Peter Hiscock presents an introduction to the archaeology of Australia from prehistoric times to the 18th century AD.

Zooarchaeology has emerged as a powerful way of reconstructing the lives of past societies. Through the analysis of animal bones found on a site, zooarchaeologists can uncover important information on the economy, trade, industry, diet, and other fascinating facts about the people who lived there. Animal bones in Australian archaeology is an introductory bone identification manual written for archaeologists working in Australia. This field guide includes 16 species commonly encountered in both Indigenous and historical sites. Using diagrams and flow charts, it walks the reader step-by-step through the bone identification process. Combining practical and academic knowledge, the manual also provides an introductory insight into zooarchaeological methodology and the importance of zooarchaeological research in understanding human behaviour through time.

People would have known about Australia before they saw it. Smoke billowing above the sea spoke of a land that lay beyond the horizon. A dense cloud of migrating birds may have pointed the way. But the first Australians were voyaging into the unknown. Soon after Billy Griffiths joins his first archaeological dig as camp manager and cook, he is hooked. Equipped with a historian’s inquiring mind, he embarks on a journey through time, seeking to understand the extraordinary deep history of the Australian continent. Deep Time Dreaming is the passionate product of that journey. It investigates a twin revolution: the reassertion of Aboriginal identity in the second half of the twentieth century, and the uncovering of the traces of ancient Australia. It explores what it means to live in a place of great antiquity, with its complex questions of ownership and belonging. It is about a slow shift in national consciousness: the deep time dreaming that has changed the way many of us relate to this continent and its enduring, dynamic human history. John Mulvaney Book Award: Winner Ernest Scott Prize: Winner NSW Premier's Literary Awards: Winner - Book of the Year NSW Premier's Literary Awards: Winner - Douglas Stewart Prize for Non-fiction Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards: Highly Commended Queensland Literary Awards: Shortlisted Prime Minister's Literary Awards: Shortlisted Educational Publishing Awards: Shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards: Longlisted CHASS Book Prize: Longlisted ‘What a revelatory work! If you wish to hear the voice of our continent's history before the written word, Deep Time Dreaming is a must read. The freshest, most important book about our past in years.’ —Tim Flannery ‘Once every generation a book comes along that marks the emergence of a powerful new literary voice and shifts our understanding of the nation’s past. Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming is one such book. Deeply researched, creatively conceived and beautifully written, it charts the expansion of archaeological knowledge in Australia for the first time. No other book has managed to convey the mystery and intricacy of Indigenous antiquity in quite the same way. Read it: it will change the way you see Australian history.’ —Mark McKenna, historian ‘Billy Griffiths’ Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia is a remarkable book, and one destined, I believe, to become a modern classic of Australian history writing. Written in vivid, evocative prose, this book will grip both the expert and the general reader alike.’ —Iain McCalman, author of The Reef: A Passionate History: The Great Barrier Reef from Captain Cook to Climate Change

Popular culture has often presented a mythologised version of archaeology that at times misinforms the general public about broader academic intentions. The fantastic and bizarre continue to capture the public imagination, so that while archaeological teams excavate, survey and record, they occupy the same geographic locations as ghost tour operators and seekers of the supernatural. Not only does archaeology operate within the same geography as modern mythology, but widespread access to technology, from satellite imagery to GPS data, means that enthusiastic amateurs can partake in their own investigations. With limited landscape identification training, an enthusiasm for discovery and strange cultural biases, fringe operators have utilised new technologies to justify old fallacies through variant forms of amateur archaeology. This collection draws on the wealth of work currently being undertaken by contemporary archaeologists in Australia, from rock art observations to art/archaeology experiments and even space archaeology. It explores archaeology on the edge, contextualising the fringe dwellers that operate on the periphery of accepted academia. It also looks at contemporary archaeological theory and practice in relation to these fringe operators, developing approaches toward interaction, in contrast to the more common reaction of repudiation. The relationship between the accepted centre and the outer edge in contemporary archaeological practice and theory unveils much about popular misconceptions and how archaeological spaces can be overlaid with variant mythological and cultural interpretations.

The Social Archaeology of Indigenous Societies presents original and provocative views on the complex and dynamic social lives of Indigenous Australians from an historical perspective. Building on the foundational work of Harry Lourandos, the book critically examines and challenges traditional approaches which have presented Indigenous Australian past as static and tethered to ecological rationalism. The book reveals the ancient past of Aboriginal Australians to be one of long term changes in social relationships and traditions, as well as the active management and manipulation of the environment. The book encourages a deeper appreciation of the ways Aboriginal peoples have engaged with and constructed their worlds. It solicits a deeper understanding of the contemporary political and social context of research and the insidious impacts of colonialist philosophies. In short, it concerns people, both past and present. The Social Archaeology of Indigenous Societies looks beyond the stereo

This is the first book-length study of the archaeology of Australia's deserts, exploring the cultural and environmental history of these drylands.