Problems with Radiometric “Time”: Dating the Initial Human Colonization of Sahul

Abstract

Until recently, the only chronometric technique applied to Sahulian archaeological sites was14C dating; the ages obtained rarely exceeded 40,000 bp. Belief that the region was first colonized around that time has recently been shaken by luminescence dates from several archaeological sites in northern Australia that suggest people arrived between 60,000 and 55,000 bp. The ensuing debate over their validity revealed that some participants misunderstood luminescence dating and the temporal limitations of14C dating, illustrated here through a discussion of thetempoandmodeof Sahulian colonization. Radiometric techniques cannot distinguish between the models proposed because they are unable to resolve temporal issues that occur within their limits of error.