Tuesday, January 6, 2015

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA—Superbly crafted serrated spearpoints from the northwest Kimberly region are widely regarded as the pinnacle of prehistoric stone working technology in Australia. But because they are rarely found in ancient sites, doubts have persisted about their antiquity. Now Australian National University archaeologist Tim Maloney has radiocarbon dated charcoal from three sites where the points were discovered and shown that they first appeared around 1,000 years ago, a time when the population of the region was growing and new rock art styles were emerging. According to Maloney, it's still difficult to say just how common the spearpoints were, but it's clear that they would have been highly regarded, prized possessions. “The sort of skill required for Kimberley points, I think, is one that really involves several years of apprenticeship,” Maloney told ScienceNetwork Western Australia. “Perhaps only a small group of individuals were even able to produce them.” To read more about the debate over the age of Kimberly spearheads, see "What's the Point?"