What is Kow Swamp archaeological site?
[[image:Kow Swamp1-Homo sapiens.jpg|thumb|right|Cast of Kow Swamp 1|220px]] The '''Kow Swamp archaeological site''' is on the eastern side of [[Kow Swamp]] in northern [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]]. A number of [[Pleistocene]] [[burial]]s have been found in a sand dune, known as a [[lunette]]. Archaeologist [[Alan Thorne]] dug up the skeletons of more than 22 people between 1968 and 1972.<ref>Thorne 1975, 1976; Thorne and Macumber 1972</ref> The discovery of human remains included skulls which appeared to be 'pre-sapiens', that is, earlier than modern man. Later studies did not confirm this.<ref>Brown P. 1981. Artificial cranial deformation: a component in the variation in Pleistocene Australian Aboriginal crania. ''Archaeology in Oceania'' '''16''':156-167.</ref><ref>Pardoe C. 1991. Competing paradigms and ancient human remains: the state of the discipline. ''Archaeology in Oceania'' '''26''':79-85.</ref> ==Locality== Kow Swamp is named for an Aboriginal word, ''Ghow'', from the [[Yorta Yorta]] language. It means white [[gypsum]] soil which is found in the area. Kow Swamp is now a lake used to store [[irrigation]] water. It is 15 kilometres in circumference and about 3 metres deep. It was once a low lying [[swamp]] which only filled when the [[Murray River]] was in flood or running at high levels.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.cohuna.org.au/attractions/kowswamp.htm |title=Kow Swamp, Cohuna & District Progress Association 2007 |access-date=2011-11-21 |archive-date=2011-10-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111005115004/http://www.cohuna.org.au/attractions/kowswamp.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> ==Discovery== Australian aborigines have lived at Kow Swamp. There are canoe trees where the bark has been taken from the tree to make a [[canoe]]. There are also middens, which are rubbish heaps with evidence of what people ate. Early European settlers described an Aboriginal ceremonial site on the north side of the swamp. In 1925 part of a skull was found on the west side of the swamp during digging wo