Cultural Innovation in the Indigenous Settlement of Australia

This project will focus on the role of cultural innovation in the early Indigenous settlement and subsequent occupation of Sahul’s arid zone. While Australia was colonised 65,000 years ago, few Pleistocene sites contain well preserved, high quality archaeological records across that time span, producing significant gaps in archaeological datasets. The outstanding preservation at Warratyi rock shelter provides a rare and invaluable opportunity to address these gaps. This project will analyse new data on ancient dingo, key technologies, symbolic behaviours and human interactions with megafauna to identify the technological sophistication and cultural innovations needed to colonise and occupy Australia’s arid zone, from 49,000 years ago.