A 40,000 year wood charcoal record from Carpenter's Gap 1: New insights into palaeovegetation change and indigenous foraging strategies in the Kimberley, Western Australia

This paper presents the results from analysis of wood charcoal from Carpenter’s Gap 1, a rock shelter with a human-occupation record spanning more than 40,000 years. The phytolith and macrobotanical remains from this site have been previously studied. They provided proxy records of vegetation change over time but each class of palaeobotanical material has distinct taphonomic biases that affect the likelihood that it will be incorporated in the archaeological deposit, and if it is, how well it preserves. The wood charcoal record provides a new line of evidence and helps build a more holistic profile of palaeovegetation local to the site and human foraging strategies over the 40,000 year span of its occupation.