Archaeologists have unearthed the world's largest collection of Ice Age era footprints, dating from about 20 000 years ago, in the bed of a dry lake in the New South Wales outback. It is also one of the richest fossil footprint sites ever found. ABN 70 592 297 967 | The National Museum of Australia is an Australian Government Agency, Australia's Defining Moments Digital Classroom, 'Discoveries at Lake Mungo' on the ABC Education website, 'The long, long walkabout' on the ABC website. Stone tools have been found in the dunes which are older than the Mungo Man. The eroding lunette at Lake Mungo in the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area is littered with surface artefacts, as are many of … Duration: 4:03. The most important findings at Lake Mungo have been Mungo Man and Mungo Woman. It is about 760 km due west of Sydney[1] and 90 km north-east of Mildura. Many important archaeological findings have been made at the lake, most significantly the discovery of the remains of Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia, Mungo Woman, the oldest human remains in the world to be ri… Lake Mungo is a 2008 Australian psychological horror film written and directed by Joel Anderson and starring Talia Zucker and Martin Sharpe. Although the lake completely dried up several thousand years ago, ground vegetation remained on the Walls, which helped to stabilise them and protect them from erosion. Mungo Lady was a young Indigenous Australian adult female and her discovery is extremely important to understanding and discovering the past of the Indigenous Australians. A stone axe head, estimated to be at least 500 years old, was also found in the dunes; it was made from stone from Mount Camel, near Shepparton, well over 300 km away. Click on the images below for photos, videos and more information. 'The long, long walkabout' on the ABC website Footage from 1975 showing where Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were found. Lake Mungo is one of 17 dry lakes that help to make up the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. William Jackson [Scottish Orchestra of New Music]: St. Mungo Suite for Glasgow (Greentrax Records CTRAX 041), 1990 20 Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies 1, 2 and 3 [Stokowski] / Enesco Romanian Rhapsodies 1 and 2 (copy tape), undated The earliest known site is at Lake Mungo, one of 17 lakes situated within the Willandra Lakes region of southern New South Wales. The Lake Mungo Geomagnetic Excursion, as it is known, has since been confirmed at other locations around the world. Herds of feral goats are also present in the region. This website contains names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. This made the soil alkaline, which helped to preserve the remains left behind in the Walls. In 1972, Archaeomagnetic studies were conducted on the prehistoric aboriginal fireplaces occurring along the ancient shoreline of Lake Mungo. Mungo Lady is the name that archaeologists have given to a group of cremated bones found at Lake Mungo. Although the layer corresponded with a time of low rainfall and cooler weather, more rainwater ran off the western side of the Great Dividing Range during that period, keeping the lake full. The Willandra region is inhabited by the Barkindji, Nyiampaa and Mutthi Mutthi peoples, who have now entered Joint Management Agreements with the Government of New South Wales to manage the lake and the Mungo National Park. The lake area including the lunette (dune) is part of the Mungo National Park while the archaeological site referenced as Lake Mungo is denoted as the south west division of the Mungo Lunette. [3], Two excursions have been recorded in sediments from Skjonghelleren on Valderøy, Norway with the Virtual Geomagnetic Pole (VGP) of one being synchronous with Lake Mungo suggests that the Lake Mungo event was global rather than a local event. Although “Mungo Man” and “Mungo Lady” are the most famous, they are but two among many of discoveries that give us insight into the deep history of Indigenous Australia and the way the land has changed over millions of years. This makes Mungo one of the oldest places outside of Africa to have been occupied by modern humans since ancient times. Scientists and Mungo Explorer The magic of Mungo At Lake Mungo the story of land and people come together. The oldest skeleton ever found in Australia, Mungo Man, has been returned to his home 40,000 years after his death. Today, the eroding sand dunes expose evidence of a region once home to ancient people and giant prehistoric animals. 