Mungo Man Skeleton
The oldest remains of a modern human found anywhere in Australia are those belonging to a 42,000-year-old man who was found buried at Lake Mungo in the southwest.
Affectionately known as Mungo Man, he was found half a world away from Narwarla Gabarnmung in Australia's north. But what drove his people this far south?
The answer is climate. Today, Australia is home to five great deserts, but during the Ice Age Australia's grasslands and forests were drying up as seasonal rainfall levels plummeted.
By heading south, and reaching places like Lake Mungo which was a vast freshwater lake 42,000 years ago, Australia's nomadic hunter-gatherers threw themselves a life line.
Here at Lake Mungo archaeologists have found evidence of a thriving community of people that lived here: animal remains and fire hearths reveal they were surviving on wild game, plants, seeds, fish, and shellfish.
The fossil remains of Mungo Man also provide powerful evidence of what life was like at the lakeside.
Mungo Man's molar teeth have an extraordinary pattern of wear, and the severe angle of that wear suggests that, when alive, Mungo Man was repeatedly dragging plant fibers—perhaps those of a net—across his teeth.
Careful examination of his bones also reveals that Mungo Man had a painful condition in his right arm called Woomera Elbow.
A form of arthritis, Woomera Elbow is a severe inflammation associated with the repeated use of a spear-throwing device like an atlatl. This not only suggests that Mungo Man was skilled at spear throwing—perhaps it was how he caught fish—but his condition also connects him to present-day Aborigines who still use spear throwers.