Coobool Creek : a morphological and metrical analysis of the crania, mandibles and dentitions of a prehistoric Australian human population

Abstract

This monograph represents a continuation of the research in my PhD thesis, 'Coobool Creek: a prehistoric Australian hominid population', which was submitted to the Department of Prehistory, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University in 1982. My primary source of motivation for rewriting and expanding the original work was the absence of detailed descriptions for many of the 'classic' Australian hominid fossils. A profusion of words had been spoken, the occasional film produced, but comparatively little published. With the dearth of publications, several of these fossils have taken on mystical qualities which, at least from my own perspective, have little to do with reality. In its general form this monograph follows the original thesis. However, the reconstruction of additional materials from Coobool Creek, combined with my own altered outlook on aspects of methodology and interpretation, made rewriting sections of the primary work a priority. There is a greater reliance on graphical means of data description and much of the analyses and data are new. The sections in the thesis dealing with 'the mark of ancient Java' have been omitted. I am becoming increasingly sceptical about the osteological evidence for such a link and intend to pursue this issue in the future. In other respects the essential details of the conclusions I reached in 1 982 remain unaltered.