Kow Swamp

Abstract

Kow Swamp is the name given to the largest Late Pleistocene cemetery thus far found in Australia. Site excavations led by Alan Thorne in the late 1960s and early 1970s revealed skeletal material belonging to more than 40 individuals with ages ranging from infant to adult. All but one were male. The morphological character of the material presented an important challenge to existing evolutionary theories of human settlement in Australia. Amid controversy, in 1991, the collection was repatriated to Aboriginal people and subsequently reinterred. This period in Australian archaeology heralded significant shifts in disciplinary ethics to include respectful acknowledgement of Indigenous perspectives and authority where human skeletal material are concerned. Show more