Lake Mungo as One of the Most Important Sites in the Archaeological History of Australia - Term Paper Example

? Lake Mungo Lake Mungo, one of the most important sites in the archaeological history of Australia may be described as a dry lake in south-western New South Wales, Australia which carries an intriguing background. Lake Mungo situated about 760 km due west of Sydney and 90 km north of east Mildura. Between 25 000 and 45 000 years ago the lake covered 135 square kilometers and was about 10 meters deep. On its eastern side, sand dunes provided sheltered campsites by the lake shore. It was one of a series of freshwater lakes along Willandra Creek, which was then a major branch of the Lachlan River. Presently the main attraction of the Mungo National Park, Janesoceania.com described the landscape as being stark, silent, desolate and often eerie sand sparse only resurgent vegetation and the spiny hard pitted crinkled and fluted dunes and ridges can look like a moonscape. (Cited by K.K. Hirst, About.com) The lakes dried up around 14 000 years ago and are considered to be an extraordinarily rich source of fossils. The quality and quantity of evidence pertaining to the landforms, animal life and environmental conditions during the last ice age are of the highest calibre, in part due to the alkaline rather than acidic quality of the soils. Discovered in the 1960s, the site has been excavated by geomorphologists and archaeologists to establish both the chronological and geologic age and status of its deposits. The remains of extinct creatures such as; Tasmanian tigers, giant, short-faced kangaroos and a strange oxen-sized animal called a zygomaturus - have been found. Crucially, carbon dating has indicated that Aborigines inhabited the area 40 000 years ago, making it the site of the oldest known human occupation in Australia. These inhabitants benefited from the lake significantly. Freshwater shellfish and other aquatic fauna inhabited the lake, and many large trees grew around its margins; outlines of their branching roots have been fossilized and preserved by calcium carbonate. Waves driven by the westerly wind created a crescent-shaped sandy beach (a lunette) on the eastern lee shore. This dune consists of the Zanci, Arumpo, Mungo and ‘golgol’ units, named after local pastoral properties.   Inhabitants gathered mussels, Murray cod and golden perch from the lake compared to wallabies, rat kangaroos and emu eggs that they collected from their surroundings. The diet of the hunter-gatherers at Lake Mungo was varied and rich in protein. They ate the western native cat, the brown-haired wallaby, the hairy-nosed wombat and various other small animals and bird. Remains of these creatures have been found in ancient fireplaces, together with numerous broken emu shells. Their presence indicates that people were camping at Lake Mungo in the spring, when emu eggs hatch. In the heat of summer, people would have stayed close to the plentiful fresh water and shellfish of the lakes. In the cooler winter, they probably spread out away from the lakes onto the arid plains and hunted land animals, thus conserving the lake's food supplies for the harsh summers. Such a pattern of exploitation and seasonal movement is characteristic of Aborigines in arid regions, and was observed in the Willandra Lakes region in the nineteenth century. (Janeoceania.com) The number, size and species of fish remains in sites have been identified by comparing their otoliths, or ear bones, with those of modern fish in the same region. Seventy per cent of fish caught in the Pleistocene Willandra Lakes were golden perch (Petroplites ambiguus). The large numbers of perch at the sites, which dated between 22 000 and 26 000 BP and were each believed to result from a single event, from tightly restricted size ranges, which strongly suggests the use of gill nets at some sites and traps at others. Fishing with fixed gill nets is a highly selective process: it tends to catch fish of the same species and age. Nets were probably set at the time of a spring spawning run, when the fish migrate up the rivers in large numbers. Golden perch are difficult to catch by other means, such as spearing, lines or poisoning, and if such methods had been employed, there would be a far greater age range among the fish remains. The Willandra Lakes have provided evidence for the Pleistocene exploitation of a freshwater environment more than 40 000 years ago. As well as 'base' camps containing remains of many different creatures, 'dinnertime' camps have been found containing the remains of a lunch. One exhibit displayed probably the remains of a single meal eaten by a small group around 40 000 years ago. Another such site, on the Lake Tandou lunette, has only the remains of 500 yabbies, a