A glacial cryptic refuge in south-east Australia: Human occupation and mobility from 36 000 years ago in the Sydney Basin, New South Wales

Abstract

Excavations across a source‐bordering dune overlooking the Hawkesbury River in north‐west Sydney, Australia, suggest initial occupation of the region by at least 36 ka, with variable but uninterrupted use until the early Holocene; following abandonment, the site was then re‐occupied by ∼3 ka. Along with a handful of other sites, the results provide the earliest reliable evidence of permanent regional populations within south‐eastern Australia, and support a model in which early colonizers followed the coastal fringe with forays along the main river systems. The evidence is consistent with the demographic model of Williams, 2013 (Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B280: 20130486), which suggested low, but established regional populations before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), a population nadir following the LGM and increasing use of the region from ∼12 to 8 ka. The site exhibits increased use at the onset and peak of the LGM, and provides an example of a cryptic refuge as defined by Smith, 2013 (The Archaeology of Australia's Deserts. Cambridge University Press: New York). Specifically, changing artefact densities and attributes show the site was used repeatedly, but for shorter periods through this time, and suggest it formed one of a series of key localities in a point‐to‐point (rather than home‐base) subsistence strategy. This strategy was maintained until the site's abandonment in the early Holocene, despite changing population and climatic conditions through the Terminal Pleistocene.