Australia’s oldest occupied Ice Age cave found at high elevation in Blue Mountains

New evidence aligns Australia with global data showing glacial landscapes were not necessarily natural barriers to early human movement and occupation

University of Sydney

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Dargan Shelter, ancient cave in Blue Mountains, Australia

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Credit: University of Sydney

Archaeologists from the Australian Museum, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University in collaboration with First Nations community members have unearthed 693 stone artefacts dating from the last Ice Age to the recent past. Found in an ancient Blue Mountains cave known as Dargan Shelter, this new evidence provides definitive proof of repeated occupation in this once frozen, high-altitude landscape.  
 
The research, funded by the Australian Museum Foundation, is published in Nature Human Behaviour today. 

The Blue Mountains, home to some of the oldest known rock shelters in Australia, have been inhabited for over 30,000 years but this is the highest cave found showing past human activity. 

Dating back 20,000 years, when the upper reaches of the Blue Mountains were treeless and seasonally frozen over, Dargan Shelter at 1073m elevation is believed to be the oldest occupied high-altitude landscape in Australia. Until now, researchers thought the Australian high country was too difficult to occupy during the last Ice Age. However, these new archaeological results provide the first evidence of repeated human activity and adaption to periglacial environments on the Australian continent. 
 

Gomeroi knowledge holder and First Nations mentor in archaeology at the University of Sydney, Wayne Brennan, who is a rock art specialist, initiated the research project. Mr Brennan united scientists with First Nations community to explore the cultural history of the Blue Mountains and to improve conservation outcomes for this important cultural landscape. 

 

Mr Brennan and lead author of the research paper Dr Amy Mosig Way, who holds a joint position as archaeologist at the Australian Museum and lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Sydney, worked closely with First Nations members from the Dharug, Wiradjuri, Dharawal, Gomeroi, Wonnarua, and Ngunnawal groups, who hold traditional connections to the region.  

 

Dr Way said the research indicates that First Nations ancestors were able to navigate and occupy high-altitude periglacial environments during the Ice Age.  
 
“This new evidence aligns Australia with global data that shows glacial landscapes were not necessarily natural barriers to early human movement and occupation,” Dr Way said.                                             

“Until now, we thought the Australian high country was too difficult to occupy during the last Ice Age. Yet, despite the harsh conditions, our research demonstrates people were moving in and through this high elevation landscape, which is approximately 400m above the tree line.” 

 

Second author of the paper, Professor Philip Piper from the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University, said the excavations uncovered an incredible depositional sequence of in situ human activity, including hearth features.  

 

“It was the excellent state of preservation that enabled us to construct such a robust chronology for Dargan Shelter spanning the last 20,000 years,” Professor Piper said. 

 

First Nations custodians, authors on the research paper and proud Dharug women, Leanne Watson Redpath and Erin Wilkins explained that their communities have lived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years. 

 

“Our people have walked, lived and thrived in the Blue Mountains for thousands of years and we knew the cave was there. It is not only a tangible connection to our ancestors who used it as a meeting place for sharing, storytelling and survival, but is a part of our cultural identity. We need to respect and protect our heritage for the benefit of all Australians,” Watson Redpath said. 

 

“While there’s no certain way of identifying which groups accessed the mountains in the deep past, it is likely that multiple groups were connected to this country. Today, Dargan Shelter is considered by local custodians to represent a family space of high cultural significance,” said Erin Wilkins.  

 

“The Blue Mountains is a UNESCO World Heritage listed site for the protection of flora and fauna but there are no safeguards for our cultural heritage. We hope that by combining our traditional knowledge with scientific research, we can protect these invaluable storehouses of our history for generations to come,” Brennan said.  

 

Dr Way said the study builds on research conducted by Australian Museum archaeologists, beginning with Frederick McCarthy in 1935, Professor Paul Taçon and, most recently, Dr Val Attenbrow, augmenting previous findings and collections within the Australian Museum.  

 
Advancing Indigenous Australian archaeology 
 

The University of Sydney is deeply committed to First Nations archaeology. Dr Way and Mr Brennan are funded by the Tom Austen Brown Bequest which advances research and teaching in Indigenous Australian and other archaeologies.  
 
Dr Way also coordinates an undergraduate unit titled Archaeology in the Field (ARCO3404). Third-year students from this unit, along with students from Australian National University, participated in the excavation of the Dargan Shelter and contributed to its broader research program.  
 