small freshwater crayfish. This dinnertime camp dates to 30 000 years ago. And one Tandou site has been identified as a frog kill site! Prior to being declared a National Park in 1979 this land was part of Mungo sheep station, created when the Gol-Gol station was subdivided in the 1920s for returned soldiers. It was named by the Cameron Brothers after a picture they saw of St Mungo's Church in Scotland. The park still contains a 45-m woolshed, built by Chinese labor of local pine logs in 1869. There are other buildings, including a former homestead, relating to the sheep station. Squatters first arrived with their sheep in 1840. Considerable conflict ensued with the indigenous tribes - the ‘Barkindji’, ‘Ngiyampaa’ and ‘Mutthi Mutthi’, descendants of the area's ancient inhabitants. However, many were decimated by European diseases and forced to live on a mission at ‘Balranald’. Today they are involved in the management of the park and their wishes concerning the handling of their dead ancestors are now respected. Research carried out by Jim Bowler, a geomorphologist from the Australian National University in 1968 confirmed that Willandra Lakes have been dry from an estimated 14, 000 years and once had a surface area of more than 1000 square kilometers. During the Pleistocene, (epoch) there were long periods when western New South Wales, and Australia as a whole, had much more standing water than occurs today, and the Willandra Lakes were full of water, mainly because of the much lower evaporation rate caused by lower temperatures. It is estimated that about 40 000 years ago prior to being completely dried the “upper Mungo aelion phase” began to take place. The “upper aelion phase” occurred when expanses of saline mud became exposed from both Lake Mungo and Lake Arumpo. The increased salinity in the lakes may have weakened fish causing them to be easier prey for campers. Following the aelion phase, periods of fluctuating water levels followed, marked by alternating phases of beach and clay dunes deposition now known as the Arumpo unit. Then, around 22 000 years ago, the 'Zanci drying phase' began - the lakes gradually dried, and Lake Mungo disappeared. The wind built up dunes of gypsum and saline clay on lee shores. Thereafter, water never again flowed into the Willandra Lakes, and people and animals moved to use the more permanent channels of the Murray Darling and other rivers as their new lifelines. Findings of ocher in the area, dating back 32 000 years, constitute the earliest evidence in the Pacific Basin of the deliberate selection of pigments. As there was no local source it has been presumed that the material was carried there for aesthetic purposes. Moreover, a 28 000-30 000-year-old burial site reveals that the body was covered in red ochre. A 26 000-year-old grave contains the earliest known human example of cremation. After the ritual incineration the bones were smashed and deposited in a hole by the pyre. These practices clearly suggest the presence of spiritual considerations. The elaborate ice age cremation of a young woman is possible the earliest evidence for this rite in the world, and shows not only complex ritual concepts and respect for the dead, but also respect for women. Women have always held an important place in Aboriginal society as gatherers of most of the staple food for the community. At Mungo, shellfish were clearly one of the most important foods, available all year round, and gathering shellfish was traditionally women's work. The archaeological evidence from the Willandra Lakes also reveals great cultural continuity in Aboriginal society from the Pleistocene to the present day. The ritual, symbolic and aesthetic concepts of modern Aboriginal society have their roots in the remote past. Methods of disposal of the dead such as cremation and inhumation have been used from earliest times right through to the ethnographic present. Not only is this complex culture found on the shores of Lake Mungo important in understanding the development of Homo sapiens in world prehistory, but it endows Aboriginal society with the dignity and respect it has often been denied. Convex flake tools made from local material dating back 20 000 years were also found, while sandstone grinders from 10 000 BP (before the present) or earlier suggest the inhabitants adapted to the arid conditions which later prevailed by grinding wild grass seeds, making them among the first people in the world to grind flour. The sandstone came from at least 100 km away, suggesting patterns of seasonal migration. A number of the finds indicate practices parallel with recent Tasmanian Aborigines. The artifacts recovered from the Willandra Lakes area presented Bowler with some ideas of the technological level that these Mungo