Abstract
The re-excavation of Karnatukul (Serpent’s Glen) has provided evidence for the human occupation of the Australian Western Desert to before 47,830 cal. BP (modelled median age). This new sequence is 20,000 years older than the previous known age for occupation at this site. Re-excavation of Karnatukul aimed to contextualise the site’s painted art assemblage. We report on analyses of assemblages of stone artefacts and pigment art, pigment fragments, anthracology, new radiocarbon dates and detailed sediment analyses. Combined these add significantly to our understanding of this earliest occupation of Australia’s Western Desert. The large lithic assemblage of over 25,000 artefacts includes a symmetrical geometric backed artefact dated to 45,570–41,650 cal. BP. The assemblage includes other evidence for hafting technology in its earliest phase of occupation. This research recalibrates the earliest Pleistocene occupation of Australia’s desert core and confirms that people remained in this part of the arid zone during the Last Glacial Maximum. Changes in occupation intensity are demonstrated throughout the sequence: at the late Pleistocene/Holocene transition, the mid-Holocene and then during the last millennium. Karnatukul documents intensive site use with a range of occupation activities and different signalling behaviours during the last 1,000 years. This correlation of rock art and occupation evidence refines our understanding of how Western Desert peoples have inscribed their landscapes in the recent past, while the newly described occupation sequence highlights the dynamic adaptive culture of the first Australians, supporting arguments for their rapid very early migration from the coasts and northern tropics throughout the arid interior of the continent.
Highlights
Serpent’s Glen rockshelter, known as Karnatukul to its traditional custodians, is in the Carnarvon Ranges
This paper reports on the analysis of all materials recovered from squares B8 and B10
Artefact discard rates increase slightly during the glacial and terminal Pleistocene period (AU3a and b) and indicate continued–albeit episodic–site visits by highly residentially-mobile groups. This is significant, as dates for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) have been absent from the Western Desert until this excavation
Summary
Serpent’s Glen rockshelter, known as Karnatukul to its traditional custodians, is in the Carnarvon Ranges (more properly, Katjarra). Re-excavation of the site aimed to contextualise the recent painted art production (Fig 1) and to refine the occupational sequence. Panel 9 is a palimpsest containing all five defined phases, with the genesis of this sequence being the striking red and white bichrome composition (Fig 4). All squares were dug in 2 cm excavation units (XUs) or in stratigraphic units (SUs)–whichever were smaller Two of these squares (B8 and B10) were placed below Panel 9 (the main rock art composition); the third (square A3) was placed in a more interior location (beneath Panels 3, 4 and 5) west of the original excavation square (see Fig 2). Dark brown (7.5 YR 3/4) coarse and medium sand with abundant charcoals, colour varies depending on concentration of charcoals
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