Devil's Lair, an example of prolonged cave use in South?Western Australia

Abstract

Long‐term investigations at Devil's Lair, a small limestone cave in the Capes Leeuwin‐Naturaliste region of extreme south‐western Australia, have yielded archaeological material radiocarbon dated 6,500–33,000 B.P. Several occupation features show that people lived in the cave from 12,000 to 27,700 B.P. The cave deposit contains very rich assemblages of animal bones probably contributed by both human and animal predators; criteria are suggested to distinguish those bones and other remains representing human exploitation. A distinctive series of carbonate encrusted bones and stones present in the lower half of the deposit, including artefacts and the bones of extinct marsupials, is tentatively considered to be redeposited from unexcavated parts of the cave deposit whose minimum radiocarbon age is 37,750 ± 2,500 B.P. A wide range, though limited number, of stone and bone artefacts including debitage suggests that the cave was occasionally used as a campsite where culinary and maintenance activities took place. The repeated occupation at Devil's Lair over thousands of years suggests that caves were an established form of habitation site used periodically by late Pleistocene populations in this region.