Lake Mungo remains (Mungo Lady and Mungo Man)
Lake Mungo is an archaeological site located in west-central New South Wales, Australia, known for housing the oldest human remains discovered in the country, Mungo Lady and Mungo Man. Mungo Lady, dating back approximately 40,000 to 42,000 years, and Mungo Man, estimated to be around 62,000 years old, significantly predate previous assumptions that human habitation in Australia began only about 20,000 years ago. Both individuals were found in the sediment of ancient lake beds, which were part of the Pleistocene Epoch, revealing a wealth of archaeological artifacts, including tools and evidence of early human life.
Their discoveries in the late 1960s and early 1970s highlighted the cultural and spiritual practices of ancient Aboriginal peoples, as they show the earliest known evidence of cremation and ritual burial. Mungo Lady was cremated and her remains subsequently crushed and buried, while Mungo Man was buried ceremonially with ochre powder. The remains are of great significance to the traditional owners of the land—the Mutthi Mutthi, Barkandji, and Ngiyampaa peoples—who successfully advocated for their repatriation. Mungo Lady was returned in 1992, and Mungo Man was reinterred in 2017, marking a profound acknowledgment of Indigenous heritage and history. Today, Lake Mungo is recognized as a World Heritage site and is part of Mungo National Park, attracting interest for both its archaeological significance and its cultural importance.
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Lake Mungo remains (Mungo Lady and Mungo Man)
Mungo Lady and Mungo Man are the oldest human remains ever discovered in Australia. Named after Lake Mungo where they were discovered, Mungo Lady is 40,000 to 42,000 years old, and Mungo Man is about 62,000 years old. Prior to their discovery, scientists believed that people had begun arriving in Australia only 20,000 years ago.
Lake Mungo is the most famous lake in the Willandra Lakes region, a network of ancient lake beds in west-central New South Wales that dried up more than 10,000 years ago. In the sediment of these lake beds are the remains of ancient animals and plants from the Pleistocene era.
The remains of Mungo Lady, a young Aboriginal woman, were discovered in 1968 by geologist Jim Bowler, who at the time was a graduate student at the Australian National University (ANU). Six years later, Bowler and a team of archaeologists from ANU unearthed the nearly complete skeleton of Mungo Man. Mungo Lady and Mungo Man are the world’s oldest evidence of cremation and ceremonial burial, showing that the people of their time were spiritual.
The remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were initially kept at the ANU. However, the traditional owners of Lake Mungo, the Mutthi Mutthi, Barkandji and Ngiyampaa peoples, fought for the repatriation of their remains. Mungo Lady was returned to Lake Mungo in 1992; however, Mungo Man was kept at the ANU until 2017 when he was buried in an undisclosed location near the lake. Their return made Mungo Lake famous and led to the establishment of Mungo National Park and the recognition of the Willandra Lakes region as a World Heritage site.
Mungo Lake
Lake Mungo is an archaeological site in west-central New South Wales, Australia. It is part of a group of lake beds in the Willandra Lakes region. These lakes thrived during the Pleistocene Epoch, a geological time period about 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago, when people depended on them for food and water. These early peoples also hunted giant kangaroos and wombats near the lakes.
Erosion helped reveal the remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man along with those of other people and artefacts. When Europeans arrived in Australia in the 1700s, the land was mostly inhabited by the Mutthi Mutthi, Barkandji and Ngiyampaa peoples. The Europeans introduced sheep and rabbits to the area, which ruined the land. Severe drought and climate change also destroyed the landscape. Erosion washed away the earth from Aboriginal burial grounds near the lake beds, revealing the skeletons of people who had lived long ago.
Other discoveries in the Lake Mungo and hundreds of artefacts such as stone tools, fireplaces and food waste—all of which predates the last Ice Age ten thousand years ago. Most of these artefacts were discovered in crescent-shaped sand dunes called lunettes. Lake Mungo’s lunettes stretch 33 kilometres.
Mungo Lady and Mungo Man
In the 1960s, geologist Jim Bowler joined the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, to study the historical impact of climate change on Australia’s landscape. Bowler was particularly interested in investigating Lake Mungo because the erosion of the lunette revealed ancient layers of sediment. In 1967, he unearthed stone tools and mussel shells within the sand and clay in the lunette. The following year, he discovered what appeared to be burnt bones at the site. In 1968, he brought with him archaeologists John Mulvaney and Rhys Jones, who unearthed a human jaw in addition to the bones. They put all the bones they had discovered into a leather suitcase and took them back to the ANU. There they were labelled Lake Mungo I. The researchers later determined that the bones had belonged to an adult female, whom they called Mungo Lady. The bones were 40,000 to 42,000 years old, which made Mungo Lady’s remains the oldest found in Australia. The archaeologists also discerned that Mungo Lady had been ritually buried. She was first cremated and then her bones were crushed. Her bones were burned a second time and buried in the sand.
In 1974, Bowler uncovered the nearly complete skeleton of a male at Lake Mungo, called Mungo Man, who lived an astounding 62,000 years ago. He is believed to have been about fifty years old when he died, and his vertebrae indicate that he suffered from osteoarthritis. Like Mungo Lady, he was ritually buried. He had been placed on his back with his hands crossed on his lap. His corpse had been sprinkled with ochre powder, a natural pigment only available about 97 kilometres away from the site, further suggesting that his burial was ceremonial.
The traditional owners of Lake Mungo, the Mutthi Mutthi, Barkandji and Ngiyampaa peoples, consider their ancestors’ bodies to be an important part of their history and sought to have Mungo Lady and Mungo Man returned to Lake Mungo, where they would be buried. Mungo Lady was returned to Lake Mungo in 1992. However, because the ground in the area where she was found is unstable, as of 2020, she was locked in a vault in a Parks and Wildlife building near the lake. She will stay in this location until a suitable resting place is found. Mungo Man remained at the ANU until 2017 when his remains were transported in a coffin made of eight-thousand-year-old timber. He is buried in an undisclosed location near Lake Mungo.
Bibliography
Allbrook, Malcolm. “Mungo Lady.” Australian Dictionary of Biographies, adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mungo-lady-27703. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Blackfella. “Leaders calls for united action on Mungos.” National Indigenous Times, 25 July 2018, nit.com.au/leaders-call-for-united-action-on-mungos/. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Bowler, Jim. “Time to honour a historical legend: 50 years since the discovery of Mungo Lady.” The Conversation, 5 July 2015, theconversation.com/time-to-honour-a-historical-legend-50-years-since-the-discovery-of-mungo-lady-97785. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Johanson, Mark. “Mungo Man: The Story Behind The Bones That Forever Changed Australia’s History.” International Business Times, 3 Apr. 2014, www.ibtimes.com/mungo-man-story-behind-bones-forever-changed-australias-history-1558234. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
Milman, Oliver. “Message from Mungo’s mother of all battles to bring Aboriginal ancestors home.” The Guardian, 17 Aug. 2015, www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/aug/17/message-from-mungo-mother-of-all-battles-to-bring-aboriginal-ancestors-home. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
“Mungo Lady.” National Museum of Australia, www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/mungo-lady. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
“Mungo Lady and Mungo Man.” Visit Mungo, www.visitmungo.com.au/who-was-mungo-lady. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.
“Mungo Man: Australia’s oldest remains taken to ancestral home.” BBC News, 17 Nov. 2017, www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42020675. Accessed 14 Dec. 2020.