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As the interior of Australia gradually dried up between 30 000 - 20 0000 years ago, the people of Mungo had to increasingly depend on hunting methods other than fishing to survive. They had already developed a variety of stone and wooden tools - examples of which are displayed here. Fire was also to become one of the Aborigines' most useful hunting and gathering methods.
Along the western edge of the lake, silcrete ridges provided the raw material for stone tool production. Silcrete was an important source of stone in an area where few rocky outcrops existed. This stone material was quarried from its source then taken to campsites and made into a variety of multi-functional tools. The remains of some of these 'workshops' can still be seen around Mungo today.
As well as locally obtained material, stone of high quality had been traded into the Willandra region. Many imported stone implements such as axe heads crafted from green stone from Victoria have been found throughout the lakes area. Large slabs of sandstone were also carried into the area to be used for the important task of grinding and processing plant foodstuffs.
Razor sharp stone flakes and tools were useful for many day to day activites including cutting, scraping, and shaping with other wooden tools. Stone and wood were not the only form of tool technology used - fire held many uses for Aboriginal people. It was used for warmth, light, cooking, tool making, communicating and flushing out animals. Its use as a hunting strategy during 'burn offs' promoted new growth - enticing a flurry of wildlife activity.
The remains of tool making activities represent the main material left by the early cultures that once thrived there. Many other items of the past have not survived the thousands of years that separate us today.The durability of stone artefacts has ensured that a record of the past has remained. They have provided clues to understanding other aspects of an ancient culture.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
The raw material for most of the Lake Mungo toolkit is silcrete.
Silcretes are very hard layers of silica-enriched materials formed beneath the surface in soils, unconsolidated sediments, and permeable rocks. These materials range from silica-cemented sand and gravel to an amorphous matrix enriched with small silica particles. There is little agreement as to their classification and origin. A minimum silica (SiO2) content of 85 percent by weight has been proposed by Summerfield (1983) to distinguish silcretes from other duricrusts.
Although not restricted to arid regions, silcrete zones are found in many deserts, and they are most extensive and prominent topographic features in Australian deserts. Silcrete tends to form roughly horizontal, highly resistant layers generally less than 5 m thick. When exposed by erosion, silcrete forms highly resistant cap rocks of scarps ("breakaways" in Australia). These cap rocks resemble quartzite.
Many talus slopes and gravel plains in areas of exposed silcrete consist of silcrete fragments eroded from the cap rock. Buried silcrete layers thicker than 3 m are rare, and they are generally not laterally continuous over large areas.
Reference: Summerfield, M.A. 1983. Silcrete. In Chemical sediments and geomorphology, edited by A.S. Goudie and K. Pye. San Diego: Academic Press, pp. 59-92.
Display: Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
Text: The US Army Corps of Engineers Topographic Engineering Centre, at
http://www.tec.army.mil/research/products/desert_guide/lsmsheet/lssilc.htm
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
These are long blades crafted from silcrete
Although silcrete is not an ideal material for blades, having too much granularity, the tools made by the Lake Mungo people are beautifully and elegantly made, with a minimum of blows in an apparently effortless style.
Display: Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
This is a relation of a didjeridoo, about 60 cm in length, called an ulpirra, used as a magic charm for obtaining wives.
Note that the mouthpiece has been made with spinifex resin, which I have heard aborigines call "blackfella araldite".
Spinifex resin was a crucial ingredient in spear-making, as the head was often fastened onto the shaft using this resin.
A man would always carry at least one spear, and normally a clump of resin. In the evenings, repairs were carried out on spears and other utensils, and the resin was re-softened using the fire and some moisture.
Many species of spinifex are extremely resinous, to the extent that resin may drip down the stems and leaves on hot days, and large residual lumps of resin often may be seen at the bases of hummocks which have burned.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Text: Adapted from Wikipedia
Source: Display, Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
At an elementary stage in the development of blowing techniques, areophones sounded by vibrating, or 'buzzing' the lips inside a tube, may have been more widely distributed in Australia than at present.
Some evidence for this is to be found in the literature on central Australian groups. Spencer and Gillen (1899) refer to a 'rudimentary trumpet" (60cm. In length) called ilpirra or ulpirra.
This was used by Aboriginal men as a magic charm for obtaining wives. C.Strehlow (1908: 77 and Teil IV,p.15) shows illustrations of the tjurunga ulburu and the karakara, the latter used in an Aranda Itata, or public celebration in which women participated. T.G.H Strehlow (1947: 78-9) writes of a 'low toned wooden ulbura trumpet' used by southern Aranda people on the Finke River. The instrument is pictured representing the neck (rantja) of a venomous snake 'playfully "biting" a novice from another Aranda group' (picture facing p. 89). Eylmann (1908) refers to wooden and bamboo trumpets; and his illustrations include a 'Trompete der Waramunga', that is of a desert group in area C. (The southern part of the Northern Territory)
This mortar would have been used for grinding seeds and other food items.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Source: Display, Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
This mortar and pestle would have been used for grinding seeds and other food items.
