Reply to comments on Clarkson et al. (2017) ‘Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago’

We thank the authors for their comments in the previous issue of Australian Archaeology. The2012–2015 research at Madjedbebe offers a new and comprehensive look at the early occupation of Sahul and adds substantially to our knowledge of the timing of that event and the behaviour of the first people to enter the region. Establishing occupation of northern Australia by 65 ± 6 thousand years ago (ka, with the uncertainty expressed at 95.4% probability)pushes human presence in the Top End back beyond the earliest ages so far reported for other Australian sites by c. 5,000–15,000 years (Hammet al. 2016; Roberts et al. 1994; Veth et al. 2017),thus raising interesting questions as to the latitudinal extent of continental occupation prior to 50 ka.