PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA—ABC News reports that a cave in Western Australia has yielded campfires, stone tools, animal bones, and emu eggshells dating back 25,000 years. Previous excavations at Yellabidde Cave indicated that its earliest inhabitants lived there 10,000 years ago. Carly Monks of the University of Western Australia, who has been working with Amangu traditional owners and elders, explained that the dates suggest people were living in the cave just before the last Ice Age. “So potentially there’s a lot more archaeology in the area that can tell us about this early period of site use,” she explained. Caves are thought to have been used by the first Australians to shelter from the heat during the warmest months of the year. For more on early cave use, go to “New Dates for the Oldest Cave Paintings.”
