Lake Mungo Information Report By Jemimah Hulme Introduction Lake Mungo is a dried up lake, located in the southwest of New South Wales. It is 90 kilometres west of Mildura, and 760 kilometres northeast of Sydney. It contains many historical artefacts which help us to understand how the Aboriginal People used to live. The purpose of this report is to illustrate Lake Mungo's importance and why it must be preserved. This report will cover Lake Mungo's history and historical findings, and how it can continue to be kept the way it is today. History of Lake Mungo Recent research and tests on bones suggest that Lake Mungo is at least 100,000 years old. The lake covered 135 square kilometres and was 10 metres deep. Although it was once home to the …show more content…
The most important ones would have to be Mungo Man and Mungo Lady. Mungo Lady was an Aboriginal woman, who died around 42,000 years ago. She was 18 when she passed away. She was obviously quite special to her family and friends, because she was burned, her bones were crushed, then she was burned again and buried. This process is known as cremation. Mungo Man was also Aboriginal, but he was 50 when he died. Unlike Mungo Lady, Mungo Man's whole body was buried and then covered in ochre. From scientist's study, we know that Mungo Man was quite unhealthy when he died. Both Mungo Man and Lady were found by Professor Jim Bowler, a geologist. Mungo Lady was found first in 1968 he was investigating the area, and saw what looked like burnt bones so he decided to bring in some archaeologists. The following year, two archaeologists investigated them and discovered a human jaw. Mungo Man was discovered one afternoon after heavy rain in 1974. Professor Bowler was riding his motorbike around the Lake Mungo region when he spotted something he hadn't seen before- something white poking out of the ground. When he looked closer he realised it was a human skull. He asked an anthropologist named Alan Thorne to help excavate the bones. It revealed an almost complete skeleton of an adult …show more content…
They are especially important to Aboriginals for obvious reasons- Lake Mungo is part of the Aboriginal people. They are connected to Mungo Lady and Mungo Man. These remains are also important to scientists, historians, geologists and archaeologists, who, in many different ways piece together Australia's past. Last but not least, they are important to us. The discoveries made at Lake Mungo help piece together Australia's history- our own country's history! How can we protect Lake Mungo? Lake Mungo is most definitely worth protecting.It is part of our history. Lake Mungo holds many answers to mysteries of Australia's past. If we don't conserve it, it will be a great loss to the indigenous owners of this land. Lake Mungo faces many dangers. Fires, droughts, and other natural disasters could destroy Lake Mungo. Animals, like rabbits and goats wreck its unique landforms. Greedy businessmen are another danger, they could try to turn the land into a resort or something crazy just to make millions of dollars. This is why it is so crucial not to let anything happen to this amazing lake. We MUST preserve it. Some ways we could work towards this are: Creating a petition for people to sign Write letters, letters and more letters to the government on why our history needs to be kept the way it is
Sedimentary rock from the older Silurian Period is further from the river banks (Geological map of Victoria, 1973). Mudstone, inter-bedded shale and greywacke depositions indicate the Maribyrnong River may have previously taken a different shape, and younger sediments have replaced the older sediments in more recent geological periods.
Australia is a very unique place, along with our multiculturalism there is also a strong heritage surrounding us. At first thought of Australian heritage we think about such landmarks as Uluru, The Sydney harbour bridge and The Sydney opera house, The Great Barrier reef and other internationally recognised places. But our heritage goes much deeper than that; it is far more than outstanding icons. Along with these icons there are also unsung places like the old cattle stations, Aboriginal missions, migrant hostels, War memorials, our unique wetlands and the towns and cities we have built. Adding all of these things together, helps to tell the story of who we are and how we have shaped this land in the unique identity it has today.
It was commonly believed that early hominids left the jungle to live on the open plains of Africa. Called the Savannah Theory, it was strongly promoted by Professor Raymond Dart, after he gained recognition for discovering the Taung skull in 1925. The Taung skull was the first admitted link between man and ape, and Prof. Dart based his theory on the modern location of the discovered fossils. However, a report in 2000 by Marc Verhaegen claims that a savanna evolution is extremely improbable. Based on biological and physiological data, he tries to disprove the savanna theory and suggests that our evolution would more likely occur in a humid and wet setting than the dry heat of the grasslands.
On November 24, 1974, an American Anthropologist by the name of Donald Johanson and his research team, made a ground-breaking discovery that caused a mass dispute in human evolution. Dr. Johanson documented in his book, Lucy The Beginning Of Mankind, the discoveries he and his team have come across. Dr. Johanson and his team discovered a skeleton of a hominid, dated between 3.9 to 3 million years old (164). The hominid, which they referred to as Lucy, was discovered while surveying Hadar, in the Dafar region of Ethiopia (164-166). Lucy’s discovery, a 41% complete human ancestor caused a controversial alteration in the human origins. Lucy was the oldest human ancestor. During the following year, Johanson’s team discovered fossilized remains
The discovery of Lucy is our oldest and most complete human ancestor. She is less than 3.8 million years old hominid of Australopithecus afarensis, which was discovered in November 24, 1974 by Donald C. Johanson and Tom Gray in the Hadar region of Ethiopia.
