Archaeologists have found evidence of human habitation in Australia. Really, really old habitation.

Tools dating back at least 35,000 years have been unearthed in a rock shelter in Australia’s remote northwest, making it one of the oldest archaeological finds in that part of the country, archaeologists said Monday.

The tools include a piece of flint the size of a small cell phone and hundreds of tiny sharp stones that were used as knives. One local Aboriginal elder saw it as vindication of what his people have said all along — that they have inhabited this land for tens of thousands of years.

LA Times: “Ancient Tools Unearthed in Australia”

And I also love the use of “small cell phone” as a sizing aid. What would it have been twenty or fifty years ago? Pack of bubble gum?

Living in SoCal, I am always reminded at times like this of Steve Martin in LA Story — “Some of these houses are over twenty years old!”