Australian Aboriginal geomythology: eyewitness accounts of cosmic impacts?

Duane Willis Hamacher, Ray P Norris

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls are found throughout Australian Aboriginal oral traditions. In some cases, these texts describe the impact event in detail, suggesting that the events were witnessed, sometimes citing the location. We explore whether cosmic impacts and meteorite falls may have been witnessed by Aboriginal Australians and incorporated into their oral traditions. We discuss the complications and bias in recording and analysing oral texts but suggest that these texts may be used both to locate new impact structures or meteorites and model observed impact events. We find that, while detailed Aboriginal descriptions of cosmic impacts and meteorite falls are abundant in the literature, there is currently no physical evidence connecting any of these accounts to impact events currently known to Western science.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)60-93
Number of pages33
JournalArchaeoastronomy
Volume22
Publication statusPublished - 2009

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