Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T01:30:11.878Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early Human Occupation at Devil's Lair, Southwestern Australia 50,000 Years Ago

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Chris S. M. Turney ,
Michael I. Bird ,
L. Keith Fifield ,
Richard G. Roberts ,
Mike Smith ,
Charles E. Dortch ,
Rainer Grün ,
Ewan Lawson ,
Linda K. Ayliffe  and
Gifford H. Miller
...Show all authors
Chris S. M. Turney
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Michael I. Bird
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
L. Keith Fifield
Affiliation:
Department of Nuclear Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Richard G. Roberts
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia
Mike Smith
Affiliation:
People and Environment Section, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
Charles E. Dortch
Affiliation:
Anthropology Department, Western Australian Museum, Francis Street, Perth, Western Australia 6000, Australia
Rainer Grün
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Ewan Lawson
Affiliation:
Physics Division, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, PMB1, Menai, New South Wales 2234, Australia
Linda K. Ayliffe
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Gifford H. Miller
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0450
Joe Dortch
Affiliation:
Centre for Archaeology, University of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia 6907, Australia
Richard G. Cresswell
Affiliation:
Department of Nuclear Physics, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

New dating confirms that people occupied the Australian continent before the earliest time inferred from conventional radiocarbon analysis. Many of the new ages were obtained by accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating after an acid–base–acid pretreatment with bulk combustion (ABA-BC) or after a newly developed acid–base–wet oxidation pretreatment with stepped combustion (ABOX-SC). The samples (charcoal) came from the earliest occupation levels of the Devil's Lair site in southwestern Western Australia. Initial occupation of this site was previously dated 35,000 14C yr B.P. Whereas the ABA-BC ages are indistinguishable from background beyond 42,000 14C yr B.P., the ABOX-SC ages are in stratigraphic order to ∼55,000 14C yr B.P. The ABOX-SC chronology suggests that people were in the area by 48,000 cal yr B.P. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), electron spin resonance (ESR) ages, U-series dating of flowstones, and 14C dating of emu eggshell carbonate are in agreement with the ABOX-SC 14C chronology. These results, based on four independent techniques, reinforce arguments for early colonization of the Australian continent.

Keywords

ABOX-SCradiocarbon datingluminescence datingelectron spin resonance datingU-series datingAustralian archaeology
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , January 2001 , pp. 3 - 13
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adamiec, G., Aitken, M., (1998). Dose-rate conversion factors: Update. Ancient TL, 16, 37–50.Google Scholar
Aitken, M.J., (1998). An Introduction to Optical Dating. Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Allen, J., Holdaway, S., (1995). The contamination of Pleistocene radiocarbon determinations in Australia. Antiquity, 69, 101–112.Google Scholar
Bird, M.I., Gröcke, D.R., (1997). Determination of the abundance and carbon-isotope composition of elemental carbon in sediments. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 61, 3413–3423.Google Scholar
Bird, M.I., Ayliffe, L.K., Fifield, L.K., Turney, C.S.M., Cresswell, R.G., Barrows, T.T., David, B., (1999). Radiocarbon dating of “old” charcoal using a wet oxidation-stepped combustion procedure. Radiocarbon, 41, 127–140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowler, J.M., Price, D.M., (1998). Luminescence dates and stratigraphic analyses at Lake Mungo: Review and new perspectives. Archaeology in Oceania, 3, 156–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brennan, B.J., Rink, W.J., McGuirl, E.L., Schwarcz, H.P., Prestwich, W.V., (1997). Radiation Measurements.27, 307–314.Google Scholar
