Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

This cave in  the Upper Florentine Valley was the site of the first discovery of human remains, probably about 12,000 years old. There is no evidence of extinct animals at this site. There were many stone tools, as well as charcoal, and burnt and unburnt modern animal bones. The occipital bone of what is thought to have been a teenage girl, or maybe in her 20s, was found, that is of gracile form, but is too fragmented to compare it with skulls from the Australian mainland, though the degree of gracility of the bone appears to be similar to that of the Lake Mungo people. Its age is thought to be about 12,000 years, based on circumstantial evidence.

A small silcrete flake has been found in situ 10 cm below the moonmilk capping that was made from a material that is exotic to the region, the material having a very similar petrology to that found at the Oyster Cove Aboriginal quarry at Northwest Bay in southern Tasmania. It has been suggested that trade links probably existed between the Florentine Valley and southeast Tasmania.

Sources & Further reading

1. Josephine Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, J.B. Publishing, 2004
2. The Tasmanians: Part 8b: Archaeology and the Oldest Tasmanians

Links

1. The Tasmanians: Part 8b: Archaeology and the Oldest Tasmanians