Systematic seasonal land use by late Pleistocene Tasmanian Aborigines

New research on the odontochronological (dental growth-increment) analysis of marsupial teeth provides opportunities to estimate with more certainty the time of the year Tasmanian Aborigines inhabited sites during the late Pleistocene. Here we focus on the Bennett's wallaby (Macropus rufogriseus) as a proxy for understanding seasonal human land use patterns and occupation of four southwest Tasmanian caves. The aim of the paper is to investigate whether caves at different altitudes were occupied in alternating seasons, and determine if the 'Patch Model' developed to explain the archaeological variability of late Pleistocene human behavior should be modified accordingly. The data presented here support the original observations that these sites, although reflecting extreme richness, were occupied in a punctuated seasonal manner with visits probably separated by a considerable time of unknown duration.