Environmental Futures Seminar - Dr Amy Way

Australia’s Eastern Highlands have traditionally been viewed as a cold-climate barrier to Late Pleistocene (~35,000 – 11,700 years ago) mobility, with older evidence restricted to elevations below the periglacial zone. However, this model has not been adequately tested with regionally specific, high-resolution archaeological data. Here we report excavation results from a high-altitude (1,073m) cave, Dargan Shelter, in the upper Blue Mountains, which indicate that occupation first occurred ~ 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial maximum (LGM), making this the highest elevation Pleistocene site so far identified in Australia. Findings include multiple in situ hearths and 693 stone artefacts, several of which were sourced from sites along the mountain range providing evidence for previously undetected interactions to the north and south and the repeated use of this cold-climate landscape during the Late Pleistocene. Our results align the Australian continent for the first time with global sequences which indicate that cold climates were not necessarily natural barriers to human mobility and occupation.

Speakers

Dr Amy M. Way

Amy is a research archaeologist in a jointly held position between the Australian Museum and the University of Sydney. Amy works closely with First Nations communities to create culturally meaningful archaeological projects. She specialises in the archaeology of social change, with particular expertise in stone artefact analysis and technological adaptation to socio-cultural and environmental shifts. Amy is Chair of the Tom Austen Brown Indigenous Archaeology committee.

Wayne Brennan

Wayne, local custodian and rock art specialist, has nearly three decades of service with NSW Parks and Wildlife leading ranger training programmes, school education, and fighting bushfires. Wayne is currently Indigenous Mentor, Archaeology at the University of Sydney, supported by the Tom Austen Brown bequest. Wayne has also worked with the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU) at Griffith University for many years and has a profound knowledge of rock art in the Blue Mountains.