Warratyi

Warratyi is the site of a rock shelter in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia [1]. Located around 550 kilometres north of Adelaide and about 200 kilometres inland, it has been identified as the oldest known site of human habitation in inland Australia [1]. Researchers found thousands of artefacts and bone fragments, which enabled them to date the shelter's occupation to a number of periods between 49,000 and 10,000 years ago [1]. The finds include the earliest evidence in Australia of the development of bone and stone-axe technology, the use of ochre, and interaction with megafauna such as Diprotodon [1]. The site is located in the ancestral lands of the Adnyamathanha, an Indigenous Australian people [1]. It lies in a gorge at the southern end of the Lake Eyre basin in the northern Flinders Ranges [1]. The artefacts included pieces of gypsum pigment, hafted and stone tools, and bone needles including the oldest bone tool so far found in Australia [1].