Author Description

The first human set foot on an Australian beach over 40,000 years ago. At that time in the ice age the level of the sea was more than one hundred meters lower than it is today and although there was never a complete land bridge, the passage from Asia was accomplished. Just how these first Australians arrived is only one of the mysteries explored in this immensely readable book. Using the very latest archaeological evidence from stones and bonds and also Aboriginal myths and legends which have been handed down from generation to generation, archaeology of the Dreamtime examines the ways in which the Aborigines adapted to and modified their environment, from the rainforests of the north to the snow-capped highlands of Tasmania, how their art and culture developed and was passed on, and ow they coped with such massive changes as the rising of theses at the end of the last ice age. Josephine Flood draws a fascinating and absorbing picture of prehistoric Australia, of a dynamic and highly adaptable people whose art, religion and social organization were very sophisticated, whose trading networks covered vast distances and whose ingenuity and technological skills enabled them to survive in one of the most inhospitable countries in the world.