New Kakadu find 'rewrites' Australian human history

A recent research has found that Australia was colonised about 20,000 years before humans first arrived in Europe.

Aboriginal people have been in Australia for at least 65,000 years - much longer than the 47,000 years believed by some archaeologists.

The discovery, by a team of archaeologists and dating specialists led by Chris Clarkson from The University of Queensland School of Social Science, reveal new evidence at the Madjedbebe site on Mirarr land within the Jabiluka mineral lease, surrounded by the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.

Madjedbebe rock shelter has been excavated four times since the 1970s, most recently by an international team led by Clarkson in partnership with the Mirarr Traditional Owners.

Clarkson said more than 10,000 artefacts were revealed in the lowest layer at the site.

"The site contains the oldest ground-edge stone axe technology in the world, the oldest known seed-grinding tools in Australia and evidence of finely made stone points which may have served as spear tips," he said, adding "Most striking of all, in a region known for its spectacular rock art, are the huge quantities of ground ochre and evidence of ochre processing found at the site, from the older layer continuing through to the present."

The dig discovered a maxillary (upper jaw) fragment of a Tasmanian Tiger coated in red pigment, giving insight to the central role ochre played in local customs at the time.

Dating carried out by Zenobia Jacobs at the University of Wollongong revealed that Aboriginal people lived at Madjedbebe at the same time as extinct species of giant animals were roaming around Australia, and the tiny species of primitive human, Homo floresiensis, was living on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia.

In addition to showing the deep antiquity of Aboriginal occupation, the dig revealed new evidence of activities and lifestyle.

The study is published in the Nature journal.