SYDNEY (AFP) — Stone tools dating back 35,000 years have been discovered in Australia by archaeologists who said Monday the find was a significant record of prehistoric humanity.
"This is a major scientific discovery," said Neale Draper, consultant archaeologist to the traditional owners of the land, the Martidja Banyjima Aboriginal people.
"We're beginning to fill in major new chapters of our human history."
The tools were discovered in a rock shelter at Hope Downs iron ore mine in Western Australia, run by international mining giant Rio Tinto, which announced Monday that it would amend its construction plans to preserve the site.
The company halted all work months ago when the shelter was discovered, Rio Tinto spokesman Gervase Greene said.
"We immediately stopped work and are in continual dialogue with the traditional owners," Greene said.
Draper said radiocarbon dating had established human habitation going back at least 35,000 years, and further excavation could provide evidence of perhaps another 10,000 years before that.
"Because we have a two-metre (six-foot) deep archaeological deposit in this rock shelter dating from the recent past right back to that time, we have a very, very long record of people's technology," he told AFP.
"We have a very good record from old fireplaces, charcoal that can be radiocarbon dated to get a detailed chronology of the past at this place.
"There are hundreds of stone tools, so there's enough of a sample there to give us a lot of information about how people did things, how hunters and gatherers lived."
Most of the tools found were used mainly for cutting and scraping.
The find could also provide extensive information on environmental and climate changes over tens of thousands of years, he said.
Local Aboriginal people welcomed the finding.
"We have always known this is an important part of our history, that our ancestors lived here," elder Slim Parker told The Age newspaper.
"Our stories and songs tells us this. It is a good feeling to know archaeologists have proved what we say is true. It makes us feel strong. Now we want this place preserved. It is part of our heritage and our culture."
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