Mortars and pestles were used for dry pounding and grinding of hard shelled seeds. The stone for this task had to be tough enough to withstand the pounding. The roots of mulga and mallee were also prepared using this process. They were peeled, roasted in ashes, pounded between stones and eaten. Grindstones were traded throughout the region. The stone for these grinding tools was transported from the Ivanhoe area.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Source and text: Display, Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
Mullers (a smaller hand held stone) and millstones (typically large, fairly flat "anvils") were used with water to process soft shelled seeds from plants and grasses. The surface of the stone was often pitted to make grinding easier, but the typical result of many hours of grinding was this very flat surface. Grindstones were essential for grinding seeds to make a dough for baking.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Source: Display, Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
I found this fragment of a millstone, apparently of very good quality sandstone, in the general area of the Walls of China. It was very thin indeed, possibly handed down from mother to daughter. It must have been a sad day when it broke. Stones of this size and quality have to be brought into the Lake Mungo area from elsewhere.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
This tool is most unusual, in that it has many facets, or flakes,
taken from it. Most tools at Lake Mungo are very simple, not because
the maker lacked skill, but because the "flint" or silex used was very
poor quality. They had only "silcrete" to work with.
Silcrete is a
very coarse material, rather like a very very hard sandstone, one in
which silica (SiO2) has enriched the rock so that it is very hard. It
is not possible to make fine tools with it, and it is not possible to
do the "retouch" of very fine flakes which are typical for fine work
in europe. Where the aborigines did have good silex/flint to work with, for
example in the north of Australia, they made tools which are the equal
of the best european tools.
You can see in this photo the very coarse nature of the material.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
This simple piece, what I think of as a "point", is much more typical of the sort of tools that were
made. The tool maker had one chance to make a usable tool, and there
was little possibility of further work to refine the shape.
It should be realised that all the stone in the area had to be brought
from twenty kilometres away on the western side of the lake. If you
find a stone, it was transported there 40 000 years ago by aborigines.
There is no local stone, apart from some very small pebbles on the
lake edge, of no use for tools, but which were sometimes used in the
making of a hearth.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Two photos of the same tool.
Many of the tools at Mungo are of this type - what I think of as a "point" or a "finger". The ones found which are very thin and elongated often have been broken off at the tip, as this one has.
I am puzzled as to what they were used for, and why, so often, the tip has been broken off, as though the point had been twisted to the point where it sheared off. There are so many that they must have provided a common and useful function.
A blunted point, and one with the point broken off. The subtriangular cross section of the tool on the right is very common in the Mungo toolkit.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Broken points.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Points of inferior stone.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
This is one of the very few examples I have come across at Lake Mungo of a reworked stone. When the point broke off, the toolmaker took off some flakes to make it usable again.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Point.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Broken point, of colourful but inferior material. Many of the tools show their origin as small or large pebbles, with the outer layers oxidised to a lighter or darker colour.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
A backed blade still embedded in the sand.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Scrapers.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
An eyewitness account
The following extract is an observation of an Aboriginal oven hearth being made in the last century.
"The native oven is made by digging a circular hole in the ground, of a size corresponding to the quantitity of food to be cooked. It is then lined with stones in the bottom (or clay balls where stones are unavailable), and a strong fire made over them so as to heat them thoroughly, and dry the hole. As soon as the stones are judged to be sufficiently hot, the fire is removed, and a few of the stones taken, and put inside the animal to be roasted if it be a large one. A few leaves or a handful of grass, are then sprinkled over the stones in the bottom of the oven, on which the animal is deposited, generally whole, with hot stones... laid on top of it. It is covered with grass, or leaves, and then thickly coated over with earth, which effectually prevents the heat from escaping."
Edward John Eyre, 1845.
Photo: The Australian National Portrait Gallery, http://www.portrait.gov.au/
On the 2009 trip I found more than a dozen hearths. They used to put stones or clay balls
(stone was very hard to get, twenty kilometres away on the other side
of the lake) in the bottom of a pit, get a decent fire going, then
take out the coals, line it with grass and leaves, put a few of the
stones inside the bird or animal, put hot stones on top of it, more
grass and leaves, then cover with more earth or clay, wait several
hours, then dig it up and have dinner.
