BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA—A cache of some 60 tools was found protruding from the soil in northwest Queensland, according to an ABC News Australia report. Known as tulas, the objects would have been hafted onto a handle and used for woodworking, said Yinika Perston of Griffith University. Using optically stimulated luminescence, the artifacts have been dated to between 1793 and 1913, or about 170 years ago. Perston explained that the tulas had likely been made by the local Pitta Pitta people for trading, so this bundle of tools was therefore very valuable. “Even though these tools are found pretty much all over Australia, it just so happens that the other bundle is only seven kilometers [4.35 miles] away from where we found this one,” Perston said. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Archaeology in Oceania. To read about another recent archaeological investigation in Australia, go to "Ancestral Rings."
