Latest news with #DarganShelter
Daily Mail
17 hours ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Shocking discovery inside one of Australia's oldest Ice Age caves dating back over 20,000 years
Archaeologists have unearthed extraordinary evidence proving one of Australia's oldest caves was occupied by humans during the Ice Age. Scientists uncovered Ice Age artefacts deep inside Dargan Shelter - a cave 1,100metres above sea level in NSW 's Blue Mountains region - challenging long-held assumptions about ancient human life in Australia. Dargan Shelter is now believed to be the oldest site at high elevation with evidence of repeated human activity and adaption to environments on the Australian continent. The cave is around 25metres high, 22metres wide and about 20metres deep. Up to 693 stone artefacts were found including stone tools and a sandstone grinding slab that may have been used for shaping wooden items or bone points for spears. The discoveries dated as far back as 20,000 years and were unearthed after the team dug more than two metres down into the frozen layers of the site. Archaeologists from the Australian Museum, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, along with First Nations community members, led three digs between April 2022 and March 2023. Gomeroi knowledge holder and First Nations mentor in archaeology at the University of Sydney, Wayne Brennan, initiated the research project. The discovery proved First Nations ancestors navigated and occupied high-altitude environments during the Ice Age, Mr Brennan and Australian Museum Archeologist and lead author of the research paper Dr Amy Mosig Way, said. 'Until now, we thought the Australian high country was too difficult to occupy during the last Ice Age,' Dr Way wrote in a newsletter for the University of Sydney. 'Yet, despite the harsh conditions, our research demonstrates people were moving in and through this high elevation landscape, which is approximately 400metres above the tree line.' The artefacts had been kept in an 'excellent state of preservation', with the team measuring the pieces against the date of charcoal from old firepits buried at the same level to estimate the age of each item. With this method, the scientists were able to determine the sandstone grinding slab, which had linear grooves, had been used more than 13,000 years ago. Researchers also found a stone believed to have been used as an axe. Analysis proved the piece of basalt was used to crack open hard seeds or nuts dating back to about 9,000 years ago. First Nations custodians and proud Dharug women, Leanne Watson Redpath and Erin Wilkins said the discovery symbolised a tangible connection to their ancestors. Ms Wilkins said while there was no way of identifying which groups accessed the site during the Ice Age, it was likely multiple groups frequented the cave. She added local custodians consider the Dargan Shelter as representing a family space with 'high cultural significance'. Mr Brennan said he hoped the discovery would help protect First Nations people's cultural heritage. 'The Blue Mountains is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site for the protection of flora and fauna but there are no safeguards for our cultural heritage, he said. 'We hope that by combining our traditional knowledge with scientific research, we can protect these invaluable storehouses of our history for generations to come.'
ABC News
a day ago
- Science
- ABC News
Inside Dargan Shelter, the Blue Mountains cave home to artefacts linked to the Ice Age
The terrain in the upper Blue Mountains is impassable in sections. It's where eucalypts climb high and scribbly gums, banksia and wattles thrive. Survival in this environment today would be tough — which makes a recent archaeological discovery all the more extraordinary. Scientists have uncovered Ice Age artefacts deep inside a cave 1,100 metres above sea level, challenging long-held assumptions about ancient human life in Australia. The discoveries, dated to as far back as 20,000 years, were found in a cave known as Dargan Shelter — now believed to be the oldest known site of human activity at high elevation on the Australian continent. The Dargan Shelter is located in the upper-Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. ( ABC News: Michael Nudl ) The terrain near the cave is difficult to traverse. ( ABC News: Michael Nudl ) The upper-Blue Mountains near the location of the cave. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) Dr Amy Way and colleagues during one of the digs in the Dargan Shelter. ( Supplied: Meagan Warwick/Australian Museum ) The team involved in the discovery of the artefacts in Dargan Shelter. ( Supplied: Meagan Warwick/Australian Museum ) The shelter is around 25 metres high, 22 metres wide and 20 metres deep. "We have the full sequence of occupation, right from when people started using it, from the last Ice Age or possibly even before that," Dr Amy Way, an Australian Museum archaeologist, told 7.30. Members of the archaeology team inside Dargan Shelter. