Peter Hiscock facts for kids

Peter Dixon Hiscock (born 27 March 1957) is an Australian archaeologist. He was born in Melbourne. He earned his PhD from the University of Queensland. From 2013 to 2021, he was a special professor of Australian Archaeology at the University of Sydney. Before that, he worked at the Australian National University.

Professor Hiscock is an expert in ancient stone tools, called lithic technologies. He has worked in Australia, France, and Southern Africa. He is a respected member of several important groups, including the Society of Antiquaries of London. He also researches the history of Indigenous Australians, how modern humans spread around the world, and the ancient human species Homo neanderthalensis.

What is Archaeology?

Archaeology is the study of human history and prehistory. It looks at things people left behind. These things can be tools, buildings, or even old garbage. Archaeologists dig up these items to learn about how people lived long ago.

Professor Hiscock's Work

Studying Stone Tools

Professor Hiscock is a big supporter of using scientific methods to study stone tools. He has created ways to measure how much ancient people shaped and used their stone tools. This helps us understand how tools changed over time.

Exploring Australia's Past

Besides stone tools, Professor Hiscock has helped us understand the ancient history of Indigenous Australia.

How People Settled Australia

Working with Lynley Wallis, he developed the "Desert Transformation" idea. This idea suggests that about 50,000 years ago, the first people spread across Australia. At that time, the deserts were not as harsh as they are today. These early settlers slowly learned to live in the tougher environments that appeared about 35,000 years ago.

Understanding Ancient Tools

With Val Attenbrow and Gail Robertson, he looked again at small, sharp stone tools called backed artefacts. They studied when these tools appeared, how they spread, and what they were used for by ancient Indigenous Australians. They believe that many backed artefacts appeared along Australia's east coast. This happened because the climate was changing more often. This change was due to the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, which started in the middle of the Holocene period. Later work suggested these tools might also have been a way for groups to show who they were.

Shell Mounds and Other Discoveries

Professor Hiscock also worked with Patrick Faulkner. They re-examined the large shell mounds made of Anadara granosa shells in northern Australia. These mounds tell us a lot about ancient diets and communities.

He also led a project to study how technology and human behavior changed in Africa, Europe, and Australia a very long time ago.

A New Look at Ancient Australia

One of Professor Hiscock's biggest contributions is his book, Archaeology of Ancient Australia. In this book, he suggests that ancient Australian societies did not always change in one direction. Instead, he thinks the evidence shows many different ways people adapted over time. He argues that we should not always use modern Indigenous Australians' lives to guess how their very distant ancestors lived. Brian M. Fagan has said that Professor Hiscock has helped free Australian archaeology from relying too much on modern ideas.

Professor Hiscock has also written about how Aboriginal Australian religious beliefs developed. He also explored how the arrival of the British in 1788 and Christian beliefs affected them.

He also points out that many ancient archaeological sites from the Pleistocene era might not have survived. This means that some early periods might seem simpler than they actually were. Based on this, he created a new story of Australia's prehistory. In his view, the number of people changed with the environment. People's physical features changed with climate and gene flow. Their ways of life, social rules, and beliefs also changed to fit each time period.

Other Research

Professor Hiscock has also written about how archaeology and archaeologists are shown in movies and TV shows.

Awards and Recognition

In 2008, Professor Hiscock received the John Mulvaney Book Award. This award was from the Australian Archaeological Association. He won for his book The Archaeology of Ancient Australia. The book was praised for focusing on the archaeological evidence itself. It looked at long periods of time, which is good for dating methods and how things are preserved over ages. He also received an honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) degree from the Australian National University.

Key Books and Articles

Professor Hiscock has written many important books and articles. Here are a few examples:

• Hiscock, P. (2008) Archaeology of Ancient Australia. This book gives a full overview of Australia's ancient past.
• Hiscock, P. and Attenbrow, V. (2005) Australia's Eastern Regional Sequence revisited: Technology and change at Capertee 3. This book looks at how tools changed in eastern Australia.
• Veth, P., Smith, M. and Hiscock, P. (2005) Desert Peoples: archaeological perspectives. This book explores the archaeology of people living in deserts.

He has also written many articles in scientific journals. These articles cover topics like:

• How stone tools were made and used in Australia and other parts of the world.
• The earliest evidence of human activity in Australia.
• How different types of tools spread across Australia.
• The challenges of interpreting ancient archaeological findings.