20
February 2003
The human colonization of Australia: Dating early occupation sites at Lake Mungo
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| Cover: Mungo III excavation (J. M. Bowler & A. G. Thorne in The Origin of the Australians, 127Ð138; Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1976). Permission to use image kindly approved by the Three Traditional Tribal Groups (Elders Council) of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area. |
Hominid burials at Lake Mungo are key to understanding the peopling of Australia. The Mungo I cremation was dated at 26,000 years and the Mungo III burial at 30,000–43,000 years, but a recent estimate placed Mungo III at 62,000 years. With DNA data this prompted suggestions that Australia was first colonized before 'out of Africa' migrations. Now a comprehensive dating of the Mungo burials at 40,000 years, contemporaneous with climate change and loss of megafauna, casts doubt on such speculation.
New ages for human occupation and climatic change at
Lake Mungo, Australia
JAMES M. BOWLER, HARVEY JOHNSTON,
JON M. OLLEY, JOHN R. PRESCOTT, RICHARD G. ROBERTS, WILFRED SHAWCROSS & NIGEL
A. SPOONER
Nature 421, 837–840 (2003); doi:10.1038/nature01383
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