Warratyi Rock Shelter is the site of the oldest scientific evidence of human occupation in South Australia and one of the oldest in the country.
This project will provide new insights into how cultural innovations, symbolic behaviours and technological sophistication facilitated the Indigenous colonisation and occupation of Australia’s arid zone, from 49,000 years ago. It will document Indigenous responses to climatic and environmental changes at the site of Warratyi in the Northern Flinders Ranges and assess how this relates to the early occupation of the arid zone. Working collaboratively with the traditional owners, the Adnyamathanha, this research adopts the methodological innovation of braiding Western and Indigenous science to ensure that understandings of Warratyi’s exceptional archaeological record are as nuanced and wide ranging as possible. Bridging the sciences and the humanities, it will enhance scholarly and public understandings of how Indigenous cultural innovations and technological sophistication shaped the human past in Australia, enable better decision-making around cultural heritage assessments, and contribute directly to Australia’s plans for a World Heritage nomination of the area that includes Warratyi in South Australia.