Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Situated on the coast in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. These sites would have been about 100 km from the coast when occupation is believed to have begun about 28,000 years ago. These sites appear to have been abandoned about 7,500 years ago, thought by some to most likely be because of increasing aridity.

A ground sea urchin spine and pearl shell (Pinctada sp.) were found in levels that have been dated to about 18,900 +/- 1,800 years ago. A minimum age date of 28,060 +/- 600 years ago was obtained from a Geloina shell (O'Connor, 1999).

Widgingarri 2

The site was 200 km from the coast at the time of occupation. The presence of marine shells here suggests the existence of long distance exchange networks/transport in the late Pleistocene.

There were 25 nodules of ochre in this deposit, red, yellow and orange, that were dated levels between 28,060 +/- 600 BP and 18,900 +/- 1,800 BP. (O'Connor, 1999, Table 5.17).

Sources & Further reading

1. Josephine Flood, Archaeology of the Dreamtime, J. B. Publishing
2. Phillip J. Habgood & Natilie R. Franklin, The revolution that didn't arrive: A review of Pleistocene Sahul, Journal of Human Evolution, 55, 2008

Links

Revisiting the Past: Changing Interpretations of Pleistocene Settlement Subsistence and Demography in Northern Australia