Turner, Ian

Australian Archaeology

Flinders Academic Commons

Australian Archaeology    Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au  Full Citation Details: Turner, I. 1978. Swashway Sandblow. 'Australian Archaeology', no.8, 18.  SWASHWAY SANDBLOW The meal is  done. The hunt w i l l  soon begin. The hunter sits crosslegged, s t r i k i n g  s tone  on s tone.  Shrewdly he s t u d i e s  ang le ,  p lane ,  s ee s  through the  sur face  t o  t h e  k n i f e  w i th in ,  t en  thousand years  of c r a f t  behind h i s  eye: technique p r i s ed  loose from na tu r e ,  ha rd ly  won, a  r i t u a l  passed from f a the r  down t o  son. F i r e  f i r s t  of a l l .  Beside him, ashes  l i e .  That hunter ' s  gone these twenty thousand years .  New hunters  come with trowel and sieve and t ape ,  From now t o  P le i s tocene  they s t r e t c h  t h e i r  span. Their  t o o l s  a r e  few: the windswept s t ra tum c l e a r s  some crumbs o f  charcoal ,  bones, a  minute f l ake .  I n  t h a t  one s t one ,  t he  h i s t o r y  of man. I a n  Turner E r i t h  I s l a n d  22 January 1978 E X T I N C T I O N  You ask me about t he  e x t i n c t  kangaroo; why is  i t  gone and what d id  i t  do t o  deserve t o  be expel led from God's wondrous zoo. What we can say with l i t t l e  f e a r  is  t h a t  h i s  ances tors  d id  not know the  end was near .  You see,  i t  came q u i t e  quickly near  the  end of the  P l e i s t ocene  a t  a time when t o  them I th ink  l i f e  must have seemed P r e t t y  good from the  s tandpoint  of a g i an t  marsupial  f o r  whom food was aplenty and enemies minimool. For t h i s  does not  mat ter  and can be he ld  a s i d e  f o r  a l l  t h a t  counts is  t h a t  a l l  had died.  Where once there  were many now the r e  were none; the  day of the g i an t s  was e n t i r e l y  done. And not  only the  mammals but  a l s o  t he  b i r d s  f e l l  v ic t im t o  t h i s  b i o t i c  purge: Gone was Dinornis,  ZeZornis and a  Macropus, t h e  l a t t e r  perhaps t h e  Lord's f u r r ed  magnum opus. Archived at Flinders University: dspace.flinders.edu.au

Swashway Sandblow

http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2328/783/1978008018018_FINAL.pdf?sequence=1

Swashway Sandblow

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