ANCIENT AUSTRALIA

ANCIENT AUSTRALIA

What do we know about the ancient past or Deep Time? And how?

start

INDEX

MISSION 3

REWARD

mission 2

mission 1

introduction

MISSION 4

INTRODUCTION

This activity focuses on the 40,000 year old Mungo Lady, the remains of a young woman buried at Lake Mungo and discovered there in 1968. You'll explore the evidence about the death of Mungo Lady, as well as other material that will help you find out about the people who lived there at that time. In doing so, you'll be introduced to concepts of environmental change over time, causation, the Dreaming and Aboriginal culture, and the ways in which we know about the ancient past.

What do we know about the ancient past or Deep Time? And how?

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MISSION 1: Finding out about Mungo Lady

Watch the Secrets of Lake Mungo video about the discovery and significance of the Lake Mungo remains. Then look at the Defining Moment in Australian history: 1968 Uncovering ancient Australia — Mungo Lady found.Read the explanations, and answer the questions that follow.

QUIZ

MISSION 1: Defining Moment: The discovery of Mungo Lady

start

QUESTION 1

When were the first set of bones discovered at Lake Mungo?

1968

1948

1958

QUESTION 2

Who discovered Mungo Lady?

John Mungo

Jim Bowler

John Jones

QUESTION 3

Radiocarbon dating of the bones of Mungo Lady tell us that they are the oldest human remains in Australia. How old are they?

25,000 years old

60,000 years old

40,000 years old

QUESTION 4

Archaeologists use ‘stratigraphy’ to help them understand the age of buried objects. Stratigraphy is the recording of the layers of dirt in a site. Stratigraphy is important in helping to work out the age of recovered objects because:

if you can work out the age of the level at which the objects are found you know when they were left there

people can radiocarbon date them.

you might find something that has a date on it.

QUESTION 5 : select the correct time period and description of what happened:

150,000 years ago

32 million years ago

40,000 years ago

sea levels dropped and the coast of southern Australia began a slow retreat towards its current location.

the world plunged into a cold, glacial phase.

The climate became consistently drier

40,000 years ago

22,000 years ago

10,000 years ago

QUESTION 6 : select the correct time period and description of what happened:

the Willandra Lakes formed as low-lying basins filled with water from the mountains to the east.

the world plunged into a cold, glacial phase

the sea flooded the Murray Basin where the Willandra Lakes are located.

QUESTION 7

When did people arrive at the lake?

65,000 years ago

25,000 years ago

40,000 years ago

QUESTION 8

What food was available in the area?

fish, shellfish, birds, seeds, mammals, reptiles, plants

fish, shellfish, dingos, seeds, mammals, reptiles, plants

fish, shellfish, kangaroos, seeds, reptiles, plants

QUESTION 9

How old was Mungo Man when he was buried?

65 years old

50 years old

40 years old

QUESTION 10

How was he buried?

in a curled position

laid out straight

his bones were crushed

MISSION

COMPLETED

1

CONGRATULATIONS!

THE FIRST NUMBER IS 4

WRONG!

TRY AGAIN

If you have completed the section, ‘Discovery of Mungo Lady’, you now have answers, or part answers, to most of your questions about Mungo Lady and her people. But there are some other things we can find out about ancient or Deep Time Australia and its inhabitants. Here are two Big Ideas that an investigation of Mungo Lady and ancient or Deep Time Australia can help us think about: Big Idea 1: Scientists believe that the first Australians came from somewhere else. Big Idea 2: We can learn about Aboriginal culture in ancient Australia from archaeology. In the sections that follow we have provided more information to help you investigate these Big Ideas.

MISSION 2: the arrival of the first australians

start

mission 2: the arrival of the first australians

Read the informations provided, then go to next page.

