Browsing by Author "Clarkson, C"

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    Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago
    (Springer Nature, 2017-07-20) Clarkson, C; Jacobs, Z; Marwick, B; Fullager, R; Wallis, LA; Smith, MA; Roberts, RG; Hayes, E; Lowe, KM; Carah, X; Florin, SA; McNeil, J; Cox, D; Arnold, LJ; Hua, Q; Huntley, J; Brand, HEA; Manne, T; Fairbairn, AS; Shulmeister, J; Lyle, L; Salinas, M; Page, M; Connell, K; Park, GY; Norman, K; Murphy, T; Pardoe, C
    The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans. © 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature.
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    Reply to comments on Clarkson et al. (2017) ‘Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago’
    (Taylor & Francis, 2018-04-26) Clarkson, C; Roberts, RG; Jacobs, Z; Marwick, B; Fullagar, R; Arnold, LJ; Hua, Q
    We thank the authors for their comments in the previous issue of Australian Archaeology. The 2012– 2015 research at Madjedbebe offers a new and comprehensive look at the early occupation of Sahul and adds substantially to our knowledge of the timing of that event and the behaviour of the first people to enter the region. Establishing occupation of northern Australia by 65 ± 6 thousand years ago (ka, with the uncertainty expressed at 95.4% probability) pushes human presence in the Top End back beyond the earliest ages so far reported for other Australian sites by c. 5,000–15,000 years (Roberts et al. 1994; Hamm et al. 2016; Veth et al. 2017), thus raising interesting questions as to the latitudinal extent of continental occupation prior to 50 ka. © 2018 Australian Archaeological Association
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    Using stable isotope analysis of archaeological pandanus nutshell to understand past rainfall at Madjedbebe, northern Australia
    (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2021-11-17) Florin, A; Roberts, P; Marwick, B; Patton, NR; Schilmeister, J; Lovelock, CE; Barry, LA; Hua, Q; Nango, M; Djandjomerr, D; Fullagar, R; Wallis, LA; Faibairn, AS; Clarkson, C
    Archaeological research provides a long-term perspective on how humans live with various environmental conditions over tens of thousands of years. However, to do this, archaeologists rely on the existence of local and temporally comparable environmental proxies, which are often not available. Our research at Madjedbebe, a ~65,000-year-old archaeological site on Mirarr country in northern Australia, developed an on-site proxy for past rainfall from pandanus nutshell, a remnant of ancient meals eaten at the site. This talk will discuss how we can use ancient food scraps, such as pandanus nutshell, to document past rainfall and what the results of this research mean for communities living at Madjedbebe in the past.