【Artist Bong (2013) Uncut】

Source：Creation Information Network Editor：Science Time：2025-06-26 19:07:49

The Artist Bong (2013) Uncutoldest known proof of Aboriginal settlement in ancient Australia was stumbled upon accidentally after a car full of researchers pulled over for a toilet break.

Known as Warratyi by the Adnyamathanha people of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia, a rock shelter was found to contain artifacts and the remains of megafauna, dating human settlement in the area back at least 49,000 years. That’s a very long time, 10,000 years further back than previously proven.

Results of the research team's excavation were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

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The researchers found stone tools, giant bird eggshells and bones from a giant wombat-like marsupial called Diprotodon optatum at the site. The excavation echoes previous findings that confirm Aboriginal Australia was the centre of cultural and technological innovation long before the world saw great pyramids, Stonehenge and entire civilisations come and go.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Lead author Giles Hamm, a researcher from La Trobe University, collaborated with Duncan Johnston of the Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association and Traditional Owner and elder Cliff Coulthard, who was told about Warratyi by his elders as a teen.

He was key to discovering the site, telling the ABC "the spirits showed me the road."

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

With both archeologists and scientists in tow, Traditional Owners dug up 3.3 metres of sediment, uncovering a host of "firsts" including: hafted tools (objects with two joined parts) made around 38,000 years ago; bone tools dating back 40,000 years ago; and red ochre and white gypsum pigments (used in art and dance to this day) from 49,000 and 40,000 years ago, respectively.

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And all because one of the team members needed to find a bathroom.

"A man getting out of the car to go to the toilet led to the discovery of one of the most important sites in Australian pre-history."

Hamm told the ABC that "nature called and Cliff [Coulthard] walked up this creek bed into this gorge and found this amazing spring surrounded by rock art."

"A man getting out of the car to go to the toilet led to the discovery of one of the most important sites in Australian pre-history."

He explained that while looking at the spring, they saw a rock shelter with a blackened roof. "Immediately when we saw that we thought, 'Wow, that's people lighting fires inside that rock shelter, that's human activity,'" he said, admitting he had no idea it would be so old.

The research paper concludes that the speedy movement of Indigenous peoples south across the continent was partly possible due to the climate at the time. The population essentially arrived there before the area became as arid as it is today.

The study also supports the recent genomic work of a research group led by Griffith University's Michael Westaway, which confirmed Aboriginal Australians are direct descendants of the first people to inhabit the continent, migrating smoothly across the land from the northeastern tip.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Megafauna expert, Professor Gavin Prideaux of Flinder University, told reporters the study was a milestone in the debate over whether humans or climate led to the extinction of megafauna creatures.

"The only way those bones and shells got there [because of the steep incline up to the rock shelter] is because people brought them there [to eat] ... in terms of megafauna that's the really significant finding,” he said.

Prideaux also said the research "smashed several paradigms about Indigenous Australians."

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【Artist Bong (2013) Uncut】

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