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) "It's a phenomenal cave in that you can absolutely see why people have been drawn to this space for thousands of years," she said. "What makes it really significant archaeologically is actually what's beneath our feet." The archaeologists discovered hundreds of artefacts during the digs. ( Supplied: Meagan Warwick/Australian Museum ) Over three digs between April 2022 and March 2023, where they dug down more than two metres, Dr Way and her team uncovered hundreds of ancient artefacts and items of cultural significance. The evidence, they say, provides definitive proof of repeated occupation in this once frozen high-altitude landscape. "The oldest object we found was around 20,000 years old," she said. What was it like in the Ice Age? An artwork by Leanne Redpath Wilkins imagining what Dargan Shelter looked like in the Ice Age. ( Supplied: Australian Museum ) Gomeroi man Wayne Brennan thinks the climate and terrain conditions would have been "extremely tough" this high up during the Ice Age, during a period called the Pleistocene. Scientists believe the average temperature would have been 8 degrees Celsius cooler than it is today, and even more frigid during the winter months. "It would have been a lot harsher around here," Mr Brennan told 7.30. "The treeline would've been a lot lower, and while there would've been some shrubs, you'd be fighting for firewood." The view from the cave. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) The evidence from the Dargan Shelter site also challenges the previous assumption that people just quickly crossed the Great Dividing Range, which includes the Blue Mountains, rather than spending time and settling in the mountains. "What the artefacts tell us here is that there's a really big pulse of activity in that 18,000-year period," Dr Way said. "This isn't just people running from one side to the other." Dr Way told 7.30 that some stone artefacts originated from more than 100 kilometres away. Dr Amy Way and a colleague during one of the digs in Dargan Shelter. ( Supplied: Meagan Warwrick/Australian Museum ) "Some had come in from the Hunter Valley and some from Jenolan ... to the north and south," she said. "They're here, they're spending time, they're connected along the mountains." Significant finds The team used carbon dating to estimate the age of each object by measuring the date of charcoal from old fire-pits buried at the same depth. Amy Way and Wayne Brennan inspect one of the artefacts in Dargan Shelter. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) Two of the more significant artefacts to have been found are what is believed to be a sandstone grinding slab bearing linear grooves. It is estimated to have been used more than 13,000 years ago. "Those grooves were made when a person was sharpening either a bone or a piece of wood, and sharpening it into a point," Dr Way hypothesised. "They could have been making a needle for sewing, which is quite likely considering how cold it was up here." Another stone that piqued their interest was a piece of basalt that had been split and shaped, initially leading researchers to think it was an axe. Further analysis showed it had been used for cracking open hard seeds or nuts around 9,000 years ago. A stone tool thought to have been used to crack open seeds and nuts. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) "This is people sitting around having a feed, cracking open some nuts for a snack," Dr Way said. "And the nuts, of course, haven't survived but because they made an impact mark on this stone, we can reconstruct what they were doing." Protecting a sacred site Looking out the mouth of a cave. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) Mr Brennan suggested the excavation was akin to "shaking hands with the past". "We think Dargan Shelter was a stopover point for family groups on their way to ceremony or on their way back," he said "The mountains weren't a barrier and I think that's the exciting part. "Just to think our ancestors were coming up here and doing things around that period of time — it would've been tough, but that shows the obligation we have to country." Wayne Brennan believes the cave was a place where families stopped over while travelling. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) Mr Brennan is a First Nations knowledge holder who was one of the authors of the research as an archaeology student at the University of Sydney. "The Blue Mountains is a UNESCO World Heritage-listed site for the protection of flora and fauna, but there are no safeguards for our cultural heritage," he said. "We hope that by combining our traditional knowledge with scientific research, we can protect these invaluable storehouses of our history for generations to come." 'Significant place' Mr Brennan said the discoveries proved Dargan Shelter is on a "dreaming track". "It's a songline track that brought in a lot of different mobs from up north, west, east and south," he said. Erin Wilkins says walking into the cave "takes your breath away". ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) While there's no certain way of identifying which groups accessed the mountains in the deep past, it is likely that multiple groups were connected to this country. Today Wiradjuri, Gomeroi, Darkinjung, Dharawal, Wonnarua, Gundungara and other groups hold traditional connections to the region. Direct custodians say it's a "magical" place. "Coming into this shelter is like nothing you've ever done before — it takes your breath away and it's very settling for your soul, for your spirit as well," said Dharug woman Erin Wilkins, a First Nations knowledge holder who was also an author of the research. The ceiling of the cave is about 25m high.. ( ABC News: Tom Hartley ) "To know my ancestors and many, many ancestors and many people have come through, sat in the same sand, in the same soil, in the same surrounds for thousands and thousands years, it gives us a lot more clarity, a lot more information. "It connects our stories, but it's healing for her, it's healing for mother, that we're back here." Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV
