Australia’s Indigenous people were making pottery over 2000 years ago


The excavation on Jiigurru that uncovered the pottery fragments

Sean Ulm

Indigenous Australians were manufacturing ceramics on a remote island, nearly 35 kilometres from the Queensland coast, more than 2000 years ago.

Pottery fragments found on Jiigurru (Lizard Island) in the Coral Sea are the earliest securely dated, locally produced pottery found in Australia that pre-dates the arrival of Europeans.

The discovery overturns the long-held belief that early Australians didn’t produce ceramics or have the maritime technology to undertake long sea voyages.

Prior to this find, there…

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