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Humans settled ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥'s arid zone 49,000 years ago

Thursday, 3 November 2016

New findings published today, involving ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide researchers, prove that humans occupied ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥’s arid interior and began developing sophisticated tools 10,000 years earlier than previously documented – around 49,000 years ago.

Published in , the findings from the Warratyi Rock Shelter in the desert region of northern South ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥, show it to contain the oldest evidence of Aboriginal occupation in South ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥. Humans arrived in ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ about 50,000 years ago but the timing of their settlement in arid regions and cultural innovation have been uncertain.

This evidence reveals new insights into modern human colonisation of ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥, unique cultural innovation and interaction with now-extinct megafauna.

The project was led by arid zone research archaeologist Giles Hamm, an Honorary Fellow of the South ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n Museum and La Trobe ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ PhD candidate, working with geochronology specialists at the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide and , along with geomorphologist Dr Peter Mitchell, and other researchers from Flinders ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ and the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Queensland. They have worked for the last nine years with the Adnyamathanha people in the Flinders Ranges.

The study suggests that people settled in the arid interior within a few millennia of arriving on the continent and shows that they developed key technologies and cultural practices much earlier than previously thought for ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ and Southeast Asia.

The team show that humans occupied the site from 49,000 to 46,000 years ago and that objects recovered from the various layers of sediment represent the earliest-known use in ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of various technologies including: worked bone tools (40,000-38,000 years ago), stone tools modified for attaching to a handle (30,000-24,000 years ago) and the use of red ochre as pigment (49,000-46,000) and gypsum (40,000-33,000 years ago).

The ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide researchers – Dr Arnold, Adjunct Professor Nigel Spooner and Ms Daniele Questiaux – undertook the geochronology (dating) aspects of the study.

“One of the key strengths of this study is the chronology, which has typically proved to be a contentious issue at early archaeological sites in ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥, says Dr Arnold, ARC Future Fellow with the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide’s Environment Institute. “We have used a range of complementary dating techniques and targeted different types of materials to ensure that the age of the site is reliably known.”

The team applied a novel sediment dating technique known as single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to determine when the fossil and artefact bearing sediments were deposited. Combined with statistical techniques, they were able to determine a precise occupation history for the archaeological site.

The OSL dating research was conducted at the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ of Adelaide’s Prescott Environmental Luminescence Laboratory – one of the largest and best equipment dating laboratories in the world in this field.

“The Warratyi Rock Shelter is a remarkable discovery, showing aboriginal settlement of the ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n arid zone long before the last ice age and contemporaneous with iconic ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥n megafauna, and revealing an innovative material culture, including the utilisation of ochre pigments, much earlier than previously recorded for ÐÓ°ÉÖ±²¥ and Southeast Asia,” says Professor Spooner.

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