Human Origins: Oldest Ice Age human settlement in Australia found high up in the Blue Mountains

Archaeologists with the Australian Museum say they’ve uncovered unequivocal evidence of continued Ice Age human habitation in a cave in the Blue Mountains at high elevations, at altitudes that ancient peoples were previously thought to have avoided entirely during the last Ice Age.

Instead, the unearthing of hundreds of artifacts at Dargan Shelter, a high Blue Mountains cave, is a clear indication that ancient aboriginal Australians survived in these harsh environments even at the peak of the Ice Age some 20,000 years ago.

“This new evidence aligns Australia with global data that shows glacial landscapes were not necessarily natural barriers to early human movement and occupation,” said Amy Mosig Way, the lead author of a study now published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

“Until now, we thought the Australian high country was too difficult to occupy during the last Ice Age,” Way added in a summary of the researchers’ findings. “Yet, despite the harsh conditions, our research demonstrates people were moving in and through this high elevation landscape, which is approximately 400 meters above the tree line.”

Dargan Shelter is found at 1,073 meters or 3,520 feet above sea level. That’s not particularly high for mountain ranges but it puts the site above the tree line during the last Ice Age.

Australian archaeologists now know humans continuously settled the cave because they discovered 693 artefacts, mostly stone tools used by the continent’s earliest inhabitants for butchering animal carcasses.

The team said their excavation and study relied on Aboriginal Australians as historical and cultural interpreters. Those consultants said they were pleased to discover how their ancestors thrived even in Ice Age conditions.

Dargan Shelter is now the highest cave in Australia where evidence of long-term human settlement has been discovered.

“Our people have walked, lived and thrived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years and we knew the cave was there,” Aboriginal consultant Leanne Watson Redpath said in an official statement. “It is not only a tangible connection to our ancestors who used it as a meeting place for sharing, storytelling, and survival, but is a part of our cultural identity.

”Blue Mountains National Park in New South Wales is listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).