THE PROBLEM OF ANTIQUITY OF MAN IN AUSTRALIA 29 
shelter with great care. Palates and teeth of human skulls they 
discovered were examined by Dr. T. D. Campbell. 
Hale and Tindale cut a trench across the outcrops of five layers 
of consolidated sand and clay having a total thickness of about 
6 ft. 6 in.; these beds dip eastwards at a low angle, and they are 
overlain to the east by recent unconsolidated mud and silt. The 
first-found fossil skeleton was exposed by denudation in the upper- 
most consolidated layer. These and other human bones found at 
this site are heavily stained with iron oxide and considerably 
mineralized. 
In the top layer was the much fragmented skeleton of a child 
with a fairly complete skull, of which the authors give measure- 
ments and dioptrographic drawings. Dimensions of all teeth 
except the unerupted third molars are greater than the average 
recorded for Australian aborigines, the second incisor being equal 
to the maximum, but, as in the Talgai skull, the upper third molars 
are of less than average size. The estimated area of the palate is 
3,600 sq. mm., a size found only in exceptionally large Australian 
adult male skulls, but the teeth suggest a child 10-12 years old. The 
body had apparently been buried from the upper part of the bed 
in which it was found. In the next underlying bed were portions 
of a left maxilla, the right ramus of a lower jaw and three loose 
teeth. The teeth, which indicate a child about 12 years old, are 
large, and crenulation of the occlusal surface of the second and 
third molars is more marked than is usual in teeth of modern 
Australian aborigines. In the third bed from the surface were 
the greater part of the bones of the trunk and a skull fragment; 
this was a burial, apparently from the upper part of the upper- 
most bed. 
With the bones was evidence of occupation of the site—burnt 
stones, food debris, flakes of quartz and chert, and implements of 
chert and bone. Shells of a freshwater mussel are abundant; the 
shell is relatively thicker than that of Unio vittatus, which lives 
in the neighbouring lagoon, but otherwise resembles it, and Hale 
and Tindale gave this mussel specific rank with the name Unio 
(Hyridella) provittatus. 
The authors conclude that full discussion of the Tartanga 
remains must await detailed study ; that material at present avail- 
able suggests an early Australian race linking Talgai man with 
modern aborigines ; and that geological and physiographic features 
indicate at least some antiquity. 
Tindale (1941) suggested that the Tartangan may have 
resembled the Tasmanian aboriginal, but he brought forward no 
evidence to support this view; he adds that Tartangan man 
