Australian Archaeology - Aboriginal Archaeology (The Archaeology of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People A - Controversies in Aboriginal Archaeology - Multiple Arrivals

Multiple Arrivals

Earlier anthropologists believed that there were "three waves" of arrival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to Australia, the first being of "negrito" Tasmanian people, who were displaced by "Murrayans", and these in turn were considered to be displaced by "Carpentarians". These theories were sometimes advocated in order to disprove the Aboriginal claim to being the indigenous "first peoples". The fact that modern Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people cannot explain the Bradshaw figures of North Western Australia, was also seen as evidence of displacement of earlier peoples by later arrivals. The finding of a robust skeleton with surprisingly so-called "primitive" features at Kow Swamp, was also advocated as proof of an earlier wave of settlers to the continent. Dating of the Kow Swamp material, however, showed that rather than being earlier, it was in fact a lot more recent than the nearby Mungo gracile skeletons that more closely resembled modern Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Today it is thought that Aboriginal people throughout the continent are descendents of an original founder population, although this does not completely exclude some contribution from later arrivals.