Purritjarra is a rock shelter in Australia that was first occupied by morphologically modern humans 27,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic . Purritjarra and other rock shelters and caves (Devil’s Lair, Cave Bay Cave, Seton Rockshelter, Puntujarpa, Bone Cave, Allen’s Cave and Jinmium) represent our understanding of Pleistocene occupations, settlement patterns, colonization of Australia, and movement of modern humans throughout the world.
During the Pleistocene, the sea level was 350 to 200 feet lower than present day. New Guinea, Australia and Tasmania comprised a larger continent referred to as Sahul. The early occupants of Purritjarra were descended from populations from Asia that made the boat crossings of just over 50 miles from the Asian mainland.
The occupants of Purritjarra would have enjoyed a cooler, wetter, less hostile environment with greater forestation than that of present day Australia. However, they would have had to share their environment with marsupial lions, Tasmanian tigers and Tasmanian devils with nothing but pebble flake tools and sticks with which to defend themselves.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies (1977). Stone Tools as Cultural Markers.
Mulvaney, D.J. (1969) The Prehistory Of Australia.
http://www.unc.edu/courses/anth100/colonize.htm University of North Carolina
http://wwwehlt.flinders.edu.au/archaeology/handbooks/hbk_2001.htm, Flinders University
Joseph Perkins