>
>|> On 30 Sep 1996, Joseph S Grossberg wrote:
>
>|> > is everyone assuming that men/Aborigines/homo sapiens sapiens
created the
>|> > rock art? Could not have a hominid slightly "lower" than (and
>|> > subsequently supplanted by) mankind have created the art?
>
>|> This theory may sound well and good until one looks aa little
>|> closer --- there are no ape species in the whole of Sahul (Australasia)
>|> for
>|> a Hominid to have evolved from. There has always been an expanse of
water
>|> to be crossed which involved the use of technology. That the Aboriginal
>|> people of Australia are exactly that,, The original inhabitants of
>|> Australia cannot be so easily explained away. It is simply that they have
>|> been here a lot longer than was previosly believed.
>
>Actually, there have been a couple of "ape" species present in the
>Sahul (?) prior to the appearance of h. sap. sap; homo erectus and
>archaic h. sapiens. The only question is, did they manage to get across
>the straits to australia? If pre-100,000 bp dates are correct, then it
>appears that they did.
>
>Has australia always been surrounded by water? Have any of the
>glaciation events brought sea levels low enough to allow an easy
>crossing? H. erectus has been in java for a long time; say, about a
>million years. If they could get to java, australia doesn't seem out of
>the question.
>
It is claimed that there is evidence of sea faring by H. e. about 700 ka as one of
the small islands that would have been permanently surrounded by sea has
signs of occupation at that age. I haven't had time to look up the ref yet so my
knowledge is slightly limited.
Dan
|