Prehistoric Man at Lake Mungo, Australia, by 32,000 years BP

Abstract

ALTHOUGH abundant evidence exists for human occupation of Africa and Eurasia for tens of thousands of years, man has often been considered a late-comer to the Australian continent. Archaeological investigations in Australia are now providing evidence of man between twenty and thirty thousand years ago, and one source is the long transverse dunes (lunettes) surrounding many ancient lakes of inland south-eastern Australia. During the Late Pleistocene the fresh waters of the lakes attracted early man and the lunettes built up on their north-eastern shores provided a favourable environment for preserving traces of occupation. Lake Mungo, one of a chain of lakes in south-western New South Wales, is now dry and its lunette is eroding and yielding ancient Aboriginal relics (Fig. 2).