The Lake Mungo remains are three prominent sets of human remains that are 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). Lake Mungo is in New South Wales, Australia, specifically the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. Mungo woman (LM1) was discovered in 1968 and is one of the world's oldest known cremations. The remains known as Lake Mungo 2 (LM2) were recovered at the same time as LM1, and consist "...of approximately thirty small fragments, mostly of the cranium and vertebrae". The remains designated Mungo man (LM3) were discovered in 1974, and are dated to around 40,000 years old, the Pleistocene epoch, and are the oldest Homo sapiens (human) remains found on the Australian continent.
Geology
Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in south-eastern Australia, in the south-western portion of New South Wales. It is about 760 kilometres (470 mi) due west of Sydney and 90 kilometres (56 mi) north-east of Mildura, and 110 kilometres north-west of Balranald. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. Sediments at Lake Mungo have been deposited over more than 100,000 years. There are three distinct layers of sands and soil forming the Walls around the edge of the lake. The oldest is the reddish Gol Gol layer, formed between 100,000 and 120,000 years ago. The middle greyish layer is the Mungo layer, deposited between 50,000 and 25,000 years ago. The most recent is the pale brown Zanci layer, which was laid down mostly between 25,000 and 15,000 years ago. The Mungo layer, which was deposited during the last glacial period, is archaeologically the richest. Although this layer corresponds 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 and teeming with fish and waterbirds. It supported a significant human population and had abundant resources, as well as many varieties of Australian megafauna. During the last ice age period, the water level in the lake fell, and it became a salt lake. This made the soil alkaline, which helped to preserve the remains left behind.
Lake Mungo 1 (LM1) LM1 was discovered on July 15 1968, at the Willandra Lakes Region by Jim Bowler with the University of Melbourne. LM1 has been 14C dated at 24,700 to 19,030 years ago. A date of 26,250 ±1120 BP was achieved with charcoal from a hearth 15 cm above the burial. Preservation of the remains is poor. Very limited detailed information was published before the bones were unconditionally repatriated to the Indigenous people of Australia in 1992. A lack of a detailed description of the remains along with a limited distribution of casts with no access to the original material makes it difficult to assess the published material.
Cremation burial The reconstruction and description were mainly done by Alan Thorne at the Australian National University. LM1 was an early human inhabitant of the continent of Australia. Her remains are one of the oldest sets of anatomically modern human remains found in Australia. It represents one of the world's oldest known cremations. The finding implies that complicated burial rituals existed in early human societies. The bones of LM1 are thought to imply that after she died, the corpse was burned, then smashed, then burned a second time before being liberally covered with ochre, sourced from a location several hundred kilometres from the site.
Current status The bones were unconditionally repatriated in 1992 to the traditional owners, an alliance called the Three Traditional Tribal Groups (3TTG), consisting of the Paakantji, the Muthi Muthi, and the Ngiyampaa. LM1 had become a symbol of the long Aboriginal presence in Australia, and an important icon for both archaeologists and Indigenous Australians. LM1 was locked vault at the Mungo National Park exhibition centre. The vault had a double lock and could be opened only if two keys are used. One key was controlled by archaeologists, the other by the local Indigenous peoples. In late 2013, the NSW government, dismissed all management structures, leaving nothing in place to own or care for the remains. A new plan of management was delivered by a consultancy in early 2014, but there was no one to implement it. On 24 May 2022 Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were reburied. In a statement, Heritage NSW, which had custody of the remains, said the state government “did not authorise, conduct, or endorse the removal and subsequent burial of any remains on 24 May”.
Lake Mungo 3 (LM3)
Discovery Lake Mungo 3 (LM3) was discovered by ANU geomorphologist Jim Bowler on 26 February 1974 when shifting sand dunes exposed the remains. LM3 was found near Lake Mungo, one of several dry lakes in the southeast part of the continent and 500m east of the LM1 site. The body had been laid out in great ceremony on its back, with knees bent and hands positioned at the groin with the fingers interlocked. Next to the body were the remains of fire. The body had been sprinkled with red ochre, in the earliest known example of such a sophisticated and artistic burial practice. This ritual burial aspect of the discovery has been particularly significant to Aboriginal Australians, since it indicates that certain cultural traditions have existed on the Australian continent for much longer than previously thought. At the time of LM3's discovery, it was believed that Aboriginal peoples had arrived in Australia from Asia around 20,000 years ago. Since the discovery of LM3, further archeological finds at Lake Mungo suggest that human occupation of the area dates as far back as 46,000–50,000 years ago.
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