people had attained. Very few bone tools have been found, but it is difficult to know whether this is because they were not present or because they have rotted away. Since the alkaline soils have preserved both large and small animal bones, it is unlikely that bone tools were numerous. Only three bone tools were found in the first decade of archaeological work at the Willandra Lakes. These are three pointed bone implements, all less than 10 cm long. Two were found at the site of one of the discovered skeletons, on the walls of China, and one on the Lake Mulurulu lunette. One has been worked to a sharp point at both ends. It is possible that such bipoints were used as lures to catch the large Murray cod, bones of which were found at the same grave site. In the nineteenth century, Aborigines often caught Murray cods by attaching a fishing line to the middle of a bipointed bone and then pulling it rapidly through the water so that the bone looked like a small darting fish. These bones lures, or fish gorges, were called 'muduk' by Aborigines at the Murray River. A remarkable find at Lake Mungo, 5 km northeast of the discovered skeletons, was a group of five fireplaces about 26 000 or more years old. The oldest fireplace was a typical Aboriginal oven - a shallow depression that was filled with ash and charcoal, with several lumps of baked clay on top. This oven was dated to 30 780 +- 520 BP. A surprise furnished by these fireplaces was the evidence they gave concerning ‘palaeomagnetism" the phenomenon of fossil magnetism of archaeological material such as baked earth and clay from ancient fireplaces. The first Australian evidence for deviations in the earth's magnetic field was found in the early 1970s. The research revealed that 30 000 years ago magnetic north had swung right round 120 degrees to the southeast. This magnetic 'reversal' or 'excursion' lasted for about 2500 years, after which the direction of magnetization reverted to normal again. This major magnetic reversal is now known as the Mungo excursion, and is one of the youngest and best-documented examples of such changes in polar magnetic direction. When such reversals in magnetism are found in other archaeological sites, they can be dated by comparison with the Mungo and other reversals. A series of ‘thermo luminescence’ dates has been done on baked clay in Aboriginal fireplaces at Mungo. The ‘thermo luminescence’ dates come out consistently older than the radiocarbon dates, and it appears that all radiocarbon dates on charcoal, at or earlier than about 30 000 BP. Dates on freshwater mussel shell are the most reliable, but finely disseminated charcoal is often contaminated by younger organic material moving down through the sandy sediments, giving younger radiocarbon ages than samples of shells in the same layer. Similar cooking methods seem to have persisted in Aboriginal society for over 30 000 years. Two types of Aboriginal fireplace were in use in the nineteenth century in the Willandra Lakes region: 'hearths', and 'ovens'. Hearths are small areas of blackened earth resulting from an open fire. They were probably used for roasting small animals and do not contain cooking stones. Ovens consist of a shallow depression or pit containing a band of ash and charcoal and cooking stones or lumps of baked clay. (Expeditions of Discovery, 1845) Among the stark residuals and shifting sands of the massive eroding dunes, Bowler came across the first exciting hint of early human presence at Mungo. Eroding out of a small hidden area in the upper part of the Mungo sediment, he found some stone artifacts and mussel shells bearing an encrustation of carbonate. The presence of large freshwater mussel shells in the dune and their association with artifacts is difficult to explain except by invoking human transport. Later in 1974 Bowler was examining an eroded area of the Mungo strategic deposit when the slanting rays of the late afternoon sun highlighted a small, white object protruding 2 cm above the surface. It was part of a human skull that heavy rain had made erode out of the lunette, and rapid excavation was essential because of the great fragility of the bones and the possibility of further rainstorms. Again, archaeologists from the Australian national University rushed to Mungo, and there was elation when excavation gradually revealed not just fragments of bone or a skull, but a whole skeleton. Excavation revealed a fully adult man, on his side in a shallow grave, with hands clasped. The bones and surrounding sand were stained pink; the pink colour, derived from ochre powder scattered over the corpse, clearly defined the size and shape of the grave. The burial lies within the lower Mungo sediments, and its age was estimated at about 30 000 years old. Research on this said skeletal revealed the most unusual tooth wear on his molars. Webb suggests these distinctive striations 'could be the result of the stripping of some sort of plant fiber with sharp inclusions (quartzose grains or phytoliths). Webb states that it is tempting to suggest that these were figures for fishing nets, baskets or dilly bags. this fits very well with the evidence describe below from the study of fish remains that people were using net to catch fish in Lake Mungo in that time period.  (Stephen Webb, ‘130 Wilandra Lakes hominids’) Estimated to be about fifty at the time of death, he had severe osteoarthritis in his right elbow, initially suggestive of 'spear-thrower elbow', but Webb concludes that his cause is uncertain, and it may have been an infection exacerbated by spar-throwing, with or without a spear-thrower. The skeleton had also lost his two lower canine teeth simultaneously when he was much younger. Another skeleton discovered also showed similar characteristics. This pattern of loss is most unusual and may indicate that the teeth were removed in the rite of tooth avulsion. Among Holocene Aborigines, including Tasmanian, the removal of two front teeth formed a common part of initiation rites of young men, but it was two top teeth rather than lower ones which were removed. If these are actually cases of tooth avulsion, in a slightly different form from that practiced more recently, this is the oldest instance of the practice anywhere in the world. It would also be further evidence for the great antiquity of Aboriginal religious beliefs. The significance for this ocher burial is that it shows that such burial rituals go back at least as far in Australia as in other parts of the world, such as France, where ocher burials have been found in Grimaldi Cave at a similar time. In fact, at Mungo, red pigment was in use even earlier, for lumps of ocher and stone artifacts were found deep below the ashes of a fire lit 32 000 years ago. As the ochre did not occur naturally at Mungo, it must have been deliberately carried there from some distance away. Similar lumps of pigment, some of them showing signs of use, have been found in Pleistocene levels in their widely separated sites, such as Kenniff Cave in Queensland, Cloggs Cave in Victoria, Miriwun and Devil's Lair in Western Australia, and several Arnhem Land rock-shelters. Ocher has no utilitarian functions, such as medicinal use; it is simply a pigment used (at least in the recent past) to decorate rock walls, artifacts, dancers' bodies in ceremonies, and corpses during some burial rites. Evidence from the Mungo documents the most distant dispersal in the world of Homo sapiens and their achievement in adapting so successfully to a freshwater but semiarid environment. One of the most remarkable finds is the evidence that sophisticated fishing methods employing nets and traps were used in Australia as long as 30,000 years ago. An important implication is that the people fishing at Lake Mungo had the knowledge to make cordage out of plant fibers by this time period. The use-wear on the molars of one of the skeleton dated to more than 30 000 years ago supports this view. It is not now too far-fetched to suggest that their ancestors may have brought knowledge of plaiting fibers into ropes, string and even large mats for sails with them when they crossed the water barriers of Wallacea into the Australian continent more than 60 000 years ago. The Mungo sites also provide early evidence of intellectual life. The deliberate transport and use of coloured pigment more than 40 000 years ago parallels its contemporary use in Europe, indicating very early development of an aesthetic sense. This was to flower into the rich decorative and ritual art for which Aboriginal Australia is renowned. In conclusion to this assignment, with all evidence brought forward, Lake Mungo holds extensive archaeological significance in World History. From research conducted, Lake Mungo hosts remains of some of the oldest known Homo sapiens. Presently, more than likely, more evidence is left to be uncovered that will aid in putting the pieces together to further describe or illustrate human life in that era. Works Cited Eyre, Edward, Expeditions of Discovery (1845), vol. 2, pg 289 Hirst, K.K. Lake Mungo (2011), retrieved from: http://archaeology.about.com/od/lterms/g/lake_mungo.htm Bowler, J.M., Magee J. (2000) Redating Australia's oldest human remains: A skeptic view. Journal of Human Evolution, vol. 38: pg 719-726. Life and death at Lake Mungo, (n.d), retrieved from: http://www.janesoceania.com/australia_aborigines_lifeanddeath_lakemungo/index1.htm Webb, S.G. (1989). ‘The Willandra Lakes Hominids’. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, Australian National University. Read More