Lake Mungo
The oldest ritual cremation in the world, on a dry lake bed in New South Wales.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 2 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 2 thousand years
- Era
- Late Pleistocene, Quaternary
Mungo Lady, dated to around 42,000 years ago, was cremated, her bones then crushed and burned again before burial — the earliest known ritual cremation. Mungo Man, of similar age, was laid out extended with hands crossed and covered in red ochre carried from over 200 kilometres away. Together they are among the oldest evidence of complex mortuary practice anywhere. The remains were returned to the Barkandji, Mutthi Mutthi and Ngiyampaa peoples and reburied.