Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Kow Swamp

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

  • 202 Accesses

Introduction

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, heralding a significant shift in the ethics of conducting archaeological research to include a greater involvement with Indigenous Australians.

Key Issues

Early Humans in Australia

As the largest group of Late Pleistocene fossils found in Australia, the Kow Swamp material substantially increased the body of evidence from which archaeologists and physical anthropologists could theorize about a range of complex issues such as the...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 5,499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Australian Archaeological Association. 1991. Code of ethics. Australian Archaeology 39: 129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowdler, A. 1992. Unquiet slumbers: the return of the Kow Swamp burials. Antiquity 66: 103-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths, T. 1996. Hunters and collectors: the antiquarian imagination in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (especially Chapter 4)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lahn, J. 2007. Finders keepers, losers weepers: a 'social history' of the Kow Swamp remains, in L. Smith (ed.) Cultural heritage: critical concepts in media and cultural studies.Volume 1: history and concepts: 361-410. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, R. 1984. Extinction threatens Australian anthropology. Science 225: 393-4.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBryde, I. 1992. The past as symbol of identity. Antiquity 66: 261-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meehan, B. 1984. Aboriginal skeletal remains. Australian Archaeology 19: 122-47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulvaney, D.J. 1991. Past regained, future lost: the Kow Swamp pleistocene burials. Antiquity 65: 12-21.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 2006. Reflections. Antiquity 80: 425-34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pardoe, C. 2006. Becoming Australian: evolutionary processes and biological variation from ancient to modern times. Before Farming 1: Article 4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tattersall, I., J.A. Van Couvering & E. Delson. 1985. The 'Ancestors' project: an expurgated history, in E. Delson (ed.) Ancestors: the hard evidence: 1-5. New York: Alan R. Liss.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorne, A.G. 1971. Mungo and Kow Swamp: morphological variation in Pleistocene Australians. Mankind 8: 85-9.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 1976, Morphological contrasts in Pleistocene Australians, in R.L. Kirk & A.G. Thorne (ed.) The origin of the Australians (Human Biology series 6, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies): 95-112 New Jersey: Humanities Press Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorne, A.G. & P.G. Macumber. 1972. Discoveries of late Pleistocene man at Kow Swamp, Australia. Nature 238: 316-9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turnbull, P. 2010. The Vermillion Accord and the significance of the history of the scientific procurement and use of indigenous Australian bodily remains, in P. Turnbull & M. Pickering (ed.) The long way home: the meaning and values of repatriation: 117-34. Oxford: Bergham Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb, S. 1987. Reburying Australian skeletons. Antiquity 61: 292-8.

    Google Scholar 

Further Reading

  • Angier, N. 1984. Burying bones of contention. Time, 10 September 1984, p. 49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, P. 1981. Artificial cranial deformation: a component in the variation in Pleistocene Australian Aboriginal crania. Archaeology in Oceania 16: 156-67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cribb, J. 1990. Return of remains may bury past. Weekend Australian, 28-29 July 1990, p. 1, 10.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, I. 1991. Notes for a code of ethics for Australian archaeologists working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage. Australian Archaeology 32: 61-4.

    Google Scholar 

  • Donlon, D. 1994. Aboriginal skeletal collections and research in physical anthropology: an historical perspective. Australian Archaeology 39: 73-82.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, T. 1984. Aborigines: now it is bone rights. The Bulletin, 21 August 1984, p. 26-8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fforde, C. 2002. Collection, repatriation and identity, in C. Fforde, J. Hubert & P. Turnbull (ed.) The dead and their possessions: repatriation in principle, policy and practice: 25-46. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hiscock, P. Archaeology of ancient Australia. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubert, J. 1992. Dry bones or living ancestors? Conflicting perceptions of life, death and the universe. International Journal of Cultural Property 1: 105-28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langford, R.F. 1983. Our heritage, your playground. Australian Archaeology 16: 1-6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Layton, R. (ed.). 1989. Conflict in the archaeology of living traditions. London: Unwin Hyman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mc Niven, I. & L. Russell. 2008. Towards a postcolonial archaeology of indigenous Australia, in R. Bentley, H. Maschner & C. Chippindale (ed.) Handbook of archaeological theories: 423-43. Lanham: AltaMira Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulvaney, D.J. 2011. Digging up a past. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, L. 2006. The uses of heritage. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, T. & M.L. Cupper. 2003. Late Glacial Maximum ages for robust humans at Kow Swamp, southern Australia. Journal of Human Evolution 45: 99-111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thorne, A.G. 1969. Preliminary comments on the Kow Swamp skeleton. Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies Newsletter 2: 6-7.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 1971. The racial affinities of the Australian Aborigines, in D.J. Mulvaney & J. Golson (ed.) Aboriginal man and environment in Australia: 316-25. Canberra: Australian National University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 1975. Kow Swamp and Lake Mungo: towards an osteology of early man in Australia. Unpublished PhD dissertation, Australian National University.

    Google Scholar 

  • - 1977. Separation or reconciliation? Biological clues to the development of Australian society, in J. Allen, J. Golson & R. Jones (ed.) Sunda and Sahul: prehistoric studies in Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia: 187-203. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Westway, M.C. & C.P. Groves. 2009. The mark of ancient Java is on none of them. Archaeology in Oceania 44: 84-95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, R.V.S. 1975. Stone artefacts from Kow Swamp, with notes on their excavation and environmental context. Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania 10: 161-80.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Julie Lahn

Authors
  1. Julie Lahn
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Lahn .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Claire Smith

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this entry

Cite this entry

Lahn, J. (2014). Kow Swamp. In: Smith, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_27

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_27

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0426-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0465-2

  • eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and Law

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation