Bone Cave (Tasmania)
Bone Cave is a small vertical limestone cave in the Middle Weld Valley, Tasmania. It has a long history of human use.
The oldest dated finds, such as charcoal and stone tools, are about 29,000 years old. The site was used most intensely between about 16,000 and 14,000 years ago, after the last ice age. During this time, people worked here to make stone tools, using materials like quartzite, chert, and quartz. They often broke small quartz pebbles to create tools, a technique used to make sharp edges. Large flakes of quartzite and chert were also used to make steep-edged scrapers.
Bone Cave was also a hunting site. The red-necked wallaby was the most common prey, followed by wombats, along with other animals. Occupation appears sporadic, with long gaps between visits dating back tens of thousands of years.
The cave was eventually abandoned and covered by a mineral layer known as moon milk. In addition to stone tools, a single piece of Darwin glass—an ancient type of regional glass—was found, dating to about 16,000–14,000 years ago. This makes Bone Cave the occupation site located furthest from the Darwin Crater where this glass is found, about 100 km away.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 06:32 (CET).