The dating of the Australian small tool tradition, with new evidence from the Kimberley, WA

Abstract

It is considered axiomatic that science progresses, if only in fits and starts. Some prefer a model of hypothesis testing-rejecting/refining; others adhere to the Kuhnian idea of new paradigms emerging from older shattered ones; others again prefer a less rigorous idea of scientists stumbling across new evidence and haphazardly changing their views to fit. In Australian archaeology, however, we perceive a tendency for science not to progress, but rather to go round in circles; a preferred model might be the mediaeval wheel of fortune: rota tu volubilis.