Humans and megafauna in a late Pleistocene environment from Cuddie Springs, north western New South Wales

Abstract

AbstractWe report the first site in Australia with a dated association of human technology and megafauna, in a palaeoenvironmental context. There are few sites in Australia where evidence of humans and Pleistocene megafauna coincide (Flannery and Gott, 1984; Flood, 1983 151–159; Gillespie et al., 1978; Gorecki et al., 1984). Such coincidences are often poorly dated or undated due to their antiquity or stratigraphic context. Cuddie Springs contains several distinct concentrations of megafaunal bone, in addition to a scatter of bone through all the sediments examined. Most of the deposit is beyond radiocarbon dating but an upper portion of sediment has been dated between 19,000 and 30,000 B.P. Artefacts and increased charcoal appear about 30,000 B.P. and then have a continuous presence. The artefact assemblage includes grindstones with starch residues, ochre, a probable cylcon and stone artefacts with reworked edges containing blood and hair. These combine to provide evidence of plant and animal processing and cultural practices at 30,000 B.P. The bones and artefacts were deposited when Cuddie Springs was a shallow freshwater lake surrounded by a relatively arid shrubland, the lake then became ephemeral and the environment more arid as the glacial maximum approached.