Stop 19 - Dentalium Shell

This necklace, made from dentalium shells, comes from Barrow Island off the West Australian coast. Barrow Island was once part of the Australian mainland, at a time when the sea levels were much lower than today. This was the period when the ancestors of Aboriginal people first came to Australia over 50,000 years ago.

The Barrow Island Archaeology Project at UWA was funded by the Australian Research Council to see whether any evidence of the early human occupation was present in the archaeological record.

The necklace comes from a very special archaeological site called Bootie Cave, named after the marsupial bootie. The cave is located in a cliff on the western escarpment of Barrow Island. When humans arrived in Australia cave would have overlooked a coastal plain towards the Indian Ocean as it was 50,000 years ago. Eventually the rising seas of the Holocene came closer, separating Barrow Island from the mainland around 7 thousand years ago. This was when the modern coastline was created. Boodie Cave was abandoned at this time, presumably as people responded to the changing coast.

The archaeological evidence from Boodie Cave is still being analysed by the archaeologists, however it reveals that people started using the site soon after 50,000 years ago and continued to use it in with varying intensity until the island was created. The site reveals that the Aboriginal people of the arid coastal plain were focused on maritime and coastal resources.

This dentalium necklace tells us a very personal story about the early Aboriginal ancestors. Humans around the world are creative, leaving an archaeological record of their art and decoration. Body jewellery was important to ancient Australia, and some of the earliest sites in Western Australia have shell jewellery, such as the site of Mandu Mandu at Cape Range to the south, and Riwi in the Kimberley.

The necklace that you see in front of you dates to about 12,000 years ago, based on a direct radiocarbon date of one of the beads. It was a time that people using the site were highly mobile along the coast and hinterland. The shells and the remains of marine animals for food reveals their relationship with the sea.

That relationships remains important today for Aboriginal people, particulary salt water people along the coast.

This small necklace reveals how archaeology bridges the gap between ancient times and our world today.

“Dentalium”