Madjedbebe, which was previously called Malakunanja II, is a sandstone rock shelter in Arnhem Land, located in the Northern Territory of Australia. It may be the oldest place in Australia where people have lived. The site is about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the coast. It is on land that has been home to the Mirarr, an Aboriginal Australian group belonging to the Gaagudju people of the Gunwinyguan language group. Madjedbebe is found within the area that was once used for mining, called the Jabiluka Mineral Leasehold. This area is near Kakadu National Park, which is protected as a World Heritage site. The mining lease ended in August 2024 after the Australian government did not approve a request to renew it. The government plans to officially include Madjedbebe in Kakadu National Park.
Archaeological findings
Madjedbebe is the oldest known place in Australia where humans lived. In 2017, researchers named Clarkson and others found evidence that suggests humans may have lived there as early as 65,000 years ago, with a possible range of 6,000 years. This estimate has been debated by some experts since 2017, although the earlier date of 50,000 years ago has been widely accepted since the 1990s.
Over 100,000 items have been discovered at the site, including more than 10,000 items from the deepest layer of human activity, called "Phase 2." These items include tools made from flaked or ground stone, such as axe heads and grinding stones, animal bones, shellfish remains, colored ground ochre, charcoal, seeds, and human remains. Some items were buried more than 2.5 meters below the surface. Studies of plants found at the site show that people used seeds, tubers, and nuts from pandanus trees. Fuel for fires was taken from nearby eucalyptus and monsoon vine thicket forests.
History of archaeological research
The Madjedbebe site was first recorded by researchers in the 1970s as part of the Alligator Rivers Environmental Fact Finding Study. The Mirarr people had always known about the site before this. In 1973, archaeologist Johan Kamminga did a small test pit excavation to a depth of nearly 2.5 meters below the surface. This work showed that the site had been used by people during the Pleistocene era. The top 60 centimeters of the site had a lot of shells, animal bones, stone tools, and human remains. Below that layer, the ground was mostly sandy and contained many stone tools.
In 1988, archaeologists Rhys Jones and Christopher Chippindale, along with geochronologist Richard "Bert" Roberts, returned to the site. They used a new method called thermoluminescence dating to test a single core from the site. The next year, Jones and Roberts, with archaeologist Mike Smith, dug another test pit near Kamminga’s original pit. Their thermoluminescence results suggested the site was about 50,000 years old. Some researchers questioned these dates at the time and later, but Roberts and others defended their findings.
In 2012 and 2015, a team led by Christopher Clarkson, working with the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation, re-excavated the site to address doubts about its age. Recent studies by Clarkson’s team have led to further questions about the site’s layers and the ages of human activity there. However, Clarkson’s team continues to support the original dates.
In 2020, a study suggested that the 65,000-year-old date might be due to termites disturbing the site.
Rock art
Madjedbebe is best known as Australia's oldest archaeological site. It also has many rock art images on the walls. In 2012, a research team from the Australian National University carefully recorded the rock art at the site as part of the Mirarr Gunwarddebim Project. The team found more than 1,000 images. Many of these are faded or overlapping, so this is the smallest number of images that can be seen today. It is likely that more images existed in the past but are no longer visible.
Most of the Madjedbebe images are paintings made with wet paint. Some are stencils, created by spraying paint around an object held against the wall. Others are drawings made by dragging dry ochre or charcoal across the wall, or figures made from rolled beeswax.
The art uses many colors, mostly red, yellow, and orange ochres. White clay (kaolinite) and black charcoal are also used.
Rock art is very important to the Mirarr people. The same image can mean different things to different people based on their cultural background.
The Madjedbebe images include human-like figures, geometric shapes, hand stencils, fish (such as catfish, barramundi, and mullet), fiber objects, and items from the time Europeans arrived. These items include firearms, European people wearing clothing and standing with hands on hips, pipes, knives, and ships.
There are no exact dates for the rock art at Madjedbebe. Instead, scientists used methods that compare evidence to estimate ages. These methods suggest most of the art visible today was created in the last 1,500 years. Some images may be thousands of years old. It is likely that the tradition of painting at the site is much older, with older images fading or being covered over time.
Pieces of ochre found in the deepest layers of the site during 2012 and 2015 excavations show signs of being ground. These pieces suggest that people were doing some kind of artistic activity even at this early time, such as painting images on walls or using ground ochre to decorate objects or themselves.