Mungo Lady, the world's oldest cremation

In 1969 geologist Jim Bowler found the cremated remains of a young woman at Lake Mungo, NSW, about 40,000 years old: the oldest known ritual cremation on Earth.

1969 CE · -33.73, 143.07 · status: official

The account

Mungo Man, found in 1974, had been laid out and sprinkled with red ochre, among the oldest evidence of funerary ritual anywhere. After decades of campaigning by the Paakantyi, Ngiyampaa and Mutthi Mutthi peoples, Mungo Man was returned to country in 2017.

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Lake Mungo remains