Mr Brennan, a proud Gomeroi man and First Nations mentor in the Discipline of Archaeology, provides ongoing support and guidance to First Nations students studying archaeology. He also supports non-Indigenous students working with First Nations communities and collections, fostering respectful and collaborative engagement. 

KEY POINTS: 

• Archaeologists have found the oldest human occupied Pleistocene site at high elevation in the Blue Mountains NSW, dating back to 20,000 years 

• human artefacts, such as stone tools for cutting or scraping and a sandstone grinding slab that may have been used for shaping wooden artefacts (needles, awls, or bone points for spears), were found in the frozen layers of the site 

• these results align the Australian continent for the first time with global findings that cold climates did not prevent humans from travelling and making shelters at these altitudes. 

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Journal

Nature Human Behaviour

DOI

10.1038/s41562-025-02180-y 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The earliest evidence of high-elevation ice age occupation in Australia

Article Publication Date

16-Jun-2025

The Blue Mountains, home to some of the oldest known rock shelters in Australia, have been inhabited for over 30,000 years but this is the highest cave found showing past human activity.




Dr Amy Way, research archaeologist at University of Sydney and the Australian Museum

Mr Wayne Brennan, First Nations mentor in Archaeology at University of Sydney



Excavation at Dargan Shelter



Hammerstone made of exotic black quartzite, unique to the Late Pleistocene assemblage at Dargan Shelter. The black quartzite was geochemically matched to river pebbles in the Hunter valley, approximately 150km to the north of the site. It was found in Layer 10, which dated to 15,000 years ago.



Early Holocene basalt anvil found in layer 8 (8,990-8,610 cal. BP). It consisted of a split river pebble with distinctive sub-circular impact marks consistent with cracking hard wood nut and seed shells.


Credit
University of Sydney

 

New research maps optimal locations for climate-fighting reforestation

The study identifies 195 million hectares globally where tree restoration will deliver maximum climate benefits without harming communities or ecosystems.

University of the Witwatersrand

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A new study identifies 195 million hectares globally where tree restoration will deliver maximum climate benefits without harming communities or ecosystems.

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Credit: Wits University/Schalk Mouton

New research from the Future Ecosystems for Africa program at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, has created the most accurate maps yet of where reforestation can effectively combat climate change.

The study identifies 195 million hectares globally where tree restoration will deliver maximum climate benefits without harming communities or ecosystems.

The study, published in Nature Communications and drawing from 89 previous research projects, provides the most comprehensive mapping yet of areas where reforestation can deliver optimal climate benefits while supporting wildlife habitat, food production, and freshwater availability.

The 195 million hectares identified – roughly equivalent to the combined area of South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe – is a 71 to 92% drop in previous estimates of the total land area available globally for reforestation projects. However, it represents a substantial and realistic opportunity for reforestation to contribute meaningfully to climate goals while protecting communities and ecosystems.

“Previous studies often failed to address how afforestation could have negative effects on biodiversity and human well-being, especially for poor people living in remote rural areas often targeted for reforestation,” says Archibald, who leads the Future Ecosystems for Africa (FEFA) programme at Wits University. The research emphasises that negative impacts are more likely when communities lack secure land rights and depend heavily on natural resources.

“The drop from previous estimates is due to layers that previous maps haven't been able to incorporate, because the research was still nascent at the time. It accounts for the albedo effect, for example, which means restoring tree cover can, in some locations, actively heat the Earth rather than cool it by affecting how much sunlight is absorbed or reflected. It also excludes native grasslands and other ecosystems where carpeting the land with trees would harm biodiversity and exacerbate fire regimes.”

This distinction is particularly important for Africa, where natural grasslands and savannas are often inappropriately converted to forests, harming biodiversity and worsening fire regimes. African countries contribute less than 5% of global carbon emissions yet face disproportionate climate impacts while holding enormous potential for nature-based solutions.

The research directly supports the Roadmap for Just Systems Transformations for Africa's People and Nature, a continent-wide collaboration between FEFA, Conservation International and partners aimed at accelerating investment in Natural Climate Solutions that benefit both mitigation goals and local livelihoods.

"In areas that are non-forest ecosystems, increasing tree cover is not always appropriate and must explicitly consider historical natural state," the study emphasises, challenging simplistic tree-planting approaches that ignore ecological complexity.