Chappell, J., Head, J., Magee, J., (1996). Beyond the radiocarbon limit in Australian archaeology and Quaternary research. Antiquity, 70, 543–552.Google Scholar
David, B., Roberts, R., Tuniz, C., Jones, R., Head, J., (1997). New optical and radiocarbon dates from Ngarrabullgan Cave, a Pleistocene archaeological site in Australia: Implications for the comparability of time clocks and for the human colonisation of Australia. Antiquity, 71, 183–188.Google Scholar
Dortch, C., (1979). Devil's Lair, an example of prolonged cave use in south-western Australia. World Archaeology, 10, 258–279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dortch, C., (1979). 33,000 year old stone and bone artefacts from Devil's Lair, Western Australia. Recordings of the Western Australian Museum, 7, 329–367.Google Scholar
Dortch, C., (1984). Devil's Lair, a Study in Prehistory. Western Australian Museum, Perth.Google Scholar
Dortch, C.E., Merrilees, D., (1973). A salvage excavation in Devil's Lair, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 54, 103–113.Google Scholar
Dortch, C.E., Dortch, J., (1996). Review of Devil's Lair artefact classification and radiocarbon chronology. Australian Archaeology, 43, 28–32.Google Scholar
Galbraith, R.F., Roberts, R.G., Laslett, G.M., Yoshida, H., Olley, J.M., (1999). Optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from Jimnium rock shelter, northern Australia: Part I, Experimental design and statistical models. Archaeometry, 41, 339–364.Google Scholar
Grün, R., (1989). Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating. Quaternary International, 1, 65–109.Google Scholar
Grün, R., (1995). Semi non-destructive, single aliquot ESR dating. Ancient TL, 13, 3–7.Google Scholar
Grün, R., Brumby, S., (1994). The assessment of errors in the past radiation doses extrapolated from ESR/TL dose response data. Radiation Measurements, 23, 307–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grün, R., Katzenberger-Apel, O., (1994). An alpha irradiator for ESR dating. Ancient TL, 12, 5–38.Google Scholar
Grün, R., Yan, G., McCulloch, M., Mortimer, G., (1999). Detailed mass spectrometric U-series analyses of two teeth from the archaeological site of Pech de l'Aze II: Implications for uranium migration and dating. Journal of Archaeological Science, 26, 1301–1310.Google Scholar
Huntley, D.J., Godfrey-Smith, D.I., Thewalt, M.L.W., (1985). Optical dating of sediments. Nature, 313, 105–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, R., (1998). Dating the human colonization of Australia: Radiocarbon and luminescence revolutions. Proceedings of the British Academy, 99, 37–65.Google Scholar
Kitagawa, H., van der Plicht, J., (1998). Atmospheric radiocarbon calibration to 45,000 yr B.P.: Late glacial fluctuations and cosmogenic isotopic production. Science, 279, 1187–1190.Google Scholar
Mejdahl, V., (1979). Thermoluminescence dating: Beta-dose attenuation in quartz grains. Archaeometry, 21, 61–72.Google Scholar
Miller, G.H., Magee, J.W., Johnson, B.J., Fogel, M.L., Spooner, N.A., McCulloch, M.T., Ayliffe, L.K., (1999). Pleistocene extinction of Genyornis newtoni: Human impact on Australian megafauna. Science, 283, 205–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, A.S., Roberts, R.G., (1998). Measurement of the equivalent dose in quartz using a regenerative-dose single-aliquot protocol. Radiation Measurements, 29, 503–515.Google Scholar
Murray, A.S., Wintle, A.G., (2000). Luminescence dating of quartz using an improved single-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol. Radiation Measurements, 32, 57–73.Google Scholar
O'Connell, J.F., Allen, J., (1998). When did humans first arrive in Greater Australia and why is it important to know?. Evolutionary Anthropology, 6, 132–146.3.0.CO;2-F>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Connor, S., (1995). Carpenter's Gap Rockshelter 1: 40,000 years of Aboriginal occupation in the Napier Ranges, Kimberley, WA. Australian Archaeology, 40, 58–59.Google Scholar
