SHELLS, BONES AND FISHHOOKS TELL A STORY OF SEA LEVEL CHANGE ARC-supported researchers fromThe Australian National University (ANU) have led the excavation of a cave – called Makpan – on the Indonesian island of Alor, making an exciting discovery. Shells, fish bones and fishhooks found in the cave showhowpeople once lived andwere rapidly adapting to climate change as theymade their way towards Australia tens of thousands of years ago. Makpanwitnessed a series of massive sea level highs and lows during its 43,000 years of human occupation, largely due to the climactic extremes of the last Ice Age. According to Dr Shimona Kealy fromANU, analysis of artefacts found at Makpan show how inventive and adaptive its early residents were. ‘When people first arrived at Makpan, they came in low numbers,’ Dr Kealy says. ‘At this time, the cave was close to the coast – as it is today – and this early community lived on a diet of shellfish, barnacles and sea urchin, with sea urchins in particular eaten in large numbers.’ Shortly after their initial arrival, sea levels began to fall. This increased the distance from the site of Makpan to the coast, and likely encouraged people to broaden their diet to include a variety of land-based fruits and vegetables. As the last Ice Age began towane about 14,000 years ago, Makpanwas once again within 1 km of the coast. The team, led byARCAustralian Laureate Fellow, Professor Sue O’Connor, used radiocarbon dating of preserved charcoal and marine shells to establish the times when people were occupying the cave. The findings showthat Alor was occupied around the same time as Flores to the west, and Timor to the east – confirming Alor’s position as a ‘stepping-stone’ between these two larger islands. The studywas supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH), which is administered by The University ofWollongong.
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ADVANCING SOCIAL AND CULTURAL OUTCOMES
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