Pleistocene human remains from Australia: A living site and human cremation from Lake Mungo, western New South Wales

A recently discovered Pleistocene archaeological site at Lake Mungo, western N.S.W., is announced and described. This was found within the core of a lunette sand dune at a level dated to between 25,000 and 32,000 years B.P., and is thus the oldest archaeological site so far discovered in Australia. The stratigraphy and chronology are described, and a palaeo-environ-mental reconstruction is made. Within the site were stone tools, hearths, faunal remains and a human cremation. The Mungo typology changes little in south-eastern Australia until about 6,000 years ago, and the diet is similar to that recorded in the ethnographic record. The cremation was of a young adult female; the bones had been smashed after burning. Morphologically, the remains show some resemblances to Australian Aborigines, but there are also some palaeo-Australian features.