Limestone cave near the southwest coast of Western Australia, containing deep, well-preserved organic and stone deposits dating from the late Pleistocene. Human occupation debris was relatively sparse and occurred mainly between levels dated to 27,000 and 10,000 be. The stone assemblage included cores, scrapers, denticulated flakes and adze flakes. Several artefacts carried tracers of resin, suggesting use in composite tools. Three unifacially incised limestone plaques (10,000-18,400 be) and a piece of artificially perforated marl were interpreted as ritual items or adornments. Chert sources for some of the artefacts are not evident on the present coastline, but undersea-drill cores from the nearby continental shelf have produced the same Eocene fossiliferous chert from a zone which would have been exposed during Pleistocene low sealevels. Bone artefacts included points dated c27,000 be and beads between 13,000 and 10,000 be, claimed to be the oldest known ornaments in Australia.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied