The Tasmanian Aborigines and the Constitution of Modern Human Behaviour

Assoc. Prof. Richard Cosgrove will present  ‘The Tasmanian Aborigines and the Constitution of Modern Human Behaviour.’

in the Meeting Room, QVMAG at Inveresk – 2.00 pm Sunday 27th April 2014
Admission: $5 General Public, $3 Friends of the Museum, $2 Students
Free for members of the Royal Society of Tasmania

To assist us with the organization of this event
please RSVP by Thursday 24th April 2014:
Email [email protected] or telephone 6323 3798

Research has shown that for the past 40,000 years, the Tasmanian Aborigines used a flaked stone technology similar to European Neanderthals, who lived between c.300,000 to 30,000 years ago. Paradoxically, the people who first crossed by boat from South East Asia to Sahul, the early land mass of New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania, were anatomically and behaviourally modern. They possessed a hafted stone axe technology, ocean going watercraft, practised art, caught deep sea fish, and had ceremonial burials. In this regard, Australia and Tasmania are unique, as there is no correlation between the appearance of these modern behaviours, and the material cultural ‘package’ used in Europe to identify the point at which such behaviours emerged. The purpose of this presentation it to briefly discuss the archaeological variability from Sahul in a global context, and to discuss the Tasmanian Aboriginal people’s response to the changing ice age environments.

Assoc. Prof. Richard Cosgrove gained a BA from the Australian National University, followed by a PhD. on Tasmanian Aboriginal archaeology in 1992, focusing on the comparative palaeoecology and ice age landscapes occupied by Aboriginal people and their habitation sites of Southwest and Southeast Tasmania. He has research and teaching experience in human behavioural ecology, rock art studies, palaeoecology, zooarchaeology, stone artefact analysis and hunter-gatherer archaeology. His field work and research has included both national and international sites in England, China, Jordan and France. He has advised the Tasmanian forest industry, ICOMOS, the World Heritage Centre, the Tasmanian Aboriginal Lands and Sea Council, and has worked closely with both Aboriginal communities and Environmental Protection agencies on indigenous cultural heritage management.