Jillian Huntley

Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago

The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia’s megafauna. Here we report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Taphonomy Or Paint Recipe: In situ portable x-ray fluorescence analysis of two anthropomorphic motifs from the Woronora Plateau, New South Wales

Abstract Portable spectrographic techniques have desirable attributes for archaeological investigations because they can be applied in the field non-invasively and non-destructively. With the increasing ubiquity of portable spectrographic techniques in Australia it is timely that the complexities of field-based analyses are discussed. A review of portable x-ray fluorescence (PXRF), including the limitations of the technique, and discussion of the complex physical interactions encapsulated by the resulting elemental data, provide a firm basis for interpreting the analysis of a rock art panel on the Woronora Plateau, New South Wales. PXRF data supports the results of previous (laboratory-based) pigment characterisations, that a locally sourced, composite clay-based paint was used to produce rock art. Results highlight the requirement for specific knowledge and expertise, not only in relation to the technique, but also the rock art under investigation and, critically, its taphonomic context. Ultimately this case study demonstrates that portable spectrometry should be considered an addition to the existing repertoire of archaeometric techniques applicable to the study of rock art, rather than as a replacement for laboratory analyses.

The first Australian synchrotron powder diffraction analysis of pigment from a Wandjina motif in the Kimberley, Western Australia

Abstract We report the identification of minerals in stratified paint layers from a Wandjina motif in the central Kimberley region, Western Australia, via synchrotron powder diffraction. Interpreting our findings with reference to previous pigment characterisations of Wandjina motifs, we outline the potential of this method for rock art investigations. We particularly highlight the implications of successful major and minor phase identification in very small (~3 µg) pigment samples. The results of this pilot study show that crystallographic data is critical in helping to separate environmental/cultural signatures from post-depositional processes within anthropogenically applied pigments. In Wandjina rock art, crystallography facilitates the examination of the cultural context of rock art production within an assemblage ethnographically known to have undergone regular, ritual repainting.

Early human symbolic behavior in the Late Pleistocene of Wallacea

Significance We present evidence from the Late Pleistocene of Sulawesi, Indonesia, where an unusually rich and unique symbolic complex was excavated from archaeological deposits spanning 30,000 to 22,000 y ago. Including previously unknown practices of self-ornamentation, used ochre, pigmented artifacts, and portable art, these findings advance our knowledge of the cultural repertoires of modern humans in Pleistocene Wallacea, including the nonparietal artworks and symbolic material culture of some of the world’s earliest known “cave artists.” Wallacea, the zone of oceanic islands separating the continental regions of Southeast Asia and Australia, has yielded sparse evidence for the symbolic culture of early modern humans. Here we report evidence for symbolic activity 30,000–22,000 y ago at Leang Bulu Bettue, a cave and rock-shelter site on the Wallacean island of Sulawesi. We describe hitherto undocumented practices of personal ornamentation and portable art, alongside evidence for pigment processing and use in deposits that are the same age as dated rock art in the surrounding karst region. Previously, assemblages of multiple and diverse types of Pleistocene “symbolic” artifacts were entirely unknown from this region. The Leang Bulu Bettue assemblage provides insight into the complexity and diversification of modern human culture during a key period in the global dispersal of our species. It also shows that early inhabitants of Sulawesi fashioned ornaments from body parts of endemic animals, suggesting modern humans integrated exotic faunas and other novel resources into their symbolic world as they colonized the biogeographically unique regions southeast of continental Eurasia.

Early dates for ‘Neanderthal cave art’ may be wrong

Current evidence suggests that some Neanderthal populations engaged in modern human-like forms of symbolic behavior, including: the extensive and systematic use of ochers and other prepared mineral pigments (i.e., paint; Dayet et al., 2014, Heyes et al., 2016); use of perforated shells and various other modified and unmodified objects and substances as ornaments (e.g., ‘jewelry’), including bird feathers (Finlayson et al., 2012) and claws (Radovcic et al., 2015); manufacture of elaborate structures of unknown purpose inside deep cave passages (Jaubert et al., 2016); and engraving of non-figurative markings on bones (Majkic et al., 2017) and cortical areas of flaked stone artifacts (Majkic et al., 2018), and also on immobile rock surfaces (i.e., at Gorhams Cave; Rodriguez-Vidal et al., 2014). Scientific opinion is deeply divided over the meaning of these behaviors—the empirical evidence for which, in some instances, is not yet unanimously accepted. Indeed, the notion that even late-surviving Neanderthals had acquired aspects of cognitive ‘modernity’, either independently or through direct cultural contact (including interbreeding) with the first modern humans to enter Europe, remains a subject of lively debate.