EduNETConnect.com - Time Machine

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10,000 Years Ago in Australia & Oceania

Ancient Aboriginal Rock Art in Australia

The world's oldest crayon? The discovery of a stick of red ochre, a kind of mineral, in Australia has been dated to 70,000 years ago. If this date is confirmed by more testing, it would show people were living in Australia at least 30,000 years earlier than previously thought. It is not known if the ochre was used to make wall pictures, of if it was used to decorate the human body, but it must have had some artistic purpose.

The oldest battle: a rock painting in Australia, dated to between 12,000 to 11,000 years ago, according to some theories, shows a fight between two organized groups of warriors. If this is correct, this would make the painting the oldest record of organized warfare found in the world so far.

There is some evidence from archaeological sites that the first Aboriginals to arrive lived along the coast and then expanded inland along the rivers. This fragmented settlement led to many different cultural groups. While Aboriginals are all dark skinned, hair colour and other physical features vary from region to region. There are about 500 different Aboriginal groups, speaking many different languages.

This map shows how what is now the island of New Guinea was joined to Australia during the last ice age. What is now the Arafura Sea was then a large lake. The Indonesian islands (not shown on the map) were then a huge extension of Malaysian peninsula. However, there was still a strait of water separating this peninsula from Australia-New Guinea, so the first Aboriginals to arrive in Australia must also have been some of the first seafarers.

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