Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Malakunanja II Arnhem land

This is a shallow rock shelter near Ngarradji Warde Djobkeng and Ja Ja Billabong, south of Malangangerr. It has faded paintings on its overhanging walls. The first excavation found charcoal dating to 18 000 years ago. Associated with the charcoal were a grinding hollow and 2 flattish mortars, one of which had clear traces of ochre.

Later excavations in the 1980s established Malakunanja as the oldest dated site in Australia. The first signs of  Human occupation appear 2.6 m below the surface. The layers showing signs of human occupation were TL dated to between 61,000 and 52,000 years ago. Humans apparently appeared abruptly dated to 61,000 +9,000/-13,000. The sand below this layer was devoid of any signs of human activity. From a depth of 2.5-2.3 m there was dense occupation, from between 52,000 +7,000/-11,000 BP and 45,000 +6,000/-9,000 BP. More than 1500 artefacts were found in the lowest occupation layer.

Artefacts included those made from from silcrete, quartzite and white quartz, a grindstone, pieces of dolerite and ground haematite, chlorite and mica and red and yellow ochre. The researchers allowed for the earliest occupants to have trodden artefacts into the soft sand of the floor, putting the first occupation of the site at a conservative time of 52,000 years BP. Below the earliest occupation there was 2 m of sand that were deposited gradually over a period of 110,000 years.

The presence of high grade haematite in this deposit indicates that long distance exchange or transport took place during the Pleistocene, as the nearest known possible sources for the haematite are long distances from the site (Jones & Johnson, 1985b;Jones & Negerevich, 1985; Chaloupka, 1993).

See Stone Tools

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

1. Australian Aboriginal prehistoric sites
2. Radiocarbon determinations, luminescence dating and Australian Archaeology