Josephine Flood

Josephine Flood was born Josephine Scarr in Yorkshire, England. She took a BA in Classics at Girton College, Cambridge, in 1959, later receiving an MA (1968)[https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/9228 Archaeology of Yarar shelter, Flood, Josephine, Australian National University Thesis accepted: 1968] and a PhD (1973) from the Australian National University.[http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/5465996 Josephine Flood The moth-hunters investigations towards a prehistory of the south eastern highlands of Australia, Thesis (Ph. D.) Australian National University, 1973. manuscript] Her PhD thesis was published as: The Moth Hunters: Aboriginal prehistory of the Australian Alps in 1980.{{Citation

| title=The moth hunters : Aboriginal prehistory of the Australian Alps / Josephine Flood

| author1=Flood, Josephine

| author2=Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

| year=1980

| publisher=Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies

| isbn=0855750855

}}

In 1963, Flood moved to Australia. She married Australian diplomat Philip Flood the following year, subsequently having three children.[http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/part8.pdf Himalayan Dreaming: Australian mountaineering in the great ranges of Asia, 1922–1990 Will Steffen, Part 8: New summits— beyond the trade routes ANU Press 2010]{{cite web |title=HMSS 0452 Jo Flood Collection |url=https://www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/search/Manuscript_Collections/hmss-0452-jo-flood-collection |publisher=Libraries ACT |access-date=11 June 2019}}

In 1963 at ANU Flood was appointed as a lecturer in Classical Archaeology but in 1964 she transferred into the field of Australian archaeology and commenced a master's degree. In 1978 Flood was appointed Senior Conservation Officer with the Australian Heritage Commission in Canberra, becoming assistant director from 1979 to 1991, where in 1984 she headed the Aboriginal Environment Section. Over 2000 Aboriginal archaeological sites were added to the Register of the National Estate during her time at the AHC. She also contributed to the World Heritage Listing of Kakadu National Park, the Tasmanian South West Wilderness Area and the Willandra Lakes Region of NSW.Henry Cleere, Archaeological Heritage Management in the Modern World (Google eBook)

Routledge, 12 Nov 2012, Chapter 8

Flood indicates that she discovered Cloggs Cave near Buchan, Victoria while driving to another site in eastern Victoria. Her subsequent excavations revealed extensive evidence of Aboriginal stone and bone tools, with the basal layer now dated to the more than 30,000 years.Josephine Flood, 'Pleistocene Man at Cloggs Cave: his Tool Kit and Environment', Mankind Volume 9, Issue 3, pages 175–188, June 1974Josephine Flood, 'Pleistocene human occupation and extinct fauna in Cloggs Cave, Buchan, South-east Australia'. Nature 1973 Nov 30;246(5431):303.

Flood has followed a theoretical approach involving the use of recent ethnographic information to reinterpret the evidence of prehistoric archaeological material on the basis that "there have only been minor changes in the "stone-age, foraging, semi-nomadic way of life" of Aboriginal people throughout history".{{cite news |author=Fran Molloy |author-link=Fran Molloy |title=Ancient Australia not written in stone |url=http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/19/2279784.htm |publisher=ABC News in Science}}

In 1989, Flood was able to use the discovery of a cremated female skeleton to explain what life might have been like at Lake Mungo. Flood used this information to deduce the role of women in this Aboriginal society.{{cite book |last1=Hiscock |first1=Peter |title=The Archaeology of Ancient Australia |date=2008 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-44835-9 |pages=8}}

In 1991, Flood was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA).Australian Academy of the Humanities, [http://www.humanities.org.au/Fellowship/FindFellows/tabid/123/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1140/Flood-Josephine.aspx "The Academy Fellows"], Australian Academy of the Humanities, 20 March 2017 Flood received the Centenary Medal in 2001 For service to Australian society and the humanities in prehistory and archaeology.[https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1125805 Australian Honours, commonwealth government Website] Her most recent book, The Original Australians was a finalist in the Prime Minister's Prize for Australian History in 2007.[http://rsh.anu.edu.au/rockart/index.php/rock-art-at-anu ANU Rock Art Research Centre, 'People']

