Archaeologists discovered a 46000-year-old piece of jewellery in the Kimberly region of West Australia. It is made of a pointed kangaroo bone and was possibly worn pierced through the nose.

The experts of The Australian National University believe that the jewellery is the earliest hard evidence that Australia’s first inhabitants were using bone to make tools and ornaments. It was found below a deposit dated to 46000 years ago. Until recently the earliest bone tools found in Australia dated to about 20000 years ago. With this find, it is proven that they were making bone tools soon after arriving in Australia and did not lose this knowledge on the journey between Africa and Australia as some people believed.

The bone, a shaped point made on kangaroo leg bone with traces of red ochre, was dug up at Carpenter’s Gap, a rock shelter in Windjana Gorge National Park. The bone we found is most consistent with those used for facial decoration. Everywhere across Australia both men and women would wear an identical bone point through their nose. Children in some communities were known to have had their nose pierced quite young.

(after The Australian National University & Business Insider Australia)