Puntutjarpa rockshelter revisited: a chronological and stratigraphic reappraisal of a key archaeological sequence for the Western Desert, Australia. Issue 1 (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Smith, Mike; Williams, Alan N.; Ross, June
• Is Part Of: Australian archaeology. Volume 83:Issue 1/2(2017)
• Page Start: 20
• Page End: 31
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: Western Desert -- Holocene discontinuities in site use -- radiocarbon and OSL dating -- Australian desert culture; Australia -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Aboriginal Australians -- Antiquities -- Periodicals; Excavations (Archaeology) -- Australia -- Periodicals; 994.01
• DOI: 10.1080/03122417.2017.1351673
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0312-2417

Abstract

Abstract: Puntutjarpa Rockshelter was the first archaeological site excavated in the Australian desert. Dug between 1967 and 1970, the archaeological sequence was originally interpreted as a continuous record spanning the last 10, 000 years BP. With a new series of radiocarbon and OSL dates we show that Puntutjarpa primarily contains a mid-Holocene deposit with a veneer of last millennium material and a thin underlay of terminal Pleistocene evidence. We show that over the last 12.0 kyr, there were three discrete phases of site-use at Puntutjarpa – 12.0–9.7 kyr, 8.3–6.2 kyr and ∼1.1–0 kyr – each with differences in the nature and intensity of occupation. This removes key field evidence for the 'Australian Desert Culture', a concept that has increasingly become an anomaly since the 1980s.