Holocene records of environment and freshwater availability from tufa archives: implications for human occupation at Murujuga, NW WA

Murujuga in NW Western Australia is the world’s largest rock art province, with over 1 million engravings. The art and other archaeological evidence in this landscape are an important record of human response to the changing climate following the last ice-age. 130 m of sea level rise following Last Glacial Maximum (LGM ~22 kya) transformed Murujuga from an inland range to a coastal archipelago. We discuss the potential of freshwater tufa as multi-proxy archives to inform on the local environmental and climatic change that impacted this region during the Holocene. Tufa, which are calcium carbonate deposits that form from freshwater springs and seeps in river channels, provide a proxy of past freshwater availability. Establishing the age and rate of tufa formation will enhance our understanding of the presence and permanence of water holes that would have been important for human occupation. Outcomes of this work will provide context to the extraordinary archaeological record documented in Murujuga rock art.

Keywords

Quaternary period, Records management, Environment, Humans, Western Australia, Glaciers, Climatic change, Age estimation, Archaeological sites, Cultural objects

Citation

Mather, C., Tucker, M., Leopold, M., Levchenko, V., O'Leary, M., Morrisonm P., & McDonald, J. (2022). Holocene records of environment and freshwater availability from tufa archives: implications for human occupation at Murujuga, NW WA. Paper presented to AQUA 2022 Conference, 6-8 December 2022, Adelaide. (pp. 129-130). Retrieved from: http://aqua.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AQUA-2022-conference-program-and-abstract-booklet.pdf

URI

http://aqua.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/AQUA-2022-conference-program-and-abstract-booklet.pdf
https://apo.ansto.gov.au/handle/10238/15539

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