ngo et al 2004
2004
Ngo, Bernice, Joe Dortch and Judith Field (Department of Archaeology, University of Sydney)
Taphonomy of the Megafauna Accumulation at Lancefield Swamp, Victoria
Taphonomic analysis of the megafauna bone accumulation at Lancefield Swamp can test models for Late Pleistocene faunal extinction. If the bones represent an in situ waterhole death assemblage dated to the Last Glacial Maximum (30-19,000 BP), as argued previously, then extinction was likely due to climatic impacts, not human ones. If recent claims are correct, however, the bones were reworked by mass flow from a deposit dated 30-60,000 BP, and Lancefield does not falsify the human overkill model. In February 2004, excavation of test-pits next to old trenches in the swamp's Classic and Mayne sites enabled a taphonomic analysis of bones from across the swamp. Three test-pits were examined, K40, Van Huet and Peel.
