Madjedbebe seed-grinding stones
Piedras de molienda de semillas de Madjedbebe
- Date
- c. 65 ka · confidence low
- Place
- Madjedbebe rock shelter, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia
- Credited to
- First settlers of Sahul
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Slabs and grinding stones with use-wear traces for crushing seeds and pigments in the deepest levels of Madjedbebe. If the dating is confirmed, they are the oldest known grinding tools, tens of millennia older than those from the Levant.
The 65-ka luminescence chronology (Clarkson et al., 2017) is disputed because artefacts may have shifted between strata; other authors prefer c. 50 ka. Systematic grass-seed grinding in Australia is securely documented at Cuddie Springs (c. 30 ka).
What it led to
- exploiting seeds and hard plants as food
- processing ochre for pigments
- the Aboriginal tradition of wild seed flours