01

Click on each map

Using DNA and archaeological evidence Another theory is based on a study of the DNA of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia. DNA is deoxyribonucleic acid. It is the hereditary material in humans and other life forms. It makes us what we are. We inherit it from our parents. People of different regions have some differences in their DNA, so analysing a person’s DNA can help you trace back their family history over many thousands of years. Modern DNA studies suggest that Australian Aboriginal people, Papua New Guinean highlanders and the Mamanawa people of the Philippines were all descended from the same group who left Africa, and settled in different places after a journey of several thousand years. People who have the same ancestors have very similar DNA. By studying DNA samples taken from Aboriginal people living in Australia today, scientists have been able to see when and where people settled across ancient Australia. Look at this map. The dots show different archaeological sites around Australia and the age of what was found there. The archaeological and DNA evidence show similar timeframes for the movement of people across ancient Australia. Why did people come to Australia? Was it an accidental voyage, such as a group of people out fishing being caught in a storm and washed off course? Or was it deliberate, a group of people setting off to settle in the new place — perhaps to escape conflict, or population pressures, or just out of a spirit of adventure? We can probably never know. But whether it was accidental or deliberate, one voyage or many, imagine what the people would have felt as they waded ashore onto this new land. Source: https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/learning-modules/ancient-australia-defining-moments/22-big-idea-1-scientists-believe-first-australians-came-somewhere-else

Where did the first Australians come from? Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people believe that people have always been in Australia. They are part of the Dreaming, the time of creation of all the world. Scientists and archaeologists believe that the first people arrived in Australia from somewhere else, between 50,000 years ago and 65,000 years ago. Estimates of when people first arrived in Australia is constantly changing as new evidence is discovered and as scientific techniques of measuring the past are improved. Scientists do not know how or where modern humans developed, but there are currently two main scientific ideas that are under investigation. The first scientific idea is that modern humans or homo sapiens developed quite suddenly in Africa and then spread, eventually displacing all earlier types of homo erectus (pre-modern humans) such as Neanderthals, which had been around for about 2 million years. This might have looked a little like this: The second scientific idea is that modern humans appeared in many parts of the world at about the same time, mixing with earlier types of homo erectus. Whichever way this happened, according to science, the earliest humans made their way through Asia and eventually moved southwards towards the Australian continent. The first people arrive in Australia Australia looked very different 65,000 years ago. The continent was larger than it is today. Some land that existed in ancient times is now under the sea. Australia was also joined to other land masses that are now separate islands. How did people know there was land? The first people probably came to Australia from around the area that is now Timor. To get to Australia, they must have made a canoe voyage of about 90 to 150 kilometres of open water, which would have been a remarkable maritime achievement. But how did they know that Australia was there? Imagine that you are about to go on a trip to another place. You cannot see the land — but you know it exists. How might you know that land exists? Birds, clouds, Floating vegetation would help you know that there was land… Another possibility is that people could see the land, and that was how they knew it was there. Then perhaps they could ‘island hop’ towards Australia. A recent scientific study might explain what happened. We know that there is ancient land that is now under water off the Australian coast. These would have only been partly under water when people first came to Australia. They would have been islands then. Scientists have worked out how far away each of these hundreds of islands would have been from each other, and whether a person standing on the highest point of each island could have seen another island in the distance. If they could see another island, they could travel there and see the next island. In this way they could in theory have ‘island-hopped’ from Asia to Australia, paddling or sailing canoes from Timor to Australia, perhaps using the summer north-west winds that blow strongly from Timor towards Australia. Source: https://digital-classroom.nma.gov.au/learning-modules/ancient-australia-defining-moments/22-big-idea-1-scientists-believe-first-australians-came-somewhere-else

mission 2

Report back (to your teacher), explaining how this helps you understand ancient or Deep Time Australia through the Big Idea: Scientists believe that the first Australians came from somewhere else. In your report make sure you explain: - where Australians came from - how they knew that there was land to go to - where they landed first - when this movement happened - what the evidence is that tells us this, and what evidence is not available - what this can tell us about ancient or Deep Time Australia.Your teacher will then give you the second number to break the code!

02

mission 2

Report back (to your teacher), explaining how this helps you understand ancient or Deep Time Australia through the Big Idea: Scientists believe that the first Australians came from somewhere else. In your report make sure you explain: - where Australians came from - how they knew that there was land to go to - where they landed first - when this movement happened - what evidence we have, and what evidence is not available - what this can tell us about ancient or Deep Time Australia.Your teacher will then give you the second number to break the code!

