Browsing by Author "Worthy, TH"

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    Cultural innovation and megafauna interaction in the early settlement of arid Australia
    (Springer, 2016-11-02) Hamm, G; Mitchell, P; Arnold, LJ; Prideaux, GJ; Questiaux, D; Spooner, NA; Levchenko, VA; Foley, EC; Worthy, TH; Stephenson, B; Coulthard, V; Coulthard, C; Wilton, S; Johnston, D
    Elucidating the material culture of early people in arid Australia and the nature of their environmental interactions is essential for understanding the adaptability of populations and the potential causes of megafaunal extinctions 50–40 thousand years ago (ka). Humans colonized the continent by 50 ka1, 2, but an apparent lack of cultural innovations compared to people in Europe and Africa3, 4 has been deemed a barrier to early settlement in the extensive arid zone2, 3. Here we present evidence from Warratyi rock shelter in the southern interior that shows that humans occupied arid Australia by around 49 ka, 10 thousand years (kyr) earlier than previously reported2. The site preserves the only reliably dated, stratified evidence of extinct Australian megafauna5, 6, including the giant marsupial Diprotodon optatum, alongside artefacts more than 46 kyr old. We also report on the earliest-known use of ochre in Australia and Southeast Asia (at or before 49–46 ka), gypsum pigment (40–33 ka), bone tools (40–38 ka), hafted tools (38–35 ka), and backed artefacts (30–24 ka), each up to 10 kyr older than any other known occurrence7, 8. Thus, our evidence shows that people not only settled in the arid interior within a few millennia of entering the continent9, but also developed key technologies much earlier than previously recorded for Australia and Southeast Asia. © 2016, Nature Publishing Group.
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    Man and megafauna in Tasmania: closing the gap
    (Elsevier B.V., 2012-03-22) Gillespie, R; Camens, AB; Worthy, TH; Rawlence, NJ; Reid, C; Bertuch, F; Levchenko, VA; Cooper, A
    Recent discussion on the late Pleistocene extinction of the Australian megafauna has revolved around interpretation of several key fossil sites in Tasmania. It has been suggested that humans did not arrive in Tasmania until after the megafauna became extinct, or did not hunt now extinct megafauna, and therefore that humans cannot be implicated in the extinctions. Radiocarbon results from these sites indicate that the youngest extinct megafauna are close to charcoal ages from the oldest archaeological deposits, although difficulties have arisen in establishing chronologies because most relevant sites have ages near the limit for radiocarbon analysis. We report a series of new radiocarbon ages, delta C-13, delta N-15 and C:N ratios on collagen and dentine fractions from skeletal remains in the Mount Cripps karst area and the Mowbray Swamp, both in northwestern Tasmania, and discuss the reliability of ages from these and other sites. We also report the discovery of an articulated Simosthenurus occidentalis skeleton at Mt Cripps, that represents only the second directly-dated extinct megafaunal taxon with a reliable age <50 ka cal BP from Tasmania. Our results suggest that C:N ratios measured on collagen or dentine are not an infallible guide to radiocarbon age reliability. We confirm previous reports of a temporal overlap between the megafaunal and archaeological records in Tasmania, but the presence of archaeological evidence and megafauna with the same age at the same site has not yet been demonstrated. At least two megafaunal taxa-the now-extinct Protemnodon anak and a giant Pleistocene form of the extant Macropus giganteus-were still present in Tasmania after 43 ka, when human crossing of the Bassian landbridge from mainland Australia first became sustainable. © 2012, Elsevier Ltd.