Madjedbebe Rock Shelter Dated to c. 65,000 BCE

At Madjedbebe rock shelter in Mirarr country, Arnhem Land, Clarkson and colleagues redated artifact-bearing sediments using optically stimulated luminescence in 2017, placing the lowest occupation layer at approximately 65,000 years before present. The deposit yielded stone tools, ground-edge axes, ochre, and grinding stones — among the earliest documented evidence of human occupation in Sahul, the Pleistocene continent that joined Australia, New Guinea, and Tasmania. Reaching Sahul required deliberate water crossings from Sunda via the Indonesian archipelago. The dating remains debated; some researchers argue artifact movement through sandy sediment could yield apparent ages older than actual deposition.