The Guardian
a day ago
- Science
- The Guardian
‘Mind-blowing': inside the highest human-occupied ice age site found in Australia
When Erin Wilkins first stood inside the cavernous Dargan shelter, she was awestruck. 'You don't understand how big it is until you step inside and you're this tiny little thing inside this massive bowl,' she says. 'You just had to sit and take it in.' The Darug and Wiradjuri woman's instincts told her that this yawning cave, on a Darug songline in the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains, held ancient stories. She was right. New scientific evidence has revealed people lived in the shelter during the last ice age 20,000 years ago, when the high country was treeless, frozen and – until now – believed to be too hostile for human habitation. Archaeologists say the huge rock hollow was a camping spot 'kind of like the Hyatt of the mountains', occupied continuously until about 400 years ago. At an elevation of 1,073 metres, it is the highest human-occupied ice age site found in Australia. It also aligns the continent for the first time with global findings that icy climates did not prevent humans from travelling at high altitudes in ancient times. The groundbreaking study was a collaboration between archaeologists and Aboriginal custodians who have spent six years mapping rock shelters across the greater Blue Mountains area, spanning 1m hectares of mostly untouched wilderness west of Sydney. Some sites are known only to a handful of Aboriginal people or intrepid bushwalkers. Others have only just been rediscovered. Dargan shelter, a mysterious cave on private property near Lithgow, had long been a place of interest due to its location on a ridge line connecting east to west. In 2021 Wayne Brennan, a Gomeroi archaeologist, and Dr Amy Mosig Way, a research archaeologist at the University of Sydney and the Australian Museum, got a permit to excavate it. Working alongside six Aboriginal groups, they dug to a depth of 2.3 metres, sifting through the sandy layers to reveal the cave's secrets. They unearthed 693 artefacts. Among them was a 9,000-year-old anvil, probably used for cracking seeds and nuts. A little deeper they found a sandstone grinding slab from about 13,000 years ago, its grooves suggesting it was used to shape bone or wooden implements. Radiocarbon dating confirmed the oldest evidence of human habitation was about 20,000 years old. Way says the 'remarkable' findings show a continuous sequence of occupation from the ice age until about 400 years ago. 'It's just such a kind of mind-blowing experience when you unearth an artefact that was last touched by someone 20,000 years ago,' she says. 'It's almost like the passing of the object through time from one hand to the other.' For Brennan, the findings resonate on a deeper level. The rock art expert has spent decades poking around caves in the mountains but had never seen anything like Dargan shelter. 'I sit in there and feel like I'm shaking hands with the past,' he says. Brennan discusses the findings not in terms of specific dates but in reference to 'deep time'. 'Deep time is a term that I use, in a sense, to connect the archaeology and the Tjukurpa [the creation period that underpins Aboriginal lore],' he says. 'Because with the Tjukurpa, it's timeless.' This weaving of scientific and cultural knowledge was central to helping the researchers interpret the findings and understand how the cave would have been used in ancient times. Brennan says it was probably a 'guesthouse on the way to a ceremony place'. The study has upended long-held beliefs about the way humans moved through the mountains – showing that people not only traversed the high country but stayed there for long periods. The site is now 'the most significant archaeological landscape in Australia in terms of ice age occupation', according to Way. Local Aboriginal custodians hope the research will help secure more protection for their cultural places, many of which were damaged during the 2019 bushfires. The greater Blue Mountains area holds deep significance for the Darug, Wiradjuri, Gomeroi, Dharawal, Wonnarua and Ngunnawal peoples. It was listed as a Unesco world heritage site in 2000 for its flora and fauna but this did not extend to recognise cultural heritage. Wilkins, who is also a cultural educator with the Darug Custodian Aboriginal Corporation, would like to see that change. 'It's important to preserve [cultural heritage] – not only for Australian history or for archaeology but for our people for generations to come,' she says. As more sites are 'reawakened', Wilkins says, there is a profound effect on her people and her country. 'It strengthens who we are and it strengthens and heals country,' she says. 'We're back listening to her stories. We're back sitting with our ancestors of yesterday.'
