Australia's oldest human remains: age of the Lake Mungo 3 skeleton

We have carried out a comprehensive ESR and U-series dating study on the La ke Mungo 3 (LM3) human skeleton. The isotopic Th/U and Pa/U ratios indicate that some minor uranium mobilization may have occurred in the past. Taking such effects into account, the best age estimate for the human skeleton is obtained through the combination of U-series and ESR analyses yielding 62, 000 +/- 6000 years. This age is in close agreement with OSL age estimates o n the sediment into which the skeleton was buried of 61,000 +/- 2000 years. Furthermore, we obtained a U-series age of 81,000 +/- 21,000 years for the calcitic matrix that was precipitated on the bones after burial. All age r esults are considerably older than the previously assumed age of LM3 and de monstrate the necessity for directly dating hominid remains. We conclude th at the Lake Mungo 3 burial documents the earliest known human presence on t he Australian continent. The age implies that people who were skeletally wi thin the range of the present Australian indigenous population colonized th e continent during or before oxygen isotope stage 4 (57,000-71,000 years). (C) 1999 Academic Press.