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Dinnertime at Cuddie SpringsLast modified: February 4, 2009 - 11:54 AM
Judith Furby School of Archaeology, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006. In 1994, excavations at Cuddie Springs, near Carinda, exposed numerous bones of now extinct animals called megafauna. These animals included a giant flightless bird called Genyornis newtoni, a large wombat-like creature as big as a rhinocerous called Diprotodon and a kangaroo called Sthenurus. The bones of a modern kangaroo are also found with the magafauna. The red kangaroo (Macropus rufus) is thought to be the last remaining megafauna, though they are smaller today than they were thousands of years ago. Alongside the bones were considerable numbers of stone tools, charcoal and other indicators of human activities. The bones and stone tools found in the same horizons at Cuddie Springs are the only known evidence, from Australia, for the interaction and overlap (in time) of people and magefauna. The fossil bone and stone tools have been preserved in a claypan in the middle of an ancient lake floor. Many large and small animals became extinct during or before the Last Glacial Maximum between 18,000 and 22,000 years ago. The Last Glacial Maximum (Ice Age) resulted in the environment being much drier and in some cases much colder than the present day. It has been suggested that many of the animals, like the Diprotodon, disappeared because they were tied to water holes and were unable to migrate to better watered areas. They perished when the waterhole dried up during a local drought. Other people have suggested that Aboriginal people hunted megafauna to extinction. When excavating bones it is often difficult to tell what type of animal it is unless teeth and skulls are found, With megafauna however, the bones are very distinctive and large and this makes identifications relatively easy, at least for Diprotodon and Genyornis (the giant emu-like bird). When people are butchering large animals, they may sometimes leave cut or chop marks on the bones. Sometimes the way the bone is broken may suggest that people were involved. In many cases, butchering of large animals may show no evidence of human activities, however at Cuddie Springs there is some evidence that people were butchering both extinct animals and animals that are present in the area today. The age of the levels where bones and stone are found has been determined by radiocarbon dating to be approximatley 31,000 years old and possibly as old as 40,000 years. While the stone tools that were found with the extinct animals resemble butchering tools from other ancient sites, this does not necessarily mean that they were used for this purpose. In an attempt to determine the 'functions' of the stone tools we examined them using a microphone. At high magnifications we could see blood and sometimes hair adjacent to the used edges. Stone tools and bones of extinct animals, found together, in the deposits of the Cuddie Springs Claypan is now viewed as the only secure evidence in Australia for interaction between humans and megafauna. Contact details | ||||||||||||
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