Puritjarra Rockshelter in Central Australia (Figure 9) provides some of the earliest evidence of human occupation of the arid core. Other sites, on the northwest arid margin such as Riwi Rockshelter and Carpenters Gap, attest to occupation of this region as early as 40 ka. While the earliest occupation dates are towards the margins, both Puritjarra and a second site, Kulpi Mara, were occupied from around 30 ka and attest to the fact that most desert landscapes were visited during the Late Pleistocene. Coinciding with the period of peak aridity, most sites were abandoned from around c. 20-13 ka. Whether these patterns are taphonomic, a sampling bias or a real signal has yet to be clearly demonstrated. Certainly from the mid-Holocene (c. 5 ka), with climatic amelioration, occupation of these regions was re-established with increased intensity of use in the last 1500 years. As with the rest of the continent, water availability appears to have dictated the movement of people, though more intensive use of particular technologies such as seed grinding and perhaps kinship networks would have also contributed to the ability of people to maintain a presence in this environment. Cultural transformation and changes in occupation patterns would have been a feature of the intense arid period during and immediately postdating the LGM. Certainly, exchange networks have been postulated for the Late Pleistocene period where items such as ochre, marine mollusks, and lithics may have been traded through the northwest of the continent. A number of ochre mines have been identified and linked to extensive trade networks through the center of the continent: they include Wilgie Mia and Bookartoo.
Mineral magnetic studies have linked the ochre found at Puritjarra to the Karrku mine (Figure 10) to the northwest of this site.
World History
