the physical features of Aboriginal populations. A further complication was the fact that this identified cultural variation included stone technologies that crossed both the Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) and the Neolithic (New Stone Age). Lastly, by the end of the nineteenth century, largely as a result of work undertaken by Australian geologists and paleontologists such as Edgeworth David, it was more widely appreciated that the physical geography of Australia had been far from static. Ice ages had carved glaciers, the sea levels had fallen and risen, and the climate of the continent had changed dramatically. The Aboriginal people of Australia were not fixed in time, but where had their history gone?

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The entry to the cave site of Nunamira occupied during the last ice age in southwest Tasmania

(Courtesy of Richard Cosgrove)

Although there had been a long tradition of private inquiries into Aboriginal culture—as manifested in collections of artifacts, in the proceedings of mainstream scientific societies such as the State Royal Societies, and in more low-key gatherings of naturalists and antiquarians—the sophisticated and systematic investigation into the archaeology of Australia did not really begin until the 1920s. The work of norman tindale in south Australia and fred mccarthy, first in New South Wales and later across the continent and into Southeast Asia, created a platform of data and interpretation that (although very much a reflection of contemporary cultural values) both identified and explained cultural change in precontact Aboriginal society. In concert with other researchers (such as D.S. Davidson), McCarthy and Tindale went on to produce foundational analyses of Aboriginal art and material culture that, though they had little impact on Australian society prior to the 1960s, made possible the phenomenal advances of professionally trained archaeologists since the early 1970s.

The recent history of Australian archaeology has been characterized by a rapid increase in the