A Pleistocene date from an occupation deposit in the Pilbara Region, Western Australia

Abstract

In 1975 Mount Newman Mining Company arranged for an archaeological survey of an outcrop of the Marra Mamba orebody about 3km southeast of their main mine workings on Mount Whaleback near Newman in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. This geological unit is called Orebody XXIX. The bulk of the ore (soft yellow limonite) is subsurface, but there is a horseshoe-shaped outcrop of hard cap about 2km in diameter, which overlooks a flat plain wherein lies the headwaters of the Fortescue River. Kingsley Palmer (then a Research Officer of the Western Australian Museum) surveyed this area and found several rockshelters with traces of occupation, principally along the southern margin of the Marra Mamba outcrop.