Campion Library: History Research Guides: Ancient Aboriginal Australia

MUSEUM EXHIBITS

ANCIENT AUSTRALIA ARCHAEOLOGY

Historical Timeline
The following historical timeline focuses primarily on Aboriginal history in Australia prior to the arrival of Europeans.
Australia: The Land Where Time Began
Timeline of Sites with Notational Pieces in Sahul (Greater Australia)
Ancient Australia
This website lists some of Australia’s oldest and most fascinating archaeological sites.
Aboriginal archaeological discovery in Kakadu rewrites the history of Australia
Deadly Story - History and Culrure
Axes, grindstones & other tools used on Mirarr Country (NT)
Aboriginal Stonehenge: Stargazing in ancient Australia
An egg-shaped ring of standing stones in Australia could prove to be older than Britain's Stonehenge - and it may show that ancient Aboriginal cultures had a deep understanding of the movements of the stars.
Archaeological evidence of Aboriginal life in Sydney
Australia: The Land Where Time Began - Mungo Man
Australian Archaeological Resources
This guide is a starting point for people interested in the archaeological investigation of Aboriginal Sydney and New South Wales.

VIDEOS

When scientist Jim Bowler discovered an ancient skeleton in outback New South Wales 44 years ago, he had no idea it would change history. But Mungo Man's descendants have been fighting for the return of his bones ever since.

This series of three clips explores the people and evidence that help us understand the Ancient Past, particularly of Australia. The section on Ancient Australia starts at about the 24 minute mark.

Narabeen Man
Narabeen Man isnot only the oldest dated skeleton in Sydney, he provides scientists with the earliest evidence yet of ritual punishment among indigenous Australians.
Discoveries at Lake Mungo
Visit the site of a discovery of human remains that are so old they make Egyptian mummies seem recent. In this ABC documentary a reporter visits Lake Mungo in the Willandra Lakes region of western NSW to view the site of the discovery of ancient human remains and the ongoing work of archaeologists.

Research is a process with many steps, and is rarely linear. A good researcher uses multiple sources and continually goes back and reviews their question and keeps adding new vocabulary and learning to their search. This Libguide has been created to provide support for your research task in this subject.

Books

The library has a comprehensive collection of resources on the history of Australia and they can be accessed in a variety of ways.

A trolley of books on Ancient Aboriginal Australia has been organized for you, however, there are many other books in the library that cover this topic as well.

You can use Oliver to search for information. Use keywords to find resources and remember use the index to find information on your topic.

INDIGENOUS REPATRIATION

LAKE MUNGO AND EARLY HUMAN OCCUPATION

ARTICLES

The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia
This paper documents the first archaeological evidence in Australia both for death by
spearing and for the use of backed artefacts as spear armatures

Aboriginal artefacts on the continental shelf reveal ancient drowned cultural landscapes in northwest Australia
This article reports Australia’s first confirmed ancient underwater archaeological sites from the continental shelf, located off the Murujuga coastline in north-western Australia.
Australian dig finds evidence of Aboriginal habitation up to 80,000 years ago
Artefacts in Kakadu national park have been dated between 65,000 and 80,000 years old, extending likely occupation of area by thousands of years

TIMELINE TEMPLATES

Microsoft Templates
Visme Charts
You will need to create an account
Lucid Charts

LIBRARY CATALOGUE

DIGITAL RESOURCES

The following PREMIUM DIGITAL RESOURCES may be useful for research on this subject. However, they are password protected and when you click on any of the icons below you will be re-directed to a page that requires authentication.

The World Book Encyclopedia is good for facts.

Use the search terms ancient Australia or aboriginal people of Australia

REFERENCING

The Referencing Libguide has resources on how to cite/reference sources in research.

The Online Reference Generator allows you to create citations and bibliographies using the Harvard Referencing Style for a comprehensive list of resources.

MyBib is a free online service that allows users to generate citations and bibliographies. You can paste in a DOI, ISBN or URL and have the fields populate automatically. However it does not always provide the correct reference so you must check that all possible parts of the reference have been included.

Before starting your research, it is good practice to think about and create a list of keywords that you can use to search for information on your topic. Google is very intuitive however databases usually require a search string. Here are a few tips to help you.

Many search engines and databases use Boolean logic to construct a search term. The asterisk is known as a wild card. The use of AND, OR and NOT can also be helpful.
Sometimes it is useful to use other words that mean similar or the same thing (synonyms) or broaden the search by using a less subject-specific word
Use quotation marks when you are searching for a phrase.

Suggestions for this topic:

ancient aboriginal Australia

ancient Australia

indigenous Australia

Australian History

aboriginal artefacts

"archaeological site" aboriginal archaeology aboriginal e.g. cheetup aboriginal archaeology