Warratyi facts for kids
Warratyi is an amazing ancient rock shelter located in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia. It's about 550 kilometres (340 mi) north of Adelaide and 200 kilometres (120 mi) inland. This site is super important because it's the oldest known place where people lived in inland Australia.
Scientists found thousands of old tools and animal bones here. These finds tell us that people lived at Warratyi for a very long time, from about 49,000 to 10,000 years ago! The discoveries include the first signs in Australia of bone and stone-axe making. They also show the early use of ochre (a natural pigment) and how people interacted with huge ancient animals called megafauna, like the giant wombat-like Diprotodon.
How Warratyi Was Found
The Warratyi site is on the traditional lands of the Adnyamathanha people, who are Indigenous Australians. It sits inside a gorge in the northern Flinders Ranges. The discovery happened by chance during an exploration trip.
In 2011, Clifford Coulthard, an Adnyamathanha elder, and Giles Hamm, an archaeologist, were exploring the area. Clifford was looking for a place to go to the toilet when they found something incredible. They saw a spring surrounded by ancient rock art. Nearby, there was a crack in the rock that was blackened with soot.
They immediately realized the soot meant that people had used this crack as a shelter and lit fires there. This special rock shelter is about 20 metres (66 ft) above a creek bed. It's about 10 metres (33 ft) wide and goes back about 4 metres (13 ft) deep.
Amazing Discoveries at Warratyi
Between 2011 and 2014, a team of researchers led by Giles Hamm dug deep into the shelter. They dug down about 1 metre (3.3 ft) and found over 4,300 amazing items!
These finds included:
- Bone pieces from sixteen different types of mammals and one reptile.
- Eggs from emus and a huge, extinct bird called Genyornis newtoni.
- Bones from the extinct Diprotodon, which was a giant wombat-like creature as big as a rhinoceros. People likely hunted these huge animals and brought them back to the shelter to cook and eat.
- Most of the 3 kilograms (6.6 lb) of bones found were from the yellow-footed rock-wallaby.
The team also found many tools and other items:
- Pieces of gypsum pigment, which is a type of natural color.
- Stone tools and tools with handles.
- Bone needles, including the oldest bone tool ever found in Australia!
- Evidence of the earliest known use of ochre in Australia and south-east Asia.
- Tiny pieces of plant material that might be the remains of ancient nets. The people living there might have used these nets to catch fast-moving wallabies.
