Archaeologists Discover Ancient Aboriginal Meeting Ground
A group of Australian archaeologists have discovered a 40,000-year-old tribal meeting ground that could be further south than any other ancient human habitat to date.
The Tasmanian site, which encompasses a series of trenches north of Hobart, along the Jordan River levee, appears to have been used by Aboriginal tribesmen seeking refuge from white settlers, Michael Mansell of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) told AFP on March 10. Initial findings show that the sediment at the dig dates back at least 28,000 years, and could be even older.
"When the archaeological report came out it showed that (life there) had gone back longer than any other recorded place anywhere else in Tasmania, dating back to 40,000 years," Mansell recently told Amy Coopes of AFP.
"In terms of culture and history this region now represents Tasmania’s Valley of the Kings," he added. "When you get something like this that evokes memory of what your people did before we were born and evokes a memory about the legacy that they left us”¦ it makes the place irreplaceable."
According to ABC News Australia, Mansell is working to get the site added to the World Heritage List. An estimated three million artifacts are believed to be buried at the location, which AFP states was a meeting area for a trio of Aboriginal tribes. Those artifacts include stone tools and fragments of shellfish.
Less than half a million Aborigines make up Australia’s 21 million person population. It is widely believed that their population numbered more than one million before the arrival of white settlers during the 18th century.
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