Flood was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours in recognition of her "significant service to archaeology, and to the study of Indigenous culture".{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/2004479|title=Dr Josephine Mary Flood|website=honours.pmc.gov.au|access-date=2019-06-10}}

Flood is also a mountaineer. She was possibly the only female member of the roof climbing group at Cambridge University, who practised and honed their rock and mountain climbing skills by scaling the university's stone buildings.[http://www.insectnation.org/cambridge-night-climbing-history.pdf Cambridge night climbing history], transcript of talk by Richard Williams to the Cambridge Society of Victoria at the Kelvin Club, Melbourne, Wednesday 21 October 2009. www.cambridgesociety.org.au. published by Oleander Press, Cambridge, as the introduction to the omnibus edition of The Roof-Climber’s Guide to Trinity oleanderpress.com In 1961, she led the Women's Kulu Expedition[https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/23/7/womens-kulu-expedition-1961/ The Himalayan Journal Women's Kulu Expedition, 1961 Josephine Scarr] and the following year she joined the Women's Jagdula Expedition to Lha Shamma in the Dolpo area of Nepal with Dorothea Gravina and Denise Evans (the wife of the Everest mountaineer Charles Evans).{{cite journal | url=https://www.himalayanclub.org/hj/24/9/the-jagdula-expedition-19621/ | title= The Jagdula Expedition, 1962 |first =Denise |last = Evans | access-date = 8 February 2025 | journal = Himalayan Journal | date =1963 | volume =24}} On these two expeditions she climbed six previously unclimbed peaks of over 20,000 feet and wrote a book telling the story of the ascents and overland drive to India entitled 'Four Miles High'.

She retired early to devote time to research, writing and travel.[http://www.uqp.uq.edu.au/Author.aspx/975/Flood,%20Josephine University of Queensland Press, Author Profile] Between 1981 and 1992 she led seven expeditions (funded by Earthwatch) to excavate sites and record rock art in Cape York and the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory. In retirement she has also provided support and field data for archaeological projects in the Australian Alps, rock art in the Northern Territory at sites of the 'Land of the Lightning Brothers',David, B., McNiven, I., Attenbrow, V. and Flood, J. 1994 of Lightning Brothers and White Cockatoos:

dating the antiquity of signifying systems in the Northern Territory, Australia. Antiquity 68:241-251.

and dating of the extinction of Australian megafauna.[http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2008/06/19/2279784.htm ABC Science, News in Science, Ancient Australia not written in stone, Published 19 June 2008] In 2015 Flood was elected a Member of the Emeritus Faculty of ANU.Australian National University Emeritus Faculty, [http://www.anu.edu.au/emeritus/members.html "ANU Emeritus Faculty Members"], Australian National University, 20 March 2017

• Four Miles High (1966) (published under her maiden name, Josephine Scarr){{cite book | title = Four Miles High | date=1966| first = Josephine| last = Scarr |publisher =Gollancz |pages= 112 onwards | access-date = 8 February 2025 | url = https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Four_Miles_High/PkEFAAAAMAAJ }}
• Moth Hunters of the Australian Capital Territory (1966, 2nd edition 2010)
• The Moth Hunters: Aboriginal Prehistory of the Australian Alps (1980)
• Archaeology of the Dreamtime: The Story of Prehistoric Australia and its People (1983, 7th edition 2010)
• Riches of Ancient Australia: A Journey into Prehistory University of Queensland Press Paperbacks (1990, 3rd edition 1999)
• Rock Art of the Dreamtime: Images of Ancient Australia (1997)
• The Original Australians: story of the Aboriginal People (2006)
• The Original Australians: story of the Aboriginal People - 2nd Edition (2019)

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Category:1938 births

Category:Living people

Category:Academic staff of the Australian National University

Category:Australian National University alumni

Category:Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge

Category:Australian archaeologists

Category:Australian women archaeologists

Category:Members of the Order of Australia

Category:Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society

Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of the Humanities

Category:Australian female climbers

Category:20th-century Australian sportswomen

Category:Urban climbers