Australia’s oldest occupied Ice Age cave found in the Blue Mountains

Australia’s oldest occupied Ice Age cave has been found at high elevation* west of Sydney.

Archaeologists from the Australian Museum, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, along with First Nations community members, have unearthed 693 stone artefacts dating from the last Ice Age* to the recent past in an ancient Blue Mountains cave known as Dargan Shelter.

The discovery provides evidence that humans lived in this previously frozen, high-altitude landscape once thought to be too cold and harsh for people to stay in.

While the Blue Mountains are home to some of the oldest known rock shelters in Australia, having been inhabited for over 30,000 years, Dargan Shelter has been the highest altitude cave found showing past human activity, at 1073m elevation.

The evidence from the cave dates back 20,000 years to the Ice Age, when the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains were treeless and seasonally frozen over. Previously, researchers thought the Australian high country was too difficult to occupy during the last Ice Age. However, the new archaeological results, funded by the Australian Museum Foundation and published in Nature Human Behaviour, have provided the first evidence of repeated human activity and adaptation to periglacial* environments on the Australian continent.

Gomeroi knowledge holder and First Nations mentor in archaeology at the University of Sydney, Wayne Brennan, who is a rock art specialist, started the research project. Mr Brennan brought together scientists with First Nations community to explore the cultural history of the Blue Mountains.

Mr Brennan and lead author of the research paper Dr Amy Mosig Way, who holds a joint position as archaeologist at the Australian Museum and lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Sydney, worked closely with First Nations members from the Dharug, Wiradjuri, Dharawal, Gomeroi, Wonnarua, and Ngunnawal groups, who hold traditional connections to the region.

Dr Way said the research suggested First Nations ancestors were able to navigate and stay in high-altitude periglacial environments during the Ice Age.

“This new evidence aligns Australia with global data that shows glacial landscapes were not necessarily natural barriers to early human movement and occupation,” Dr Way said.

“Until now, we thought the Australian high country was too difficult to occupy during the last Ice Age. Yet, despite the harsh conditions, our research demonstrates people were moving in and through this high elevation landscape, which is approximately 400m above the tree line.”

Second author of the paper, Professor Philip Piper from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology* at the Australian National University, said the excavations uncovered incredible layers of evidence of human activity, including hearth features, which are the remnants of fires.

“It was the excellent state of preservation that enabled us to construct such a robust chronology* for Dargan Shelter spanning the last 20,000 years,” Professor Piper said.

First Nations custodians, authors on the research paper and proud Dharug women, Leanne Watson Redpath and Erin Wilkins explained that their communities have lived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years.

“Our people have walked, lived and thrived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years and we knew the cave was there,” Ms Watson Redpath said. “It is not only a tangible* connection to our ancestors who used it as a meeting place for sharing, storytelling and survival, but is a part of our cultural identity. We need to respect and protect our heritage for the benefit of all Australians.”

Ms Wilkins said that while there’s “no certain way of identifying which groups accessed the mountains in the deep past”, it was likely that multiple groups were connected to this country. “Today, Dargan Shelter is considered by local custodians to represent a family space of high cultural significance,” she said.

The Blue Mountains are a UNESCO World Heritage listed site, but Mr Brennan said that while the listing protected flora and fauna, “there are no safeguards for our cultural heritage”. “We hope that by combining our traditional knowledge with scientific research, we can protect these invaluable storehouses of our history for generations to come,” he said.

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GLOSSARY

• high elevation: areas above sea level
• Ice Age: also known as the Last Glacial Maxim, this spanned 29,000 to 19,000 years ago and occurred during the final stage of the Pleistocene Epoch (2.58 million to 11,700 years ago). About 8 per cent of the planet was covered in ice at the time. This was the most recent of five ice ages within 450,000 years
• periglacial: an area adjacent to a glacier or prone to repeated freezing and thawing
• anthropology: the study of people and cultures
• chronology: timeline
• tangible: something you can touch and feel

EXTRA READING
Lush ancient Oz had giant koalas
How cold was it in the coldest part of the Ice Age?
Baby woolly mammoth intact in ice

QUICK QUIZ
How old were the oldest artefacts found at Dargan Shelter?
How many artefacts were found there?
What elevation is Dargan Shelter?
What are hearth features?
What does the finding signify?

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CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES
1. How did they survive?
What skills and abilities do you think the First Nations ancestors had that enabled them to live, thrive and survive in such difficult conditions? Write a detailed list.

Time: allow at least 15 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, History

2. Extension
How and why should places like the Dargan Shelter be protected? Write a proposal to UNESCO to include places of cultural significance as World Heritage areas. Use your research skills to find out more about UNESCO and World Heritage to help you.

Time: allow at least 30 minutes to complete this activity
Curriculum Links: English, History

VCOP ACTIVITY
Imaginative dialogue
Imagine you were there during the event being discussed in the article, or for the interview.

Create a conversation between two characters from the article – you may need or want to include yourself as one of the characters. Don’t forget to try to use facts and details from the article to help make your dialogue as realistic as possible.

Go through your writing and highlight any punctuation you have used in green. Make sure you carefully check the punctuation used for the dialogue and ensure you have opened and closed the speaking in the correct places.