Lake Mungo Lake Mungo Lake Mungo is a dry lake located in south-eastern Australia, in the south-western portion of New South Wales. It is about 760 km due west of Sydney and 90 km north-east of Mildura. The lake is the central feature of Mungo National Park, and is one of seventeen lakes in the World Heritage listed Willandra Lakes Region. Many important archaeological findings have been made at the lake, most significantly the discovery of the remains of Mungo Man, the oldest human remains found in Australia, Mungo Woman, the oldest human remains in the world to be ritually cremated and
Lake Mungo inhabited. If it was inhabited 60 thousand years or over, it puts in question the theory that all civilizations derived from Africa. If, however, Mungo Man and Mungo Lady truly are evidence that Australia has only been inhabited for about 50,000 years, the theory of Africa is stronger than ever. This would put Mungo Man and Mungo Lady's civilization in the same time frame as other cultures that were just beginning to settle outside of Africa. The discovery of these remains is important to Archaeology because we discover the beginnings of cremation as a burial ritual and in addition we