Ancient Aboriginal technology unearthed in rare bone discovery on Ngarrindjeri country

A rare glimpse into ancient Aboriginal technology has been uncovered in the form of a bone artefact on Ngarrindjeri country, along the Lower Murray river system in South Australia.

Found at Murrawong near Murray Bridge by Flinders University researchers, in collaboration with the Ngarrindjeri community, the bone is believed to have come from a macropod, an animal from the marsupial family.

Radiocarbon dated to be between 5,300 and 3,800 years old, the bone was detected in amongst a midden site that was excavated in 2008, but has only just been processed and recorded.

It has been labelled as a rare find because the last bone object uncovered in the Lower Murray River Gorge was in the 1970s.