Indigenous rock shelter in Top End pushes Australia's human history back to 65,000 years New excavations of a rock shelter near Kakadu National Park indicate humans reached Australia at least 65,000 years ago - up to 18,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously thought.
Many scientists already accepted that the shelter, called Madjedbebe, was home to the earliest evidence of humans in Australia. But now, sophisticated dating of sediments at the site confirms it is one of the most significant cultural and archaeological sites in the world.
The site was last excavated nearly 30 years ago. At that time it was thought to be between 50,000 and 60,000 years old. But these dates had been disputed by some archaeologists. To settle the dispute, Dr Clarkson and colleagues returned to the site in 2012 and 2015 armed with more sophisticated technology and techniques.
Located 300 kilometres east of Darwin in Mirarr Country, the Madjedbebe rock shelter sits at the base of the Arnhem Land escarpment on a sandy plain. Dr Clarkson said the discoveries,
published today in the journal Nature, demonstrated very strong cultural continuity at the site across thousands of years.