Hunter-gatherer response to late Holocene climatic variability in northern and central Australia

Abstract

Sum probability analysis of 1275 radiometric ages from 608 archaeological sites across northern and central Australia demonstrates a changing archaeological signature that can be closely correlated with climate variability over the last 2 ka. Results reveal a marked increase in archaeological records across northern and central Australia over the last 2 ka, with notable declines in western and northern Australia between ca. AD 700 and 1000 and post-AD 1500 - two periods broadly coeval with the Medieval Climatic Anomaly and the Little Ice Age as they have been documented in the Asia-Pacific region. Latitudinal and longitudinal analysis of the dataset suggests the increase in archaeological fo..