IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v421y2003i6925d10.1038_nature01383.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia

Author

Listed:
  • James M. Bowler

    (University of Melbourne)

  • Harvey Johnston

    (NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service)

  • Jon M. Olley

    (CSIRO Land & Water)

  • John R. Prescott

    (University of Adelaide)

  • Richard G. Roberts

    (University of Wollongong)

  • Wilfred Shawcross
  • Nigel A. Spooner

    (Australian National University
    DSTO)

Abstract

Australia's oldest human remains, found at Lake Mungo, include the world's oldest ritual ochre burial (Mungo III)1 and the first recorded cremation (Mungo I)2. Until now, the importance of these finds has been constrained by limited chronologies and palaeoenvironmental information3. Mungo III, the source of the world's oldest human mitochondrial DNA4, has been variously estimated at 30 thousand years (kyr) old1, 42–45 kyr old5,6 and 62 ± 6 kyr old7,8, while radiocarbon estimates placed the Mungo I cremation near 20–26 kyr ago2,9,10. Here we report a new series of 25 optical ages showing that both burials occurred at 40 ± 2 kyr ago and that humans were present at Lake Mungo by 50–46 kyr ago, synchronously with, or soon after, initial occupation of northern11,12 and western Australia13. Stratigraphic evidence indicates fluctuations between lake-full and drier conditions from 50 to 40 kyr ago, simultaneously with increased dust deposition, human arrival and continent-wide extinction of the megafauna14,15. This was followed by sustained aridity between 40 and 30 kyr ago. This new chronology corrects previous estimates for human burials at this important site and provides a new picture of Homo sapiens adapting to deteriorating climate in the world's driest inhabited continent.

Suggested Citation

  • James M. Bowler & Harvey Johnston & Jon M. Olley & John R. Prescott & Richard G. Roberts & Wilfred Shawcross & Nigel A. Spooner, 2003. "New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia," Nature, Nature, vol. 421(6925), pages 837-840, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:421:y:2003:i:6925:d:10.1038_nature01383
    DOI: 10.1038/nature01383
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01383
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature01383?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Julian Gorman & Diane Pearson & Penelope Wurm, 2020. "Old Ways, New Ways—Scaling Up from Customary Use of Plant Products to Commercial Harvest Taking a Multifunctional, Landscape Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(5), pages 1-20, May.
    2. Riccardo Scalenghe & Ottorino-Luca Pantani, 2019. "Connecting Existing Cemeteries Saving Good Soils (for Livings)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-13, December.
    3. David S. Jones, 2023. "Bonan Youang and Terrinalum: The Ethnogeology of Ballaarat’s Living Landscape," Geographies, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-18, February.
    4. Julian Gorman & Gretchen Ennis & Penelope Wurm & Melissa Bentivoglio & Chris Brady, 2023. "Aboriginal Community Views about a Native Plant-Based Enterprise Development in Northern Australia," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-16, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:421:y:2003:i:6925:d:10.1038_nature01383. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.