Discovery Lake Mungo 3 (LM3) was discovered by
ANU geomorphologist Jim Bowler on 26 February 1974 when shifting sand dunes exposed the remains. LM3 was found near Lake Mungo, one of several dry lakes in the southeast part of the continent and 500m east of the LM1 site. The body had been laid out in great ceremony on its back, with knees bent and hands positioned at the groin with the fingers interlocked. Next to the body were the remains of fire. The body had been sprinkled with red
ochre, in the earliest known example of such a sophisticated and artistic burial practice. This ritual burial aspect of the discovery has been particularly significant to
Aboriginal Australians, since it indicates that certain cultural traditions have existed on the Australian continent for much longer than previously thought. At the time of LM3's discovery, it was believed that Aboriginal peoples had arrived in Australia from Asia around 20,000 years ago. Since the discovery of LM3, further archeological finds at Lake Mungo suggest that human occupation of the area dates as far back as 46,000–50,000 years ago.
Morphology The skeleton had belonged to an individual who, based on evidence of
osteoarthritis in the
lumbar vertebrae,
eburnation, and severe wear on the teeth with pulp exposure, was about 50 years old when he died. A subsequent study using the length of limb bones to estimate LM3's height, suggests a height of 170 centimetres (67 inches or 5 ft 7 in), an above-average height for modern Aboriginal males, but shorter than many Pleistocene Australian males. Later Thorne et al. (1999), arrived at a new estimate of 62,000 ± 6,000 years. This estimate was determined by combining data from
uranium-thorium dating, electron spin resonance dating and
optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of the remains and the immediately surrounding soil. However, this estimate was very controversial. The lowest level of the LM3 which are as old as 43,000 years demonstrated that LM3 should not be older than the lowest layer. However, the ANU team had dated the stratum itself to be between 59,000 and 63,000 years old. The problems with using uranium-thorium dating on
tooth enamel were criticised. The results from 25 additional OSL tests suggest that LM3 can not be older than 50,000 years BP. According to anthropologist
Peter Brown, with the absence of the original deposit that once lay above the burial, a minimum age for the burial has not been established, only a possible maximum. In 2003, Professor Bowler led a project bringing together a multi-disciplinary team of Australian expert groups (comprising four Australian universities, the
NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service and the
CSIRO, as well as including descendants of the Mungo people) to collaborate on a final determination of the skeleton's age. They reached a consensus that LM3 is about 40,000 years old. This age largely corresponds with stratigraphic evidence using four different dating methods. The age of 40,000 years is currently the most widely accepted age for the LM3, making LM3 the second oldest modern human fossil east of India. The study also found that LM1 was a similar age to LM3, and not 30,000 years old, as previously thought. The LM1 remains are generally held to be the earliest evidence of human cremation yet discovered. The current mainstream thinking, the
recent African origin of modern humans model, suggests that all humans outside of Africa alive today descended from a small group which left Africa at a specific time, currently generally estimated at about 60,000 years ago. This estimate of 60,000 years is arrived at from the recent breakthrough of widespread genetic investigation. In the model, humans then fairly quickly spread over the whole globe, from that starting point or bottleneck. This explains the controversy of Thorne and other's older dates for LM3 - the establishment of (fully modern) human settlements in the different continents, could have happened only after (although perhaps remarkably shortly after) the
exodus of the original (perhaps remarkably small) group of humans who left Africa via the middle-East.
Mitochondrial DNA and origins In 2001,
mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from the Lake Mungo 3 (LM3) skeleton was published and compared with several other sequences. It was found to have more than the expected number of sequence differences when compared to European human DNA (
CRS). Comparison of the mitochondrial DNA with that of ancient and modern Aboriginal peoples led to the conclusion that Mungo Man fell outside the range of genetic variation seen in Australian Aboriginal people, and was used to support the
multiregional origin of modern humans hypothesis. These results proved politically controversial, and several scientific concerns were raised over the validity of the results and analysis. With the consent of the Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area Aboriginal Elders Committee, a reanalysis was performed on the sequences derived from the 2001 study. The 2016 report of this study stated that the sequence for LM3 could have been contaminated with mtDNA of modern European origin, and it was uncertain if any of the DNA analysed in the 2001 study was
ancient DNA. The authors did recover ancient mtDNA from the Willandra Lakes skeleton WLH4 specimen, "estimated to be late Holocene in age (~3,000–500 y B.P.)" and determined it to be of
haplogroup S2, of Aboriginal origin.
Return On discovery in 1974, LM3 was removed from the site by archaeologists to the
Australian National University in
Canberra for safe-keeping and research. In 2014, leading up to the 40th anniversary of the discovery of LM3, the traditional owners of the Willandra Lakes formally requested return and repatriation of the remains. In 2015 ANU handed the remains over to
Aboriginal elders at a formal ceremony and expressed "sincere regret" for their removal, recognising this had caused "ongoing grief" to Aboriginal communities. As an interim step, the skeleton was placed for safekeeping at the
National Museum of Australia's human remains storage facility. Proposals had been ongoing for a facility to be built at Lake Mungo as a "keeping-place" that would allow the ancient remains to be returned to the earth while still allowing access for bona fide research. In November 2017 the remains were returned to Lake Mungo. There had been no agreement or funding by government for a keeping-place, and the remains were placed in a casket of ancient
red gum and stored at an undisclosed location, along with 104 other fossilized individuals, until a final resting place could be decided upon.
Oral historian Louise Darmody was commissioned by the
State Library of New South Wales to record interviews with 12 people involved in the repatriation process. These included
Paakantji,
Ngiyampaa and
Muthi Muthi people recognised as the
traditional owners of Mungo National Park. Also interviewed were Professor Jim Bowler and other scientists associated with the 1974 discovery and subsequent research. All these were added to the Library's Indigenous Collecting Strategy and can be heard and transcribed through the Amplify website. On 24 May 2022 LM3 was reburied, along with LM1. The burial went ahead despite an eleventh-hour legal challenge from traditional owners, and contradicting expectations that burial would be delayed until an incoming federal minister assessed the application. Traditional owners expressed outrage, with Mutthi Mutthi man Jason Kelly calling it "disrespectful" and a "desecration," while Paakantyi man Michael Young described it as a "criminal act against Indigenous people." They demanded an investigation into how the burial proceeded despite their legal filing and called for disclosure of the secret burial location, in order to provide culturally appropriate memorials. ==Further discoveries==