Mobility and subsistence at the Willandra Lakes: a comparative analysis of femoral cross-sectional properties in the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton.

Introduction and backgroundThe Lake Mungo 3 skeleton (LM3; sometimes referred to asWillandra Lakes Hominid3,WLH3) wasdiscovered in 1974 erodingout of a Lake Mungo lunette in New South Wales, Australia (Bowlerand Thorne, 1976). The value of this burial was realized soon afterits discovery, when Bowler and Thorne (1976 : 138) noted that thisindividual “expands the morphological and cultural informationavailablefromtheearliestknownperiodofMan'soccupationof thecontinent.” LM3 has been described as a ‘gracile’ individual basedon a lightly built cranial morphology (Bowler and Thorne, 1976;Thorne et al., 1999). Nonetheless, Bowler and Thorne (1976)contend that LM3 is a male due to mandibular robustness, pelvicmorphology, and the way the skeleton was arranged in the grave(however, see Brown, 2000a). Postcranial analyses of LM3 providefurther support for this diagnosis (Durband et al., 2009).The LM3 burial is presently the oldest dated skeleton fromAustralia(Thorneetal.,1999;Bowleretal.,2003).Whileexactdatesfor this individual are still debated (Bowler and Thorne, 1976;Bowler, 1998; Thorne et al., 1999; Bowler and Magee, 2000;Gillespie and Roberts, 2000; Bowler et al., 2003), both Thorneet al. (1999) and Bowler et al. (2003) support the interment ofthis skeleton in Lower Mungo sediments. Thorne et al. (1999) placethe LM3 burial at 62.0 ± 6.0 ka (thousands of years ago) based on aseriesof datingtechniques, but theirresults have beencriticized onanumberoffronts(BowlerandMagee,2000;GillespieandRoberts,2000; though see Grun et al., 2000). Bowler and colleagues (2003)reported a series of 25 OSL dates that ﬁt within a previous set ofages published by Oyston (1996). This sequence of ages provides adate for the LM3 burial of approximately 42e43 ka (Bowler, 1998;Allen and O'Connell, 2003; Bowler et al., 2003).The Lower Mungostratigraphicunit (40e60 ka) is characterizedby an extensive deep-water phase for the Willandra Lakes system(Bowler,1998; Bowler et al., 2003; Allen and Holdaway, 2009). Thepresence of ﬁsh and shellﬁsh alongside human burials at LakeMungo indicates that lacustrine fauna were being exploited before40 ka by human groups (Bowler, 1998; Allen and O'Connell, 2003;Bowler et al., 2003). This high water phase allowed a stable lake-side ecosystem to develop (Bowler, 1998; Allen and Holdaway,2009). Small, dense vegetation as well as acacias colonized theinner lakeshore margins (Bowler, 1998). Archaeological evidencesupports the presence of human groups along the shorelines, withexcavations at the Willandra Lakes ﬁnding “the greatest density oflithic, bone and ﬁre remnants (…) on the lake-margin” (Bowler,1998:149;Shawcross, 1998). The prehistoric Willandra Lakesoffer a distinct contrast to the more arid conditions of modernsouthwestern New South Wales, Australia.Human remains canprovide an opportunity totestassumptionsgleanedfromthearchaeologyofaparticularsite.LM3isassumedtohave been buried during a full-lake phase of the Willandra Lakessystem (Brown, 2000b). The archaeological evidence from theLower Mungo unit provides evidence for relatively dense occupa-tion of the lake margins and near-lake areas during these full-lakephases (Bowler, 1998; Allen and O'Connell, 2003). This evidence