Narrabeen Man is the name given to a 4,000-year-old skeleton of a tall Aboriginal Australian man found in

Narrabeen Narrabeen is a beachside suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Narrabeen is 23 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council and is ...

, a suburb of the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the en ...

region of Sydney, in January 2005.

Discovery and dating

The Narrabeen Man was found by contractors digging for electricity cables near the corners of Octavia Street and Ocean Street, Narrabeen. A

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal p ...

investigation was undertaken and bone samples were sent to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

to determine the age of the remains. Radiocarbon dating of the bone suggested an age of around 4,000 years for the skeleton. The Narrabeen man was suspected to be 30–40 years old when he died. This is recorded to be Sydney's oldest skeleton and is Australia's third oldest skeletal remains behind Mungo Man and Mungo Lady. An archaeological dig at the site revealed that Narrabeen Man was found in a posture unlike a tribal

ceremonial burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

. Rather than lying on his front with hands by the side or across the chest, the Narrabeen Man was on his side with one arm across his head. Further investigation of the skeletal remains revealed evidence of spear ends found embedded into his

vertebrae The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristi ...

and near other parts of the body. This indicated death by spearing and suggested to archaeologist Dr Jo McDonald that Narrabeen Man was perhaps the first physical evidence of

ritual murder Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more humans as part of a ritual, which is usually intended to please or appease deity, gods, a human ruler, an authoritative/priestly figure or spirits of veneration of the dead, dead ancestors or as ...

in Australia.

Weapons

The spear barbs found in the skeleton were most likely from what post-settlement Europeans sometimes called "death spears". Although they may have been used in ritual punishments, it seems likely the same type of spears were used for killing game, such as

kangaroo Kangaroos are four marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern ...

s. These spears have sharp flakes of stone, such as

silcrete Silcrete is an indurated (resists crumbling or powdering) soil duricrust formed when surface soil, sand, and gravel are cemented by dissolved silica. The formation of silcrete is similar to that of calcrete, formed by calcium carbonate, and ferr ...

and

quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica ( silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical ...

, embedded side by side into

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on n ...

along the head of the spear, creating a serrated edge behind the point. The pieces of rock tend to break free from the resin and remain in the flesh of the victim. Spear barbs like these date to the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...

period, and in Australia are referred to as "backed artefacts" meaning microliths or "bladelets" having retouched edges.

Physical description

Further examination revealed that Narrabeen Man was approximately , estimated from the length of his limbs, 30–40 years old. His height was above average for Aboriginal men at this time. It is also speculated that Narrabeen Man was not from a tribe from the greater Sydney region, as his two front teeth were not removed - in line with a regional initiation rite at the time of European settlement (unless the rite was introduced locally in more recent times than Narrabeen Man's demise).

Reasons for death

There is no conclusive evidence as to why he was killed. A Narrabeen cultural heritage officer, Allen Madden, suggested in 2008 that a ritualistic murder of this type represents the farthest extent of

tribal law A legal custom is the established pattern of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. A claim can be carried out in defense of "what has always been done and accepted by law". Customary law (also, consuetudina ...

, indicating that his offence, whatever it was, must have been serious. Narrabeen Man's remains are currently lying under care at Sydney University's Shellshear Museum.

References

{{Coord, -33.70886, 151.30229, format=dms, type:city_region:AU-NSW, display=title Sydney Archaeology of Australia Human remains (archaeological) 2005 archaeological discoveries