The Relevance of Old World Archaeology to the First Entry of Man into New Worlds: Colonization Seen from the Antipodes

Abstract

Following several discussions in recent numbers of Quaternary Research on the peopling of the Americas, this paper suggests that movements into the New World should be viewed in the wider context of subsistence, technology, and movement around the western littorals of the Pacific, resulting in the colonization not of one but of two new continents by men out of Asia. Specific points which have been raised by these recent papers are reviewed in the light of Australian, Wallacian, and East Asian data. (1) The earliness of watercraft is evidenced by chronology of the human diaspora through Wallacia and Greater Australia. (2) The simplistic nomenclature of chopper-flake traditions masks considerable complexity and technological potential, revealed in detailed Antipodean studies. (3) These traditions also have great potential for adapting to differing ecological zones, evidenced within Greater Australia; and for technological and economic innovation there, through Southeast Asia, and to Japan and the north Asian littoral. (4) The history of discovery and the nature of the evidence from Australia cannot validly be used to controvert early dates in the Americas. (5) Demographic data from Australia suggest that total commitment to a rapid-spread “bowwave” model for the peopling of new continents may be unwise.