Australia's Aborigines, long considered a nomadic people, appear to have farmed eels and built stone dwellings in the southeast of the country for 8,000 years, according to an archaeologist.
The claims, centred on the Gunditjmara people around Lake Condah - about 350 km west of what is today Melbourne - are made by archaeologist Dr Heather Builth and will be aired tonight on ABC TV's science programCatalyst.
In the first evidence of a sedentary Aboriginal community, Builth found what she argues is an ancient eel farm in the form of countless channels crisscrossing the landscape at Lake Condah.
"This had to be excavated," said Builth, an honorary research associate with Monash University in Melbourne who is also helping produce a management plan for the nearby Winda-Mara Aboriginal Corporation near Lake Condah.
Sometimes we need to rethink what we "KNOW" about so-called primitive peoples.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance of Nomads surviving while sedentary communities were wiped out, seems to be a recurring theme worldwide.
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