The Finds

Canberra Times, 27th February 1992

Canberra Times, 19th March 1992

Here is the plain text from the above article:Ancient human bones found at an Aboriginal burial site uncovered recently near Cooma have been carbon dated at almost 7000 years. A kangaroo-tooth necklace - only the third necklace ever found in Australian Aboriginal archaeology - also was discovered at the site, along with hammer stones and bone implements.Confirmation of the find's antiquity by the Australian National University's radio-carbon dating laboratory this week made it by far the oldest burial site in south-eastern NSW, a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service archaeologist, Sue Feary, said yesterday."It's very unusual to find sites older than 5000 years because after this period much of the bone and organic matter has decayed beyond recognition," she said in a statement. "So we have been quite excited by the date of 7000 years, [which] places the site in a period that predates the arrival of the dingo on mainland Australia by some 2000 years and when the sea level was about 10 metres lower than it is now."The discovery will add to the understanding of Aboriginal culture, particuIarly_ with regard to how the early Aborigines dealt with death, said Eddie Foster, a spokesman for the Merrimans Local Aboriginal Land Council which is based at Wallaga Lake, on the South Coast."The Cooma site confirms that burial practices were spiritually motivated and were carried out with a large degree of ritual and ceremony," Mr Foster said. "Such discoveries are important in the education of our children, as well as the wider community, about the complexity and richness of Aboriginal culture well before the arrival of Europeans in Australia."The human remains will be returned to the land council within two months and be reburied at a ceremony conducted by the Aboriginal people of the South Coast.

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