A radiocarbon date for the final prehistoric occupation of Glennie Island Cave, Bass Strait

Abstract

The previous issue of Australian Archaeology (no.9), described the discovery of a small cave on Great Glennie Island some 7km west of Wilson's Promontory, Bass Strait, Victoria (Jones and Allen 1979). A shell midden in this granite cave consisted mostly of limpets (Cellana solida) and in order to obtain a date for final occupation of the site, a sample of limpet shell was submitted to the ANU Radiocarbon Research Laboratory, hoping that it would at least indicate a date beyond that of the arrival of European sailors into Bass Strait at the very end of the 18th century and thus prove that the midden was genuinely of Aboriginal origin. This paper discusses the results of sample no. GIC/1968:ANU-2296 1440±100BP (Libby half life of 5568 years) on limpet shell 'Cellana solida'.