When Giles Hamm and Cliff Coulthard discovered Warratyi Rock Shelter in 2012 neither ever thought that this small elevated site located in the remote Northern Flinders Ranges would turn out to contain a 50,000 year old human occupation sequence—the earliest in South Australia's Aboriginal history! The culmination of this collaborative research produced a scientific paper in the journal Nature. Further work is now planned to address the question: What was the role of cultural innovation in the early settlement and subsequent occupation of the arid zone in Australia? In this public seminar Giles Hamm and Cliff Coulthard discuss how Adnyamathanha people successfully survived, adapted and thrived in the Flinders Ranges by meeting the challenges of an ever changing late Pleistocene arid climate.

When: 3.30-4.30p, Thursday 20 May 2021

Where: Social Sciences South 145, Flinders University