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The prehistory of Australia is the period between the first human habitation of the Australian continent and the colonization of Australia in 1788 which marks the start of consistent documentation of Australia. This period is estimated to have lasted between 40,000 and 60,000 years.〔 – reporting on news in ''The West Australian (19 July 2003)''〕 This era is referred as prehistory rather than history because there are no written records of human events before 1788. ==Arrival== There is considerable discussion among archeologists as to the route taken by the first migrants to Australia, widely taken to be ancestors of the modern Aborigines.〔The dominant view among archaeologists and palaeoanthropologists is that the earliest humans in Australia were among the ancestors of modern Aborigines. There is some evidence to the contrary. For instance, among the Lake Mungo remains, the mtDNA of the remains known as LM3 do not indicate a close relationship to modern Aborigines, according to "Mitochondrial DNA sequences in ancient Australians: Implications for modern human origins" (PNAS, volume 98, issue 2) by Adcock et al. This finding has not been widely accepted by the palaeoanthropological community.〕 Migration took place during the closing stages of the Pleistocene, when sea levels were much lower than they are today. Repeated episodes of extended glaciation during the Pleistocene epoch resulted in decreases of sea levels by more than 100 metres in Australasia.〔Lourandos, p80〕 People appear to have arrived by sea during a period of glaciation, when New Guinea and Tasmania were joined to the continent of Australia. The continental coastline extended much further out into the Timor Sea, and Australia and New Guinea formed a single landmass (known as Sahul), connected by an extensive land bridge across the Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria and Torres Strait. Nevertheless, the sea still presented a major obstacle so it is theorised that these ancestral people reached Australia by island hopping.〔 Two routes have been proposed. One follows an island chain between Sulawesi and New Guinea and the other reaches North Western Australia via Timor.〔Lourandos, p81〕 However, an alternative theory, involving accidental colonisation as a result of tsunamis, has recently been proposed.〔Rupert Gerritsen (2011) ''Beyond the Frontier: Explorations in Ethnohistory'', Batavia Online Publishing: Canberra. pp.70–103. ISBN 978-0-9872141-4-0〕 The journey still required sea travel however, making them amongst the world's earlier mariners.〔Ron Laidlaw "Aboriginal Society before European settlement" in Tim Gurry (ed) (1984) ''The European Occupation.'' Heinemann Educational Australia, Richmond. p. 40. ISBN 0-85859-250-9〕 Scott Cane wrote in 2013 that the first wave may have been prompted by the eruption of Mount Toba and if they arrived around 70,000 years ago could have crossed the water from Timor, when the sea level was low - but if they came later, around 50,000 years ago, a more likely route would be through the Moluccas to New Guinea. Given that the likely landfall regions have been under around 50 metres of water for the last 15,000 years, it is unlikely that the timing will be ever be established with certainty.〔Scott Cane; ''First Footprints - the epic story of the first Australians''; Allen & Unwin; 2013; ISBN 978 1 74331 493 7; pp-25-26〕 The minimum widely accepted timeframe for the arrival of humans in Australia is placed at least 40,000 years ago.〔Hiscock, Peter. (2008). ''Archaeology of Ancient Australia''. Routledge: London. ISBN 0-415-33811-5〕 Many sites dating from this time period have been excavated. In Arnhem Land the Malakunanja II rock shelter "has been dated to around 55,000 years old". Archaeological evidence indicates human habitation at the upper Swan River, Western Australia by about 40,000 years ago. Tasmania, which was connected to the continent by a land bridge, was inhabited at least 30,000 years ago.〔Lourandos, pp84-87〕 Others have claimed that some sites are up to 60,000 years old, but these claims are not universally accepted.〔Lourandos, pp87-88〕 Palynological evidence from South Eastern Australia suggests an increase in fire activity dating from around 120,000 years ago. This has been interpreted as representing human activity, but the dating of the evidence has been strongly challenged.〔Lourandos, p88〕 Charles Dortch has identified chert and calcrete flake stone tools, found at Rottnest Island in Western Australia, as possibly dating to at least 50,000 years ago.〔http://www.stonepages.com/news/archives/000236.html〕〔Hesp, Patrick A., Murray-Wallace, Colin V. and C. E. Dortch, (1999), "Aboriginal occupation on Rottnest Island, Western Australia, provisionally dated by Aspartic Acid Racemisation assay of land snails to greater than 50 ka" (Australian Archaeology, No 49 (1999)〕 This seems to tie in accurately with U/Th and 14C results of a flint tool found embedded in Tamala limestone (Aminozone C)〔Charles Dortch, West Australian 23 June 2003〕 as well as both mtDNA and Y chromosome studies on the genetic distance of Australian Aboriginal genomes from African and other Eurasian ones. The sharing of animal and plant species between Australia-New Guinea and nearby Indonesian islands is another consequence of the early land bridges, which closed when sea levels rose with the end of the last glacial period. The sea level stabilised to near its present levels about 6000 years ago, flooding the land bridge between Australia and New Guinea. It is unknown how many populations settled in Australia prior to European colonisation. Both "trihybrid" and single-origin hypotheses have received extensive discussion;. Keith Windshuttle, known for his belief that Aboriginal pre-history has become politicised, argues that the assumption of a single origin is tied into ethnic solidarity, and multiple entry was suppressed because it could be used to justify white seizure of Aboriginal lands.〔Windshuttle, Keith "The Fabrication of Aboriginal History, Volume One: Van Diemen's Land 1803-1847", Macleay Press, (2002)〕 Human genomic differences are being studied to find possible answers, but there is still insufficient evidence to distinguish a "wave invasion model" from a "single settlement" one. Some Y chromosomal studies indicate a recent influx of Y chromosomes from the Indian subcontinent. A 2012 paper by Alan J. Redd et al. on this topic notes that the indicated influx period corresponds to the timing of various other changes, specifically mentioning "The divergence times reported here correspond with a series of changes in the Australian anthropological record between 5,000 years ago and 3,000 years ago, including the introduction of the dingo; the spread of the Australian Small Tool tradition; the appearance of plant-processing technologies, especially complex detoxification of cycads; and the expansion of the Pama-Nyungan language over seven-eighths of Australia." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prehistory of Australia」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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