Professor Forrest Fleischman from the University of Minnesota and co-author of the study says policies must consider land rights and community dependence on natural resources, particularly in countries where political rights aren't respected.

“African scientists must now rise to the challenge and provide guidance on appropriate landscape management and restoration activities in non-forest ecosystems. That is the goal of the Africa Roadmap,” says Archibald.

As policymakers prepare for upcoming UN Climate negotiations, the research provides a timely reminder that tree-planting alone cannot solve climate change. Only by restoring and protecting forests alongside aggressive industrial decarbonisation can reforestation make meaningful progress toward safe climate limits.

The study was co-funded by the Nature Conservancy and the Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation as part of the FEFA programme's mission to prioritise African-informed solutions in ecosystem conservation.

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Journal

Nature Communications

 

 

Doctoral thesis: Disabled people are still seen as ‘the other’ in contemporary Russian culture

Estonian Research Council

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Alina Poklad

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Like the rest of the world, modern Russian society is now paying more attention to issues affecting people with disabilities. A lot of state programmes are focused on improving infrastructure accessibility and rehabilitation. However, they remain one of the least visible groups in society, which is why it seems that Russian culture still portrays disabled people as ‘different’ or ‘the other’.

In her PhD thesis, Alina Poklad examined how Russian culture portrays people with disabilities more broadly and whether it supports their integration into society and enables them to lead a fulfilling life. She analysed contemporary films, television and literature as the main conveyors of Russian culture. Her findings suggest that contemporary Russian culture aims to convince viewers and readers that a disabled person cannot be happy because of the physical disability itself, rather than because there are numerous societal barriers or a lack of opportunities for leading a fulfilling life.

The dominant narrative in Russian culture often centres around the suffering of a disabled person following an accident, which is portrayed as a life with nothing positive and devoid of meaning, both for the character themselves and for their loved ones. Eventually, through medical treatment and rehabilitation, these characters are healed and their life regains meaning. However, this type of scenario, which seems harmless at first glance, causes real-life problems for people with disabilities. Their participation in society is already difficult due to poor accessibility, resulting in few interactions between people with disabilities and the rest of society. As a result, on-screen depictions are often taken as true reflections of reality, reinforcing stereotypes and prejudices.

When analysing the comments of viewers, Poklad found that people are reinforcing the belief that having a disability is a fate worse than death. Consequently, the lives of people with disabilities are devalued. It also creates a belief among viewers that anyone with a disability can overcome it if they just try hard enough. This belief creates misconceptions of those who have not been able to fully heal or who do not devote their entire lives to getting better, but instead prefer to study, work and live a family life. They are seen as lazy or as though they have given up.

According to Poklad, this creates a situation where society does not want to accept people with disabilities as equals. They are isolated, and especially based on TV shows and literature, it is believed that people with disabilities should only interact with ‘people like themselves’. To make matters worse is that, through TV shows, both able-bodied people and people with disabilities perceive that the only way to be useful and happy is to be able-bodied.

The results from the doctoral thesis show that although disable people are being talked about more in contemporary Russian culture, their image is stigmatised. Public opinion of them has not changed, but their own self-perception is gradually shifting, regardless of culture.

Alina Poklad, a PhD candidate at Tallinn University's School of Humanities, will defended her PhD thesis "The Image of the Disabled Person as the ‘Other’ on Russian Television". The research was supervised by Irina Belobrovtseva, Professor Emeritus from Tallinn University, and the opponents are Professor José Alaniz from University of Washington and Alfiya Battalova, Associate Professor from Royal Roads University.

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Method of Research

Meta-analysis

  

 

Doctoral dissertation: The literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries reveal resistance to social norms and constraints

Estonian Research Council

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Kristjan Haljak

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“And here are the dark temples brimming with sweetness from the shared impulse of all living things, where thick layers of sanctity sink before and after, where oceans of secrets – from bird to man, from the fish’s eggs to the slow-moving camel – throb, tighten and tremble.” – Jaan Oks

Jaan Oks (1884–1918) was an Estonian poet, prose writer and literary critic, whose works cannot be found in the compulsory literature lists in schools, but who still led a revolution in Estonian literature with his avant-garde works such as Nimetu elajas (‘Nameless Beast’), Tume inimeselaps (‘A Dark Child of Man’) and Emased (‘Females’), in much the same way as the forerunner of surrealism, Comte de Lautréamont (1846–1870), did in French literature.