'Discoveries at Lake Mungo' on the ABC Education website News report from Lake Mungo in 1969. Mungo man Lake Mungo and the Willandra Lakes Region are home to some of Australia’s oldest cultural artefacts. See Plan your visit for important safety information including mandatory check in using the Check In CBR app. Data from lake sediments of a similar age in France having near identical magnetic field lines also support Lake Mungo being a global event. With the arrival of European settlers in the area since the 1880s, introduced species, notably rabbits and sheep, have destroyed the vegetation cover. The Mungo layer, which was deposited before the last ice age period, is the most archaeologically rich. Early morning is an excellent time to appreciate the landforms and animal life. This would imply that hominids before 60 kya had the knowledge and skill to create a sturdy and sophisticated sea craft in order to sail all the way to Australia. On the eastern side of the Mungo lake bed are the "Walls of China," a series of crescent-shaped sand dunes or lunettes, up to 40m in height, that stretch for more than 33 km, where most archaeological material has been found. Mungo Lady was cremated more than 40,000 years ago. Its shoreline preserves Australia’s oldest known human remains. A chain of dried-up lake beds and sand dunes make up this archaeological wonderland, an isolated, lunar landscape rich in natural beauty. Artefacts that could not be clearly identified as belonging to one of the frequently occurring silcrete types were left indeterminate in this study (this was the case of 12% of all artefacts from Lake Mungo, n = 71; 5% from Top Hut, n = 13; 5% from Leaghur Backshore, n = 20; 8% from Garnpung 1, n = 126; 2% from Mungo Backshore, n = 12). It’s quite easy to find bits of tools or weapons on the ground, for instance. The aim of the assignment, local newspapers reported, was to "uncover the precise configuration of the original Fort buildings … and recover as many artefacts as possible". Mungo archaeology on the Mungo National Park website, Mungo timeline on the Mungo National Park website, Willandra Lakes region on the UNESCO website, Primary source study: John Mulvaney's suitcase, John Mulvaney collection on our Collection Explorer website, Evidence of first peoples on our Defining Moments website, 'What are the mysteries of Lake Mungo?' It belonged to John Mulvaney, a pioneer of Australian archaeology, who played a central role in proving that the arrival of humans in Australia was earlier than had previously been accepted. If, however, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady truly are evidence that Australia has only been inhabited for about 50,000 years, the theory of Africa is stronger than ever. The Walls of China stop provides the visitor with a chance to walk amongst geological history and view from the top of the dunes the vast expanse of Lake Mungo. The Northwest Mounted Police fort in Saskatchewan, Canada was established in 1875. If it was inhabited 60 thousand years or over, it puts in question the theory that all civilizations derived from Africa. How Do Scientists Know How Old Mungo Man And Mungo Lady Are? Genetic evidence has supported the theory of multiple waves of hominids moving into Australia. Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in New South Wales, Australia. The site was dating using OSL dating, or luminescence dating. We call these extinct giant animals megafauna. A scatter of waste flakes and a core stone. In this dry land, water is a treasure. Today, the Paakantji, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngyimpaa people of the Lake Mungo region continue their close connections to the land. Check out the Kids learning space pages above, then see how many answers you can get right! Magnetization preserved in oven-stones and baked hearths show that the axial dipole field moved up to 120 degrees from its normal position around 30,000 years ago. They had already developed a variety of Lake Mungo is a dry lake in the far west of New South Wales, about 760 kilometres west of Sydney. Sediments at Lake Mungo have been deposited over more than 120,000 years. Lake Mungo is the best-known basin in the Willandra Lakes Region World Heritage Area in semi-arid south-eastern Australia. Ancient artefacts from Lake Mungo help show us what people ate and how they lived thousands of years ago. … When people first arrived in Australia, they found unique plants and animals. It is about 760 km due west of Sydney and 90 km north-east of Mildura. Many important archaeological findings have been made at the lake, most significantly the discovery of the remains of Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia,[2] Mungo Woman, the oldest human remains in the world to be ritually cremated and as the location of the Lake Mungo geomagnetic excursion, the first convincing evidence that Geomagnetic excursions are a geomagnetic phenomenon rather than sedimentological.