Many discoveries have been made that give more and more clues to the history of life on earth. Paleontologists find artifacts throughout the world that not only answer many questions but also raise many new ones. A topic that is still a mystery today is the origin of man. Scientists often debate over where man originated from and who some of his prehistoric relatives were. Some people think that all men are related, and that there has been inter breeding between different groups of men. (I.e. the Neanderthals from Eurasia at some point bred with the homo sapiens of Africa.) Others believe that certain groups of men evolved in a completely different time period in a completely different place.
Thomas, David Hurst. "American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA thomasd@ amnh. Org For the past eight years, the phrase ‘Kennewick Man’has been close to the lips of most American archaeologists and." (2004). Web. http://www4.waspress.co.uk/journals/beforefarming/journal_20042/news/20042_08.pdf
In 1912 a man named Charles Dawson had claimed to discover skulls in the Piltdown quarry in Sussex, England. The remains, named the Piltdown man, were claimed to have been the “missing link.” He looked to be both human and ape, with the brow of Homo sapiens and a primitive jaw. As time went on and new remains were discovered, Piltdown man did not fit into the human family tree. In 1953, Piltdown man was finally proved to be a fake. Piltdown man had the skull from a medieval human, an Orangutan jaw, an elephant molar, hippopotamus tooth, and a canine tooth. These bones were not only from different species, but they were also treated to look ancient. Since then, other findings of artifacts and remains are given many methods of dating them and checking their authenticity. When anthropologists find ancient artifacts and remains they need to be sure that it is not modern and when remains are brought to them they must make sure that they are not fake.
The kind of attention that comes from discovering a fossil that may challenge pre-existing notions of human lineage is massive. When the findings were first published in “Nature” and “Science”, scientific journals, the news spread like wildfire and every news source from ABC to the BBC had the story covered. A discovery of this magnitude is highly important considering it can alter thoughts about the beginnings of the human line and cause an uproar in the science community in terms of the way human evolution is looked at. BBC News was one of the sources that covered this story when the discovery was made. Their primary article stated, “Scientists say it is the most important discovery in the search for the origins of humankind since the first Australopithecus ‘ape-man’ remains were found in Africa i...
...responsible for billions of dollars of the regions economy. The government is right in its decision to do anything within reason to help the revival and preservation of the Sound. I am an environmentalist and am very pro- nature and wildlife. I feel that if we as humans are destroying and polluting the Sound, it is our responsibility to join in the effort to restore it for generations of people and wildlife to come.
The Hornsby Shire is geographically located along the north shore, running down to the coast of Brookyln surrounding up to the area of Epping, Sydney, covering 6000 hectares of public bushland. According to the 2012 Hornsby Council Statistics there is currently a population of 165090. Through the findings of historical culture, markings and landmarks the current society has understood the large existence of Aboriginals on the land. This local tribe of Aboriginals are the: Guringai people. “The Aboriginal heritage of the Hornsby Shire Region was at least 15000 to 20000 years old by the time European Settlers arrived in 1788.” (Hornsby Shire Council, n.d.). The Hornsby Council shows a high respect for this significant group, displayed through the ‘acknowledgment of country’ prior to meetings and public functions and the upkeep of the Guringai peoples traditional heritage and the ways in which there is a conjunction of care and dedication between the Aboriginals and the non-aboriginals.
Humanity became fascinated with the idea of evolution with the work of Charles Darwin and the Scientific Revolution. People began hunting for fossils that would prove that man had an ape derived ancestry (Weiner, 1955). After various years of searching, a piece of physical evidence was found in England that was said to confirm the theory of evolution (Weiner, 1955).This confirmation came from Charles Dawson’s discoveries from 1908, that were announced publicly in 1912 (Thackeray, 2011). Dawson was believed to have found the fossil remains of the “missing link” between ape and human evolution, the reconstructed skull of Piltdown man (Augustine, 2006). The material was found in stratigraphical evidence and animal remains that were, at the time, adequate enough to confirm the antiquity of the remains (Weiner, 1955). In 1915, another specimen, Piltdown man II, was found further proving this theory (Augustine, 2006). However, this was merely a hoax proven by fluorine relative dating in 1953; the artifacts and bone fragments discovered turned out to be altered to fit the proposed scenario (Augustine, 2006). The skull found was actually composed of a human braincase that was younger than the complimentary orangutan lower jaw (Falk, 2011). Both sections of the skull had been stained to appear to be from the same person of the same age (Falk, 2011).The perpetrator of this act was never caught and there are many theories proposed for the motive of this hoax (Augustine, 2006). Many people have been taken into consideration for this crime, such as Chardin, Woodward, Hinton, and Dawson (Augustine, 2006). Nevertheless, the evidence that proves that Dawson is guilty of this crime against anthropology is quite substantial compared to the evidence...
Lucy was one important artifact studied from the Paleolithic Age. In 1964, she was found in a falling position by Donald Carl Johanson in Ethiopia, Africa. She is a hominid, or an early ancestor of man. Only 40% of her body parts were found, but she gave further evidence that mankind began in Africa. Specialized historians used carbon dating, a technique in which x-rays and CAT scans to measure the amount of carbon in an artifact to find the exact age of the object, to study Lucy and make conclusions about her. They found out
King, W., 1864. The reputed fossil man of the Neanderthal. Quarterly Review of Science 1, 88-97.