University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health January 2016 Towards an accurate and precise chronology for the colonization of Australia: The example of Riwi, Kimberley, Western Australia Rachel Wood Australian National University Zenobia Jacobs University of Wollongong,
[email protected] Dorcas Vannieuwenhuyse Jane Balme University of Western Australia Sue O'Connor Australian National University See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers Recommended Citation Wood, Rachel; Jacobs, Zenobia; Vannieuwenhuyse, Dorcas; Balme, Jane; O'Connor, Sue; and Whitau, Rose, "Towards an accurate and precise chronology for the colonization of Australia: The example of Riwi, Kimberley, Western Australia" (2016). Faculty of Science, Medicine and Health - Papers: part A. 4187. https://ro.uow.edu.au/smhpapers/4187 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library:
[email protected] Towards an accurate and precise chronology for the colonization of Australia: The example of Riwi, Kimberley, Western Australia Abstract An extensive series of 44 radiocarbon (14C) and 37 optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) ages have been obtained from the site of Riwi, south central Kimberley (NW Australia). As one of the earliest known Pleistocene sites in Australia, with archaeologically sterile sediment beneath deposits containing occupation, the chronology of the site is important in renewed debates surrounding the colonization of Sahul. Charcoal is preserved throughout the sequence and withinmultiple discrete hearth features. Prior to 14C dating, charcoal has been pretreated with both acid-base-acid (ABA) and acid base oxidation- stepped combustion (ABOx-SC) methods at multiple laboratories.