30,000 Years of Aboriginal Occupation : Kimberley, North West Australia

Abstract

This monograph describes the results of fieldwork carried out on the west Kimberley coast and offshore islands during two field seasons in 1984 and 1985 and the analysis and interpretation of archaeological material derived from it. Attention is focussed on four rockshelter sites, the two Widgingarri shelters on the mainland, the two others on present-day islands. Two of the sites, Koolan Shelter 2 and Widgingarri Shelter 1, have sequences dating from ea. 28,000 bp. Widgingarri Shelter 2 is undated in the lower levels but is presumed to be of a similar order of antiquity. The fourth site, High Cliffy Shelter, dates to the late Holocene, though the island itself has evidence for fleeting occupation earlier, in the immediate posttrans gressive period. Show more