Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume I
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- Book part
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Historiography, method, and themes
- Part II The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
- 13 Before the farmers: culture and climate, from the emergence ofHomo sapiensto about ten thousand years ago
- 14 Early humans: tools, language, and culture
- 15 Africa from 48,000 to 9500BCE
- 16 Migration and innovation in Palaeolithic Europe
- 17 Asian Palaeolithic dispersals
- 18 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of Australasia
- 19 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of the Americas
- Index
- References
18 - The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of Australasia
from Part II - The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2015
Edited by
Book contents
- The Cambridge World HistoryVolume I
- The Cambridge World History
- The Cambridge World History
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Table
- Contributors
- Preface
- Book part
- 1 Introduction and overview
- Part I Historiography, method, and themes
- Part II The Paleolithic and the beginnings of human history
- 13 Before the farmers: culture and climate, from the emergence ofHomo sapiensto about ten thousand years ago
- 14 Early humans: tools, language, and culture
- 15 Africa from 48,000 to 9500BCE
- 16 Migration and innovation in Palaeolithic Europe
- 17 Asian Palaeolithic dispersals
- 18 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of Australasia
- 19 The Pleistocene colonization and occupation of the Americas
- Index
- References
Summary
Tracing the colonization and cultural radiation of humans in Australasia provides unique insights into the earliest human history in this region of the world. Two models of the migration to Australia have been grounded in genetic patterns: late dispersal and early dispersal. Most importantly, a late dispersion chronology required that human populations had spread from Africa to Australia in a remarkably short amount of time. The genetic evidence indicates that colonization of Australia was carried out by some of the initial populations dispersing eastwards across the Old World. Geographical difference in technology is revealed in the stone artefact assemblages, which have preserved extremely well. during the early millennia of settlement it was geographical diversity and cultural adaptation rather than pan-continental uniformity and cultural stability that were the features of human occupation of Sahul. Some inland areas contained enough geographical diversity to allow groups to continue their occupation through the more desertic conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge World History , pp. 433 - 460Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
References
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