The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea

Bruno David editor Ian J McNiven editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press Inc

Published:19th Jun '24

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea cover

65,000 years ago, modern humans arrived in Australia, having navigated more than 100 km of sea crossing from southeast Asia. Since then, the large continental islands of Australia and New Guinea, together with smaller islands in between, have been connected by land bridges and severed again as sea levels fell and rose. Along with these fluctuations came changes in the terrestrial and marine environments of both land masses. The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea reviews and assembles the latest findings and ideas on the archaeology of the Australia-New Guinea region, the world's largest island-continent. In 42 new chapters written by 77 contributors, it presents and explores the archaeological evidence to weave stories of colonisation; megafaunal extinctions; Indigenous architecture; long-distance interactions, sometimes across the seas; eel-based aquaculture and the development of techniques for the mass-trapping of fish; occupation of the High Country, deserts, tropical swamplands and other, diverse land and waterscapes; and rock art and symbolic behaviour. Together with established researchers, a new generation of archaeologists present in this Handbook one, authoritative text where Australia-New Guinea archaeology now lies and where it is heading, promising to shape future directions for years to come.

Especially welcome is the effort to merge the cultural trajectories of Australia and New Guinea, which for too long have been separated by differing research traditions and perceived dissimilarities between hunter-gatherer and horticultural societies. Wide-ranging and deep, this is a required resource for archaeologists, in particular prehistorians. * Choice *

ISBN: 9780190095611

Dimensions: 180mm x 244mm x 89mm

Weight: 1996g

1168 pages