Environment
Bridge plan to protect ancient site
ARTEFACTS that could have a significant impact on scientific understanding of human occupation have been unearthed in Tasmania.
The fragments of the past were discovered along the line of the proposed Brighton bypass and have left the road’s designers urgently rethinking their plans.
Chief archaeologist Rob Paton said yesterday: “If the ages for the site prove to be correct, this is the oldest site in Tasmania and among the oldest in Australia.”
The stone tools and evidence of everyday life could be up to 40,000 years old.
THE discovery of artefacts that could be among the oldest in the world has prompted the State Government to consider adding a multi-million-dollar bridge to its Brighton bypass plans.
In a stunning new development set to rock the scientific world, the artefacts found in the path of the proposed bypass could be twice as old as previously thought.
The discovery of the remains, that preliminary estimates show could be at least 40,000 years old, would give the scientific world a unique glimpse of a previously unknown period of human occupation this far south on the planet.
The remains found in the contentious Jordan River valley section of the $176 million bypass have forced the Department of Infrastructure, Energy and Resources back to the drawing board this week.
Plans have been redrawn to include a 70m elevated bridge span over the site, costing an extra $10 million to $15 million.
With a University of Melbourne report expected to be finalised this week, principal archaeologist Rob Paton has estimated the findings of stone tools and evidence of everyday life could be anywhere up to 40,000 years old. The previous estimate was about 18,000.
It has been estimated that anywhere up to three million artefacts could be uncovered in the 600m by 60m riverbank area.
The estimate places settlement of the area at about the time of Mungo Man, a discovery that challenged human evolutionary theory.
In 1974, scientists discovered the skeletal remains of a man near Lake Mungo in south-western NSW dated about 40,000 years old.
Previously, the oldest researched human DNA came from a Croatian Neanderthal who died about 28,000 years ago.
Mungo Man brought about a complete rethink on mainstream evolutionary theory, referred to as the “Out of Africa” theory that all humans were descended from modern homo sapiens who left Africa about 100,000 years ago.
“If the ages for the site prove to be correct, this is the oldest site in Tasmania and among the oldest in Australia,” Mr Paton told the Mercury.
“Moreover, it would be the oldest most southern site on the planet, giving us a glimpse into an unknown part of world history and the spread of homo sapiens across the Earth.”