Olley, J.M., Caitcheon, G.G., Roberts, R.G., (1999). The origin of dose distributions in fluvial sediments, and the prospect of dating single grains from fluvial deposits using optically stimulated luminescence. Radiation Measurements, 30, 207–217.Google Scholar
Olley, J.M., Murray, A., Roberts, R.G., (1996). The effects of disequilibria in the uranium and thorium decay chains on burial dose rates in fluvial sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews, 15, 751–760.Google Scholar
Olley, J.M., Roberts, R.G., Murray, A.S., (1997). Disequilibria in the uranium decay series in sedimentary deposits at Allen's Cave, Nullarbor Plain, Australia: Implications for dose rate determinations. Radiation Measurements, 27, 433–443.Google Scholar
Pearce, R.H., Barbetti, M., (1981). A 38,000-year-old archaeological site at Upper Swan, Western Australia. Archaeology in Oceania, 16, 168–172.Google Scholar
Prescott, J.R., Hutton, J.T., (1994). Cosmic ray contributions to dose rates for luminescence and ESR dating: Large depths and long-term variations. Radiation Measurements, 23, 497–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, R. G., and Jones, R., (2000). Chronologies of carbon and of silica: Evidence concerning the dating of the earliest human presence in northern Australia.. In Humanity from African Naissance to Coming Millenia: Colloquia in Human Biology and Palaeo-AnthropologyP., Tobias, v., Raath, M. A., Moggi-Cecchi, J., and Doyle, G. A., Eds., pp. 243–252. Florence Univ. Press, Florence.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Jones, R., Smith, M.A., (1990). Thermoluminescence dating of a 50,000-year-old human occupation site in northern Australia. Nature, 345, 153–156.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Jones, R., Spooner, N.A., Head, M.J., Murray, A.S., Smith, M.A., (1994). The human colonisation of Australia: Optical dates of 53,000 and 60,000 years bracket human arrival at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory. Quaternary Science Reviews, 13, 575–583.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Jones, R., Smith, M.A., (1994). Beyond the radiocarbon barrier in Australian prehistory. Antiquity, 68, 611–616.Google Scholar
Roberts, R., Bird, M., Olley, J., Galbraith, R., Lawson, E., Laslett, G., Yoshida, H., Jones, R., Fullagar, R., Jacobsen, G., Hua, Q., (1998). Optical and radiocarbon dating at Jinmium rock shelter in northern Australia. Nature, 393, 358–362.Google Scholar
Roberts, R., Yoshida, H., Galbraith, R., Laslett, G., Jones, R., Smith, M., (1998). Single-aliquot and single-grain optical dating confirm thermoluminescence age estimates at Malakunanja II rock shelter in northern Australia. Ancient TL, 16, 19–24.Google Scholar
Roberts, R.G., Galbraith, R.F., Olley, J.M., Yoshida, H., Laslett, G.M., (1999). Optical dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from Jinmium rock shelter, northern Australia: Part II, Results and implications. Archaeometry, 41, 365–395.Google Scholar
Shackley, M., (1978). A sedimentological study of Devil's Lair, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia, 60, 33–40.Google Scholar
Stirling, C.H., Esat, T.M., McCulloch, M.T., Lambeck, K., (1995). High-precision U-series dating of corals from Western Australia and implications for the timing and duration of the last interglacial. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 135, 115–130.Google Scholar
Thorne, A., Grün, R., Mortimer, G., Spooner, N.A., Simpson, J.J., McCulloch, M.M., Taylor, L., Curnoe, D., (1999). Australia's earliest human remains: Age of the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton. Journal of Human Evolution, 36, 591–612.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Voelker, A.H.L., Sarnthein, M., Grootes, P.M., Erlenkeuser, H., Laj, C., Mazaud, A., Nadeau, M.-J., Schleicher, M., (1998). Correlation of marine 14C ages from the Nordic Seas with the GISP2 isotope record: Implications for 14C calibration beyond 25 ka B.P. Radiocarbon, 40, 517–534.Google Scholar
Williamson, K., Loveday, B., Loveday, F., (1976). Strongs Cave and related features—Southern Witchcliffe. The Western Caver, 16, 49–62.Google Scholar