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The Tasmanian Devil is one of the world's largest meat-eating
marsupials that is an apex predator on the country's southern
island. It died out on the mainland around 3,500 years ago.
The work, undertaken as part of a remediation agreement between
the miner and the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP)
peoples, is shedding fresh light on the history of human
habitation through the last Ice Age, for at least 46,000 years,
the PKKP Aboriginal Corporation said in a statement on Tuesday.
The results add to finds from excavations in 2008 and 2014 that
included a length of braided human hair that was dated to around
5,000 years ago, and showed a genetic link to Aboriginal people
living in the Pilbara in the present.
"The fact we have a collection of these items all from one small
part of the planned excavation demonstrates what the PKK people
have been saying all along – that this is a very special and
important place," said excavation director Michael Slack of
Scarp Archaeology.
The destruction of the rock shelters at Juukan Gorge four years
ago prompted a global outcry, the departure of Rio's top
executives and an overhaul of Western Australia's heritage
protection laws.
(Reporting by Melanie Burton; Editing by Michael Perry)
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