Lancefield Swamp is a highly significant archaeological site located in the town of Lancefield, 70 km north of Melbourne. It was discovered in 1843 when James Mayne, a well-digger, found giant bones from very large extinct animals now known as megafauna.
Map of Lancefield Swamp, after a plan by Matt Peel
Excavations using pumps only began in the 1970s. These excavations uncovered thousands of bones of giant kangaroos and other animals. Radiocarbon dates on charcoal found underneath the bones suggested that the bones were less than 26,000 years old.
Procoptodon, a giant kangaroo
These findings suggested that the animals died during the last ice age, 30-19,000 years ago, when the climate was cold and dry. This was well after Aboriginal people had arrived in the area, more than 40-45,000 years ago.
Diprotodon weighed about 3 tonnes
In the 1990s, two other bone deposits were excavated at Lancefield, both some 150 m east of the 1970s excavations. Excavators found broken bones lying in gravel, evidence for the bones being washed in by a stream or by a type of mud flow. In an area named the Mayne site, teeth from Diprotodon, the largest marsupial of all time, were dated to 30-60,000 years. The 1990s excavators argued that the Lancefield bones came from an ancient bone bed. If so, the true age of the bones was uncertain, and their presence at Lancefield did not prove climate was responsible for the extinctions after all.
The main aim of the 2004 excavations was to re-open the excavations in the original or “Classic” site and the “Mayne” site (see map) so that samples for dating could be collected and claims for water or mud transport of bones could be assessed. The 2004 excavations at Lancefield Swamp suggest that megafauna bones are in good condition and were not badly disturbed.
The Bone Bed
Analyses are continuing, but some preliminary comments can be made. Firstly, the area in the Classic Site contains few broken or damaged bones, and little gravel, as reported at the Mayne site. The bones are in the Classic Site are either complete or only broken into a few pieces. If they are broken, the broken pieces are still close together. The bones lie in a dense, interlocked pile. If these bones had been carried far by water, it would be hard to imagine these bones being deposited without other large objects like pebbles being deposited with them. But the deposit is mostly clay and silt, with a few quartz and laterite (buckshot) grains that could have washed in from the edges of the swamp under relatively calm conditions. The bones appear to be in good condition, showing little sign of abrasion.
Certainly Megafauna walked here.
A little further up the same road at S 37 16.808 E144 43.597 are some wonderful and associated examples of the art of chainsaw sculptures.
Diprotodon.
Procoptodon.
Bones.
Enjoy