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c. 65,000 years agoReputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

People reach Madjedbebe in northern Australia by about 65,000 years ago

The oldest confirmed evidence of human occupation on the continent

On the timeline · around c. 65,000 years ago · The First PeoplesThe First PeoplesPeople reach Madjedbebe in northern Australia by about 65,000 years ago67 ka62 ka57 ka52 ka47 ka42 ka37 ka32 ka27 ka22 ka

Quick facts

Location
Madjedbebe, Mirarr Country, near Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
Date established
at least 65,000 years ago
Lead researcher
Chris Clarkson, University of Queensland
Key evidence
over 10,000 artefacts including ground-edge axes and grinding stones

What happened

At Madjedbebe, a sandstone rock shelter on Mirarr land in Arnhem Land near Kakadu, archaeologists led by Chris Clarkson of the University of Queensland excavated more than 10,000 stone artefacts, including 1,500 stone tools, grinding stones, and ground ochres, in partnership with the Mirarr Traditional Owners. Optical dating of the sediment layers pushed the date of first occupation back to at least 65,000 years, several thousand years earlier than the 47,000-year figure many archaeologists had accepted. The site holds the oldest known ground-edge stone axe technology in the world, some of the earliest seed-grinding tools anywhere, and a maxillary fragment of a Tasmanian tiger coated in red pigment.

Why it matters

The date makes the migration to Sahul (the combined Australia-New Guinea landmass) one of the earliest known modern human sea crossings anywhere, requiring watercraft and open-ocean navigation tens of thousands of years before comparable crossings elsewhere. It also means Aboriginal people's connection to this specific country is the longest continuously documented human-land relationship on Earth, predating the rock shelter's ochre-processing traditions that continue in different form today.

How we know

The dating relies on optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) analysis of individual sand grains in the excavated layers, a technique that measures when quartz grains were last exposed to sunlight, cross-checked against the stone tool assemblage's stratigraphy. The findings were published in Nature in 2017 by Clarkson and 27 co-authors, including dating specialist Zenobia Jacobs.

Sources

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Part of a timelineHistory of Australia33 events · 65,000 years of the world's oldest living cultures, a penal colony's dispossession of them, and the reckoning still underwayView all →
People reach Madjedbebe in northern Australia by about 65,000 years ago · History of Australia · SourcedStory