Lake Mungo remains

The **Lake Mungo remains** are three sets of human fossils. They are **Lake Mungo 1** (*LM1*, or *Mungo Lady*), **Lake Mungo 2** (*LM2*), and **Lake Mungo 3** (*LM3*, or *Mungo Man*). The sites are located near Lake Mungo, in New South Wales, Australia, in the World Heritage-listed Willandra Lakes Region. Pieces of skeletons have been found in this region. These pieces have been attributed to over forty human skeletons. The Lake Mungo remains are the most significant of these.

## Mungo Lady (LM1) 
LM1 are the fossilised, cremated remains of a young woman. They were found in 1969 by James Bowler with the University of Melbourne. Radiocarbon dating of pieces of bone from the burial put LM1 between 24,700 and 19,030 years old. Charcoal from a hearth 15&nbsp;cm above the burial was dated at 26,250 years old (plus or minus 1,120 years). Reconstruction and study of the remains were mainly done by Alan Thorne at the Australian National University. The patterns of burn marks on the bones suggest that the body was first burned, then smashed, then burned a second time, before being buried.

Research published by Bowler in 2003 rejected previous estimates for all of remains at the site. Optical dating concluded that both LM1 and LM3 were buried around 40,000 years ago (plus or minus 2,000 years). This makes it the earliest evidence of human cremation that has been found. It suggests that ancient indigenous Australians in this region had their own complicated burial rituals. It is located 500&nbsp;m east of the LM1 site. The body was covered with red ochre, in the earliest known example of such a complicated and artistic burial practice. Like the cremation of LM1, this indicates that certain cultural traditions have existed on the Australian continent for much longer than previously thought.

### Description 
The skeleton was of a slender individual, quite different to the build of modern indigenous Australians. The skeleton was badly preserved: large pieces of the skull were missing, and most of the bones in the limbs were damaged. Usually, the gender of a  skeleton is determined using the bones in the skull and the pelvis. The problem is that these bones are in a very bad state in LM3, or they are missing altogether; in other words, the "normal" method of gender determination cannot be used with LM3. Since LM3 was discovered, other features were studied; most of these studies agree that LM3 was probably a male.

LM3 was buried lying on his back, with his hands joined together covering the groin. Some of the bones show evidence of osteoarthritis and eburnation, and the teeth are well worn. Based on this, it is likely that LM3 was quite old (around 50 years old) when he died. New studies show that, using the length of his limb bones, it is possible to estimate LM3's height at 196 centimetres (77&nbsp;inches or 6&nbsp;ft 5 in), unusually tall for an Aboriginal.

Later in the same year, research led by Alan Thorne gave a new estimate of 62,000 years old (plus or minus 6,000 years). This estimate was made by combining data from uranium-thorium dating, electron spin resonance dating and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the remains and the soil in the grave. This estimate was very controversial, and some of the techniques used to get this estimate were criticised. and that humans were present at Lake Mungo as early as 50,000 to 46,000 years ago.

## References
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