02

MISSION

COMPLETED

2

CONGRATULATIONS!

THE SECOND NUMBER IS 3

QUIZ

MISSION 3: Aboriginal rock art

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You have seen that the people who buried Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were behaving in a way that expressed part of their culture — their beliefs, values, behaviours and ways of living. There is another way we can learn about ancient or Deep Time Australia — through rock art. Read these two Defining Moments in Australian history: 30,000 years ago Petroglyphs and pictographs — Earliest known Australian rock art and 65,000 years ago ‘We are from here’ — Evidence of first peoples, and answer the questions.

QUESTION 1

What is rock art?

art painted or carved on rocks

Art made with rocks

art painted on rocks

QUESTION 2

Which of these would be rock art?

photographs

Petroglyphs

pictograms

QUESTION 3

Which of these are examples of rock art?

a figure of an animal painted on to a rock face

a silhouette of a hand created by spraying ochre from the artist's mouth

all of them

a geometric figure (such as a circle) carved into a rock face

QUESTION 4

Archaeologists and Aboriginal elders of the Dambimangari and Balanggarra people have been examining some ancient examples of rock art in the Kimberley area in northern Western Australia. The team is trying to find out how old the Kimberley art is and whether it is, in fact, the oldest rock art ever discovered. The scientists described their method for the ABC: ‘We can see where a crust has formed over the squiggles of pigment, so we can use a small chisel to chip off a little piece.’ ABC, Aboriginal artwork in the Kimberly could be among oldest in the world, scientists say, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-02/indigenous-rock-art-could-be-among-oldest-in-world/6906476, viewed on 29 September 2020 They can then find the age of the sample of the crust by scientific analysis.This will tell them the age of the painting because:

the crust will be younger than the painting

the crust will be older than the painting

the crust will be the same age than the painting

QUESTION 5

How can rock art help us understand about ancient or Deep Time Australia?

it tells us stories and experiences of the people of the past

it tells us about the values of the people of the past

it tells us about the attitudes and beliefs of the people of the past

All these answers

MISSION

COMPLETED

3

CONGRATULATIONS!

THE FIRST NUMBER IS 2

WRONG!

TRY AGAIN

QUIZ

MISSION 4: Another significant element of Aboriginal culture : the boomerang.

start

Read the Defining Moment in Australian history About 20,000 years ago Much more than a tool — Earliest evidence of the Boomerang and answer the questions that follow.

QUESTION 1

All boomerangs return when thrown.

FALSE

TRUE

QUESTION 2

All boomerangs are the same size and shape.

FALSE

TRUE

QUESTION 3

Boomerangs were traded by Aboriginal people.

FALSE

TRUE

QUESTION 4

The oldest boomerang found in Australia is:

10,000 years old

20,000 years old

30,000 years old

QUESTION 5

The oldest known painting of a boomerang is:

30,000 years old

20,000 years old

10,000 years old

QUESTION 6

The boomerang is unique to Australia.

FALSE

TRUE

QUESTION 7

The boomerang is a symbol for Aboriginal people of their culture.

FALSE

TRUE

MISSION

COMPLETED

4

CONGRATULATIONS!

THE FIRST NUMBER IS 1

WRONG!

TRY AGAIN

MISSION

COMPLETED

4

CONGRATULATIONS!

THE FOURTH NUMBER IS 1

WRONG!

TRY AGAIN

REWARD

MISSION

start

CONGRATULATIONS!

BREAKOUT COMPLETED

You have all the informations to build a timeline of Ancient Australia, and fullfill the worksheet provided.

sources

Activity inspired from the learning module "Ancient Australia defining moments" proposed by the National Museum of Australia.Music: Yanni – FROM THE VAULT - Australian Didgeridoo with a Twist - LiveIce Age 4: Continental Drift ; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzzGPfVx32MAboriginal rock art: https://www.ancient-origins.net/sites/default/files/field/image/Wandjina-rock-art.jpgBomerang: National Museum of Australia