Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

In this cave stone tools were thought to be associated with the bones of extinct animals, but they are now known to be of different ages. The  bones of extinct animals were later shown by aspartic acid racemisation dating to be about 40,000 years old, and the artefacts are now not believed to be of the same age.

Artefacts found at this site include a quartz flake (M4180), a grey cherty hornfels flake (M4183), a cherty hornfels flake (M4181), a retouched cherty hornfels scraper (M4182).

A few bone fragments and particles of charcoal were found in unit A, as well as 1 hornfels flake and 1 quartzite manuport.

In subunit B there were 13 artefacts and a rich deposit of vertebrate remains among which was a bone of Macropus titan with cut marks made with a stone tool. Artefacts were scattered throughout the unit, though they tended to be concentrated in the upper part. There was a thin band of charcoal fragments that had been reworked by water in the subunit, where there are also 2 artefacts. This was the only subunit containing sufficient charcoal to provide a radiocarbon date, 20,650 ± 1790 BP.

In subunit C there was a single artefact, a few fossil bones and small amounts of charcoal.

It has been suggested that the cave was a stopping place for small groups travelling along the Florentine River valley at a time approaching the last glacial maximum, when the vegetation of the area was mostly open grasslands with alpine-type shrubbery.

see also Stone Tools

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