[3]. There are three distinct layers of sands and soil forming the Walls. Artefacts found on the island, including stone tools, burnt bones and multiple hearths, show that people repeatedly visited the island. It supported a significant human population, as well as many varieties of Australian megafauna. In Ice Age times people came to Lake Mungo for water, and especially for its resources such as fish and mussel shells. Lake Mungo is home to the earliest modern human remains found in Australia, and possibly the world. This area is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Australia (see figure 1: A map showing the location of Lake Mungo). There were giant marsupials (mammals that carried their young in a pouch, such as kangaroos), giant monotremes (mammals that lay eggs, such as echidnas) and different types of birds (including emus and brolgas). Suitable for years 3 to 6. The remains were covered with red ochre, in what is the earliest known incidence of such a burial practice. The most recent is the Zanci layer, which is pale brown, and was laid down mostly between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago. If Lake Mungo looks sparse and arid now, it would have seemed uninhabitable during the Last Glacial Maximum where ice sheets caused drought and desertification about 26,500 years ago. Logistics: Mungo national park is a 9.5 hour drive from Melbourne, a … The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. A giant sink with the plug in. The Lake Mungo remains are three prominent sets of human remains that are possibly Aboriginal Australian: Lake Mungo 1 (also called Mungo Woman, LM1, and ANU-618), Lake Mungo 3 (also called Mungo Man, Lake Mungo III, and LM3), and Lake Mungo 2 (LM2). There is evidence of human habitation of the area around Lake Mungo that is as much as 50,000 years old. Mungo Man was also discovered by Dr Bowler, on 26 February 1974. Stone is naturally uncommon around Willandra Lakes, where the landscape is mostly sand and clay. The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to country, community and culture. Unsettled, the Palmers seek the help of psychic and parapsychologist, who discovers that Alice led a secret, double life. This would put Mungo Man and Mungo Lady's civilization in the same time frame as other cultures that were just beginning to settle outside of Africa. Mungo Lady was cremated more than 40,000 years ago. When Mungo Man walked this landscape some 40,000 years ago, the freshwater lake was around 25 feet deep, teeming with wildlife and surrounded by forests dappled with golden wattle. See the Mungo National Park Website for a summary of the archaeological finds at Lake Mungo, for … This site archaeologists consider among the important archaeological sites of Australia. Duration: 6:15. Mungo Woman, a partially cremated body, was discovered in 1969 by Dr Jim Bowler from the Australian National University (ANU). This dry lake contains stone artefacts, burial sites, animal bones and ochre that date the Aboriginal occupation there to 40,000 years BP when the lake was full, teeming with fish, shellfish and bird life. Unlike Africa and Asia, where the top predators were mammals, in Australia, giant reptiles ruled. It must have been like entering a new world. Named for their resemblance to the puissant crescent moon, the lunettes are unwitting time capsules, opulent with artefacts because Lake Mungo was a ‘terminal basin’ with no outlet. 1970; Barbetti & Allen 1972; Bowler & Thorne 1976; Bowler et al. Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in New South Wales, Australia. It is also one of the richest fossil footprint sites ever found. National Museum of Australia and Ryebuck Media. 2003 ). Wildflowers growing near sand dunes on the edge of Lake Mungo As the interior of Australia gradually dried up between 30 000 - 20 0000 years ago, the people of Mungo had to increasingly depend on hunting methods other than fishing to survive. Grinders for making flour have been found which are estimated to be between 5,000 and 10,000 years old; they were made of sandstone sourced from the Murray River basin 100 km away. Called a geomagnetic excursion, the event occurred between 30,780 and 28,140 years BP with a very high field strength of 1 to 2×10−4 T (around 3.5 times higher than Earths current 5.8×10−5 T) which subsequently decreased to .2 to .3×10−4 T. There is also evidence of a second excursion around 26,000 BP with a field strength of .1 to .2×10−4 T. Because most of the excursions found before Lake Mungo were contained in sedimentary material, it had been suggested that the magnetic field directional anomalies were detrital or diagenetic in origin. Mungo