Archaeologist John Mulvaney (right) at Lake Mungo, 1974

In 1968 geologist Jim Bowler discovered human bones around the now dry Lake Mungo in southwestern New South Wales. The next year he returned with archaeologists John Mulvaney and Rhys Jones, and with assistance from colleagues at the Australian National University they determined the bones were of a female human. They named her Mungo Lady and discovered that she had been ritually buried. Five years later Bowler found more bones, these turned out to be the skeleton of a male who became known as Mungo Man.