In his doctoral thesis, Kristjan Haljak, a PhD candidate at Tallinn University's School of Humanities, studied the works of these two groundbreaking writers and found that both Oks and Lautréamont shared a rebellious spirit when it came to social norms and restrictions – a deeply personal struggle for the radical freedom of both body and soul. The poetic revolution that Haljak uncovered in the works of Oks and Lautréamont through psychoanalytical methods is not merely ‘literary’ in nature. It is an insight into sexuality, gender, identity and the most personal inner experiences, challenging both societal and individual norms and taboos.

Haljak argues that the monograph should not be viewed only as a historical account, but rather as a legitimate contemporary study of the boundaries of the subject. He is also confident that the thesis is important from a literary perspective, as no comparative analysis of this kind has been written before on Oks and Lautréamont. In doing so, he presents Jaan Oks's work and poetry in a new light, in which the modernism and avant-garde of early 20th century Estonia takes on a more powerful transgressive brilliance.

Kristjan Haljak, a doctoral student at the School of Humanities of Tallinn University, defended his doctoral thesis “Jaan Oks and Lautréamont: Transgressive-Dark Literature and the Revolution of the Language of Poetry”. The doctoral thesis supervisor was Tallinn University Professor Daniele Monticelli. The opponents were Tiina Ann Kirss, an extraordinary senior researcher at the Estonian Literary Museum, and Epp Annus, a senior researcher at Tallinn University.

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Method of Research

Meta-analysis

 

Sexual philosophy is the foundation for sexual ethics based on mutual care and pleasure

Estonian Research Council

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Rita Niineste

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Rita Niineste's doctoral thesis explored how societal norms influence the representation of the sexual body and the role of scientific discourse in shaping and interacting with sexual meanings. The research contributes to an understanding of the role of pleasure in the structure of sexual experiences and explores why outdated or misleading sexual theories continue to have a significant negative impact on women's sexual self-perception. The broader aim of the research was to fill a gap in the philosophical study of sexuality and to increase mutual understanding between sexual partners. It also contributes to establishing theoretical foundations of sexual ethics based on mutual care and a pleasure-based understanding of sexuality.

According to Niineste, issues surrounding sexual pleasure have received little attention as philosophical discourse has historically been centred on male perspectives. Pleasure in sex has therefore been considered a given, rather than as a research problem in its own right. This is in sharp contrast to theoretical and empirical research on women's sexuality, which still focuses on questions of whether, how and when women experience sexual pleasure. Extensive research also shows that one of the main problems regarding women's sexual health in modern Western societies is a lack of sexual desire or interest in sex. This asymmetry, both in theoretical attitudes to pleasure and in its lived experience, has made the philosophical study of sexuality difficult.

Niineste's doctoral thesis was based on the premise that sexual experiences are bodily motivated and thus their study must begin with embodiment as the fundamental basis for meaning-making. This approach enabled her to explore what distinguishes sexual behaviour from other forms of experiences, and to examine when and why cultural representations of sexuality influence the experience of pleasure. On a more theoretical level, the thesis discussed how feminist theory and philosophy can offer new perspectives on sexuality and pleasure that better align with women's lived experiences.

The thesis found that while bodily pleasure has often been considered a given and the meaning of sex has been associated more with reproduction, empathy or intimacy, pleasure itself is the main meaning-making aspect of sex. This holds true regardless of the subject's gender, orientation or whether the experience in question involves only the subject or others as well. The research also revealed a close link between gendered aspects of embodiment, imagination and social norms. For example, the cultural and theoretical overemphasis on reproduction has not had a significant impact on the enjoyment of sex for men, because in the male body the functions of reproduction and pleasure largely overlap. In contrast, reducing pleasure to a mere byproduct is considerably more problematic for women, as the centre of erotic sensitivity of the female body is not directly linked to fertilisation.

Since the study and interpretations of sex have historically been framed from the perspective of the male body, this independent capacity for pleasure, separate from reproductive function, has been largely excluded from cultural frameworks of sexual meaning-making. According to Niineste, pleasure plays the greatest role in a person's ability to understand their needs and preferences as a sexual subject and to understand what is happening to them during the sexual act. This, in turn, enables them to give informed consent and participate in intimate relationships as active subjects rather than just objects.

