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7HASS - Investigating the Ancient Past: Ancient Australia

This guide will help you to learn about the methods used by ancient historians and archaeologists when investigating past civilisations and cultures.

Key Terms

Conservation - the preservation and protection of artefacts or relics from damage or decay

 

Conservator - a person who cleans, cares for or repairs artefacts for display in a museum or gallery

 

Curator - a person who looks after a museum collection

Jacaranda, 2012. 

Evidence of Ancient Australia

Sources of evidence for ancient Indigenous Australian societies include:

  • oral traditions (stories and beliefs handed down through generations by storytellers rather than in writing)

 

  • archaeological evidence including sites, artefacts, art (such as cave paintings and rock engravings), scarring of trees and placement of rocks

 

  • evidence of later times, including the writings of the first Europeans to meet particular Indigenous people

Jacaranda, 2012.

Museums

Museums and galleries offer rich encounters with reality, with objects from the past, and with possibilities for the future. The purpose of museums is to collect and preserve the results of human achievement and evidence of the natural world and to use these collections to enhance human knowledge and understanding.

The preservation of a cultural heritage is the most ancient of a museum’s functions. Conservation is the job of protecting the collection as a whole against damage or alteration by such environmental causes as pollution, light, or humidity; chemical and biological processes; and human carelessness. Restoration is concerned with repairing specific objects or returning them to a condition that better reflects their original state.

Museum and gallery. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica.

Ancient Australia

Rating: E Production Year: 2014 Duration: 36:55

 
Description: This series of three clips explores the people and evidence that help us understand the Ancient Past, particularly of Australia.

Uluru

One of Australia’s most famous landmarks, Uluru/Ayers Rock is a giant mass of weathered sandstone located in the southwestern part of the Northern Territory. It is of great cultural significance, as shallow caves at the base of the rock are sacred to several Aboriginal tribes. Within the caves are many Aboriginal carvings and paintings. The rock is part of the larger Uluru–Kata Tjuta National Park (formerly Ayers Rock–Mount Olga National Park). The park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987 and is among Australia’s most popular tourist destinations.

Uluru/Ayers Rock. (2016). In Encyclopædia Britannica. 

Uluru/Ayers Rock. [Image]. In Encyclopædia Britannica.

Lake Mungo

The people of Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes have a long past that is important to the whole world.

When Mungo Lady and Mungo Man turned up some 40 years ago they rocked the scientific community. They have been dated to 42,000 years old - the oldest human remains in Australia and some of the oldest modern humans in the world outside Africa.

And when 20,000 year old footprints of the Willandra people were found in 2003, they also rocked archaeological records. They are the only Pleistocene footprints in Australia and the most numerous yet found anywhere in the world.

Office of Environment and Heritage, 2016.

Sunset on the Lake Mungo lunette. [Image]. In Office of Environment and Heritage, 2016.

Burrup Peninsula

The Burrup Peninsula, located in Murujuga National Park, is a small landmass with a large range of habitats, a diverse array of wildflowers and wildife, and an ancient outdoor art gallery.  It is situated about five kilometres north-east of the town of Dampier.

The Burrup Peninsula is one of the most prolific indigenous art sites in the world.  It is believed that Aboriginal occupation of the Pilbara dates back more than 40,000 years.

The Yaburarra people, who once inhabited the peninsula and the adjacent islands of the Dampier Archipelago, left a rich cultural heritage.  The Burrup contains one of the most prolific sites for prehistoric rock art in the world.

Australia's North West, 2016.

Rock engravings at the Burrup Peninsula. [Image]. In Australia's North West, 2016.

Gariwerd

Aboriginal people have had an association with the Grampians, traditionally known as Gariwerd, for thousands of years. Gariwerd is at the centre of creation stories for many of the Aboriginal communities in south-western Victoria. Discoveries of Indigenous Australian artefacts in the region include ancient oven mounds, scatterings of stone left over from tool making and ancient rock art sites.

The region has the largest number of rock art sites in southern Australia – more than 80 per cent of Victoria's rock art sites. Approximately 60 art sites, containing more than 4,000 different motifs have been identified in the national park.

Visit Victoria, n.d.