Nauwalabila
Archaeology » Heritage sites» Nauwalabila
Location
northern Australia

Country
Australia

Year of Research
before 50,000 years

Culture
Nauwalabila I has an earliest archaeological site for Radiocarbon analysis , Arnhem Land in Australia. Implications for sample the suitability and stratigraphicintegrity .Nauwalabila is the reliable of 130 cm depth, but below this depth coarse charcoal has been variably changed during a period in the early Holocene when an ephemeral groundwater table reached close to the ground surface of the time.None of the radiocarbon ages can be considered to indicate reliably the age of deposition of the below 150 cm .Both chronologies therefore suggest occupation of the site before 50,000 years. Based on deposit characteristics and the distribution of quartz, chert, quartzite and ‘quartz crystal’ artifacts, there is no evidence that there has been significant vertical displacement of artifacts relative to the environmental sand matrix.