This photo is of a hearth about 50 cm across which has used the clay balls. I found others
where they used poor quality stones, possibly from the lake edge, as
the lining of the hearth. They may also have brought bags of poor
stones from the other side of the lake just for hearths.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
This tool, possibly a point used to open mussels, was left beside the hearth above. It is to the far left of the photo above.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
This hearth had begun to be dispersed by water and wind. It seems to me that the weather breaks up the clay balls fairly quickly into smaller pieces, after exposure to the elements.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Parts of the lunette are being very actively eroded, especially by water. Note the small bush which has been undermined, and is hanging down the sand face.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
At least the erosion exposes things such as these hearths in the sand face of the photo above, with their clay balls used to help cook game in earth ovens.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Occasionally the hearths were made of poor quality stone, useless for tool making, but better than clay balls for earth ovens, since they presumably retain more heat.
The stone in closeup on the right (to be found at the immediate foreground of the general shot on the left) is typical of the stones I found in earth ovens. They are usually blackened, often with the white deposit so obvious in this photograph.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Hearthstones were usually quite small, often no more than six or seven centimetres in their longest dimension.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2009
Burin of silcrete from Lake Mungo, about 7 cm across.
All silcrete on the "Walls of China" was carried there by aborigines from the western side of the lake. There is no silcrete available on the eastern side of Lake Mungo.
This tool would originally have had a sharp and narrow point for making holes in leather, which has broken off, and the tool was then thrown away.
The tools are elegantly made, with the minimum of flakes being removed, and no evidence of retouching. They have been made by master craftsmen with total control of the material.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Stone core and a whelk shell from the lake.
I can imagine the craftsman making tools from the core, and sucking the meat from the shell as he worked.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Probably a scraper, used in the initial preparation of hides by scraping off the fat on the inside of the skin. This is a beautiful piece of work, done with complete mastery of the admittedly poor material.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Probably a knife or a wide scraper, about 7 cm across.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
A core and what looks like burnt clay or termite mound from an ancient hearth.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Most likely a burin with the point broken off, or less likely a broken point used to open mussels. Note the oxidation bands still showing from the original pebble from which the tool was made, and the burnt clay from the hearth near which it was laid down.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
The burin above in situ, with apparently burnt, blackened stones and burnt clay.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Hearth in situ near the edge of the lake.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Midden of shells collected from the time when Lake Mungo was full of water. They look like they could have been opened and eaten just a few years ago.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Silcrete tool core in situ poking out from a vertical cut in the sediments. The scarcity of such objects compared with the relative abundance of tools and cores lying on the surface illustrates the effectiveness of the winnowing process of rain and wind in exposing the artefacts.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Silcrete core.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Silcrete blade.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Tools winnowed to the surface by wind and water.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Burin and one of the ubiquitous caterpillars!
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Shell from a midden looking as though it is only a year or two old - but it is tens of thousands of years since the lake had enough water to provide habitat for shells of this kind.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
A broken point, probably originally made to open mussel shells.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Point.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Tool.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
The burnt clay remains of a hearth.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
A tool left behind in a hearth.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
A tool left behind in a hearth.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Aborigines were quick to make use of better materials as they became available. After white contact, when glass bottles became available, but before steel knives were common, they made beautiful objects such as these knives from the superior material. Glass bottle bases provide a defect-free material which gives the skilled user complete control.
Display: Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
A well made blade.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Tools exposed on a crusted surface.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Multicoloured core.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Tetragon shaped tool, or part of one.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Silcrete pebble such as would have been used to make the tools.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Large silcrete pebble.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Large silcrete pebble.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
Field of silcrete pebbles.
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005
This photo shows a coolamon, or container, with a grinding stone. The coolamon contains seeds in this display.
The muller referred to on the label is the upper, hand-held grindstone, out of frame in this photo.
In the semi-arid to arid regions of Australia, seed-foods were a major food staple. Aboriginal women made flour from a range of different plant seeds, including those of native grasses, some trees, shrubs, succulents and even ferns. The flour made from these seeds was an extremely nutritious high-energy food that was of vital importance in regions where other more easily processed plant foods were not readily available.
Aboriginal women developed an intricate method of processing the seeds they gathered. Collected material was placed in a coolamon (elongated wooden dish) and skilfully rocked and flicked to separate material of different densities (such as leaves, twigs and sand) so the seeds were easily extracted. Seeds were then winnowed by being rubbed together in handfuls and dropped a short height over the coolamon to allow the fine outer husks to blow away. The seeds were then ground into a meal or flour using a millstone (lower grindstone) and muller (hand-held upper stone) set.
Text: From the Australian Museum website,
http://www.amonline.net.au/snapshots/arid/bakers.htm
Display: Lake Mungo NPWS interpretation centre
Photo: Don Hitchcock 2005