The stratigraphic integrity of archaeological deposits in the seasonally wet tropics can be disrupted by termite activity and other processes. Significant questions have been raised about the surprisingly old age estimates for artefacts recovered from two sites in northern Australia: Nauwalabila and Madjedbebe. If accurate, a 65,000‐year date for the latter would represent a 30% increase in the currently accepted length of human occupation of the continent. The oldest estimate for Nauwalabila falls just short of that. These dates would have important implications for human dispersal across Eurasia in the Late Pleistocene. No other data from Australia support them. Smith et al. (2020) claim to refute the notion that termite disturbance accounts for these anomalies. Here we show that the criteria on which the assertion is based are invalid. Radiocarbon data from both sites, not cited by Smith et al. (2020), are consistent with the termite‐disturbance hypothesis. Luminescence data claimed to offer strong support for the early Madjedbebe estimate are also consistent with termite disruption. We conclude that the early dates for human presence at Madjedbebe and Nauwalabila must be rejected along with any chronometric inference about human behaviour to the degree it relies on them.

中文翻译：

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确定澳大利亚北部热带地区考古遗址的扰动：对先前提议的65,000年大陆占领日期的影响

白蚁活动和其他过程可能破坏季节性湿热带地区的考古沉积地层完整性。从澳大利亚北部的两个地点：瑙瓦拉比拉和马吉德贝比，发现的手工艺品的年龄估计令人惊讶地提出了重大问题。如果准确的话，后者的65,000年日期将代表目前公认的非洲大陆人类占领时间增加30％。Nauwalabila的最古老的估计就差一点了。这些日期将对人类在晚更新世期间在欧亚大陆的扩散产生重要影响。澳大利亚没有其他数据支持它们。史密斯等。（2020年）声称反驳了白蚁干扰是造成这些异常现象的观点。在这里，我们证明断言所基于的标准是无效的。史密斯等人未引用这两个站点的放射性碳数据。（2020），与白蚁干扰假说是一致的。声称为Madjedbebe早期估计提供有力支持的发光数据也与白蚁破坏一致。我们得出的结论是，必须拒绝人类在Madjedbebe和Nauwalabila的存在的早期日期，以及关于人类行为的任何按时间顺序推断的程度，都应予以拒绝。