Australia's oldest human remains, found at Lake Mungo, include the world's oldest ritual ochre burial (Mungo III) and the first recorded cremation (Mungo I). Until now, the importance of these finds has been constrained by limited chronologies and palaeoenvironmental information. Mungo III, the source of the world's oldest human mitochondrial DNA, has been variously estimated at 30 thousand years (kyr) old, 42-45 kyr old and 62 +/- 6 kyr old, while radiocarbon estimates placed the Mungo I cremation near 20-26 kyr ago. Here we report a new series of 25 optical ages showing that both burials occurred at 40 +/- 2 kyr ago and that humans were present at Lake Mungo by 50-46 kyr ago, synchronously with, or soon after, initial occupation of northern and western Australia. Stratigraphic evidence indicates fluctuations between lake-full and drier conditions from 50 to 40 kyr ago, simultaneously with increased dust deposition, human arrival and continent-wide extinction of the megafauna. This was followed by sustained aridity between 40 and 30 kyr ago. This new chronology corrects previous estimates for human burials at this important site and provides a new picture of Homo sapiens adapting to deteriorating climate in the world's driest inhabited continent.

The importance of attempting to reconstruct diet from a study of biological data from archaeological sites has been stressed by earlier workers, both in Britain and the United States. The present study is based on materials recovered from the excavation of a midden deposit at Galatea Bay, on an offshore island of the North Island of New Zealand, by Mr J. E. Terrell, whose complete report (No. 1) is to appear in the Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand. The site overlooks a sheltered area of sea from the mouth of a small and now dry valley (see pl. IX) and the excavation revealed an initial, specialized cooking area which was replaced by dumps of food waste and then abandoned. The most characteristic elements of the midden were marine shellfish valves and a much smaller quantity of vertebrate bones. However, the apparent frequency of the shellfish could not be taken as a sure guide to their importance over the vertebrate animals because the nature of the animals and their surviving evidence makes it impossible to directly compare them. Shellfish, though individually small, are found in large numbers and are thus best studied by means of estimating populations derived from samples. Vertebrate populations on the other hand can be measured by more direct means, though it must be recognized, as Mr Terrell points out, that such an excavation is itself only a sample. In his report Mr Terrell examined the effects of dehydration, size and sifting upon the shell samples and then compared the archaeological population with those of living shellfish, so enabling him to demonstrate the relative influence of natural and cultural causes on the archaeological population. These findings provide basic evidence which will be referred to during the course of the present paper.

This is a report on the uncompleted programme of field surveys and excavations of two large trenches, carried out by the author at Mungo between 1974 and 1980. The objective was to substantiate and develop the discoveries of 1969. Influences on the research design and methods, and a short history of ideas in Archaeology and their impact during the protracted study are given. The excavation results reveal an anomaly between the apparent stratigraphy and artefact deposits. This distribution of artefacts is tested by regression, which leads to the identification of micro topography within the Upper Mungo unit, not obvious from the stratigraphy. The reinterpretation is successfully tested by artefact conjoining. The micro topography is then shown to explain other observations on the faunal assemblage and stratigraphy. It is now possible to interpret the site as a specialised manufacturing area located on a part of the lake shore chosen for its local climatic conditions.

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