Discuss the paleogeography of the western Pacific. How is this relevant to our understanding of the earliest settlement of “Greater Australia?” What is the oldest evidence for the occupation of Sunda? What is the oldest evidence for the occupation of Sahul? What evidence is there that Australia was occupied by human beings 60,000 years ago? What evidence suggests a more recent date (40,000 years) for this first migration? Discuss the controversy over the dating of the Lake Mungo III skeleton.
What does the preponderance of evidence indicate about its age? Compare the morphology of the Mungo I skeleton with the Willandra Lakes 50 cranium. How might the similarities or differences be explained? Discuss the spread of human populations through the interior of Australia. Discuss the earliest settlement of Tasmania. Briefly discuss the range of adaptations reflected in the archaeological record of Greater Australia. Discuss the spread of human populations into the Pacific. How did they do it? When? Why?
Only source textbook – The Past in Perspective “An Introduction to Human Prehistory” 8th edition, Kenneth L. Feder