Rita Niineste, a PhD candidate at Tallinn University's School of Humanities, defended her doctoral thesis A Pleasure of One's Own: On the Intersubjectivity of Sexual Experiences. The thesis was supervised by Tõnu Viik and the opponents are Professor Sara Heinämaa from the University of Jyväskylä and Professor Dermot Moran from Boston College.

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Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Social hackathons could be solutions to the underdevelopment of peripheral regions

Estonian Research Council

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Kadri Kangro

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Social innovation refers to fresh ideas and new approaches that help address problems such as inequality, poverty, loneliness, environmental crises and more. The goal is to create lasting and meaningful change that takes into account the specificities of the situation. For example, the kindergarten system that originated in Germany in the 19th century was a form of social innovation at the time, helping to improve women’s social position. Today, it is no longer an innovation but part of the system. Social innovation focuses more on relationships and cooperation between different groups, combining community, private and public sector resources and time-space specificities, rather than technology. In rural areas, where traditional development models are often limited, it creates sustainable alternatives.

Hackathons originated in the tech sector around the turn of the century as intense 48-hour software development events to find new solutions to coding problems. Over the past decade, this concept has spread rapidly across the Estonian start-up scene and expanded into the public sector. While the hackathons have proven their ability to accelerate innovation, it has become clear that simply transferring the model from the private sector does not always produce the desired outcomes when addressing more complicated societal challenges. This study shows that if the hackathon format is adapted while retaining its key components – such as bringing together a large group of people for an intensive weekend, the competitive element, a user-centred approach and an informal, relaxed atmosphere – the hackathon can also become an effective tool in the public sector and communities by shifting the focus to co-creation and supporting diverse participation. Hackathons can be a surprisingly effective tool for triggering innovative solutions, even in rural areas.

In her research work, Kandri Kangro designed a hackathon format with four organisational cycles between 2018 and 2020 as a tailored co-creation platform using Võru County as a case study, with a focus on the social aspect of hackathons. Since 2018, the social hackathons organised in Võru County can now also be found in other parts of Estonia and abroad and have proven that this approach creates a foundation for sustainable solutions for local development. While a traditional hackathon focuses on quick-to-produce prototype solutions, a social hackathon prioritises building trust and partnerships. It gives participants the opportunity to learn more about the problem together and pool their knowledge and resources to come up with a solution. This, in turn, strengthens community relations and supports collaborative governance.

For example, the ‘Mahe & Muhe’ initiative was launched during the first social hackathon in 2018, where organic food enthusiasts, both community members and entrepreneurs, dreamed of turning Võru County into an organic food region. Through the social hackathon, the initiators of the idea found partners and designed a practical roadmap for making the change happen. They started by raising awareness among school cooks and working on menus to increase demand for local organic food. Shifting the focus from the big vision to discovering the details of the problem helped the team in coming up with concrete solutions. This led to a training and mentoring programme for school cooks, which in turn led to a regional policy agreement to use organic food in schools. The initiative group went further with this idea, and as a result, an organic food support scheme for schools was introduced at the national level in 2022. This shows that social hackathons can trigger systemic and lasting change through co-creation.

The experience of the social hackathons shows that communities hold the potential for social innovation and that a co-creation approach can help solve local problems. Peripheral regions face increasingly complex challenges that cannot be solved with public sector resources alone. While there are many theoretical frameworks for social innovation, their application to governance practices remains limited. The research carried out as part of Kadri Kangro’s doctoral thesis will help to understand how social innovation actually works in rural areas and how to create the necessary conditions needed for it. Strong social ties, a sense of place and cultural heritage can prove to be powerful assets for development in peripheral regions, when they are consciously targeted and applied as a driving force for regional development. However, this requires institutional support to ensure that co-creation does not remain a one-off experiment. In Estonia, these conditions are still underdeveloped. To ensure that the impact of the social hackathon goes beyond the event itself, a supportive innovation environment and flexible governance structures are needed to help initiatives take root.

Kadri Kangro, a PhD candidate at the School of Governance, Law and Society in Tallinn University, defended her doctoral thesis “An Analysis of Social Hackathons as a Co-creative Innovative Solution to Local Societal Challenges” . The supervisor of the thesis was Katri-Liis Lepik, Associate Professor at Tallinn University. Opponents were Harri Jalonen, Professor at the University of Vaasa, and Marko Uibu, Associate Professor at the University of Tartu.

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Method of Research

Meta-analysis