Woman is thus the earliest known human to have been cremated. The migration is believed to consist of two groups moving into the continent at different periods. Mungo Man had been buried and covered with red ochre. However, this erosion has led to the uncovering of many human and animal remains. Join us on a time travelling adventure as we visit Lake Mungo in New South Wales, at a time when people lived in Australia and megafauna roamed the landscape. [5] The discovery of these remains is important to Archaeology because we discover the beginnings of cremation as a burial ritual and in addition we find more evidence for the "out of Africa" theory. Lawson Crescent Acton Peninsula, CanberraDaily 9am–5pm, closed Christmas Day Freecall: 1800 026 132, Museum Cafe9am–4pm, weekdays9am–4.30pm, weekends. The Lake Mungo results were due to thermoremanent magnetization, ruling out a sedimentological phenomenon. Pay close attention to the Kids learning space pages above, then see how many answers you can get right! The time that was taken into her burial is demonstration of an advanced ritualistic process. The adult male body had been sprinkled with powdered red … There were also other giant animals that no longer exist. Indigenous Australians belong to the oldest continuous culture on earth. All animals and Aboriginal artifacts are protected by law, so please do not disturb or remove anything. Mungo Lodge closes over the Christmas period, from the 22 to 27 December. It was here that the remains of Mungo Lady and Mungo Man, said to be roughly 40,000 years old, were discovered, preserved by low humidity and carbonite present in the sand. At Lake Mungo… These archaeological sources include stone tools, middens, fireplaces, burials and footprints. The scientists determined the age of Mungo man and Mungo Lady based from their cremated skeletons.They thoroughly investigated their bone fragments and teeth’s pulp exposure.They also studied the environment that existed during their life by looking at the layers of rocks that they found in their diggings. Lake Mungo is one of the most important archaeological sites located in the south-eastern portion of Australia and south-western New South Wales. Mungo Woman was only partially cremated before the remainder of her bones were crushed. If the fossils are actually from 60 kya, the fossils would be that of archaic Homo sapiens. So not too far over the Vic/NSW Murray River border. The different years for which artifacts and the remains were found puts into debate the actual time in which Australia was inhabited. The water disappeared with the end of the ice age and the lake has been dry for more than 10,000 years. But this land was clearly an important spot for Indigenous Australians for millennia and there are constantly artefacts being uncovered by the erosion. Do you know what animals lived at Lake Mungo 45,000 years ago? Despite being a dry lake, it is one among the seventeen lakes in the Willandra Lakes Region listed in the World Heritage. Scientists have discovered artefacts of this ancient culture dating back over 50,000 years across the expanses of the last ice age. During the last ice age period, the water level in the lake dropped, and it became a salt lake. This suitcase was used to transport the remains of a human cremation from Lake Mungo to the Australian National University, Canberra, in 1969. Burials Burial places of their ancestors hold a special significance for Aboriginal people who put great importance on being laid to rest in one's own Country. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. This means most of the stone found within the region is likely to be a human artefact, acquired through trade. Mungo Man was returned in 2017 and buried in the sand.) About 50,000 years ago, Lake Mungo held a huge volume of water. The rich archaeological heritage of the site is very significant to the Aboriginal Australian people from the area. [3], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}33°45′S 143°05′E / 33.750°S 143.083°E / -33.750; 143.083, Learn how and when to remove this template message, "Distance calculator Sydney to Lake Mungo", New age for Mungo Man, new human history : Media Releases : News : The University of Melbourne, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/02/0224_030224_mungoman_2.html, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Mungo&oldid=1009086914, Pleistocene paleontological sites of Australia, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from April 2008, All articles needing additional references, All Wikipedia articles written in Australian English, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 26 February 2021, at 17:20. 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