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© 2013 Education Services Australia Ltd, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy,distribute and adapt this material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes, provided you retain all copyright notices and acknowledgements.

Investigation Kitfor the mystery of

Narrabeen Man

Student Investigator:

__________

© 2013 Education Services Australia Ltd, except where indicated otherwise. You may copy,distribute and adapt this material free of charge for non-commercial educational purposes, provided you retain all copyright notices and acknowledgements. 2

Task 1: Who was Narrabeen Man?

Reading:

In January 2005 a human skeleton was uncovered near a bus shelter in Narrabeen, north of Sydney. Contractors were digging a trench to install electricity cables when they made the gruesome discovery. At first it was thought the remains were modern so a sample of bone was sent to a laboratory in America for testing. The remains were dated to around 4000 years ago and identified as those of an Aboriginal man, 30 to 40 years of age and 183 centimetres tall.

More disturbing was the realisation that the man had probably died a slow and painful death. Five small, sharp bone points were found lodged in his spine and there was evidence on his skull of a serious head injury. Archaeologists concluded that this was no ordinary burial but a case of murder.

Task 2: What happened to Narrabeen Man?Your task is to examine the evidence surrounding the death of Narrabeen Man to discover what happened and why he died such a violent death.

1. Answer column 1 using the information you already have. Then develop questions in columns 2 and 3 that will help guide your investigation.

What do I already know? What do I need to know? How can I find out?Who was he?

Where and when did he live?

How and when was his body discovered?

How did he die?

What parts of his skeleton were damaged?


2. Make a list of new words and their meanings to help your investigation.

New words Meaning


Task 3: Where was Narrabeen Man discovered?

1. What does Narrabeen look like today?

Your task• Use Google Maps, Google Earth and Google Images to view the location where

Narrabeen Man was discovered in 2005.• Search for ‘Octavia Street and Ocean Street Narrabeen’.• Describe what the area looks like today.• Make sure you mention the main features of the area, such as roads, buildings,

vegetation and water.

Description of Narrabeen today

2. What did Narrabeen look like 4000 years ago?

Source A: Written, secondary source; journal article.The skeleton was found at 9.0 metres above the present sea level in sand containing some shell. At the time of death the body would have lain on the crest of a sand dune. Vegetation would have been limited to coast spinifex and grasses. Drifting sands and tiny pieces of shell would have been trapped around the body, just like the sand and shell fragments that were found near the ribcage and beneath the cranium (head) of the skeleton.

Analyses of Narrabeen Man’s bones indicate that his diet consisted mainly of marine foods, such as fish, shellfish, seaweed and sea birds. A number of small fish bones found in the vicinity of his stomach were probably the remains of his last meal. He probably lived near the sea throughout his whole life.

Adapted from: ‘The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia’ by McDonald, J, Donlon, D, Field, J, Fullagar, R, Brenner Coltrain, J, Mitchell, P. & Rawson, M, Antiquity, 2007, 81: 1-9.


Source B: Written, secondary source.At about the same time that Narrabeen man was killed there is other evidence that the sea level was about 1.5 metres higher than the present. This means that the sand spit on which the body was found must have been narrower. As water levels in Narrabeen Lagoon were also higher, the area of the lagoon would be greater. It probably functioned as an open salt water estuary [mouth of a river that meets the sea's tide] with regular tidal flushing. Vegetation on the dune and on the hills around the estuary was probably very similar to that seen in similar areas today.

Coastal rock platforms like Long Reef and Narrabeen Head were an important source of sea foods to Aboriginal people at the time of European settlement, but with a higher sea level these would have been less accessible to Narrabeen man. Perhaps fish were more important than shellfish.

Dr Peter Mitchell, Earth Scientist, Groundtruth Consulting, 2012.

Your task• Read the descriptions in Source A and Source B of what Narrabeen looked like

4000 years ago.• From your knowledge of the Gold Coast, and from research in books and the internet

what do coastal dunes look like today. What are the main features of this type of landscape? What type of vegetation grows there?

• Think about what the coastal landscape of Narrabeen would have looked like 4000 years ago compared to the way it looks today.

• Draw a sketch of what you think the landscape looked like when Narrabeen Man lived there 4000 years ago.


Task 4: How long ago did Narrabeen Man die?

Your task• Research these people and events in ancient times and match them with the dates

below.• Use a timeline to illustrate when these events took place.• Fill in the timeline provided, or use Dipity <h t t p : //ww w . d i p i t y . c o m / > to create an

electronic timeline.• Use symbols like the ones below to represent words if you don’t have enough space.

People and events in ancient times Dates for timeline

Narrabeen Man

Otzi the Iceman

Earliest evidence of Aboriginal people in Australia

Mesopotamian Cuneiform

Great Pyramid in Egypt

Mungo Lady and Mungo Man

• 50,000 BCE• 40,000 BCE• 3300 BCE• 3000 BCE• 2500 BCE• 2000 BCE

Source: © Bradley Wood


Sample timeline

NARRABEEN MAN OTZI THE ICEMAN

EARLIEST EVIDENCE OF ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN AUSTRALIA

MESOPOTAMIAN CUNEIFORM

GREAT PYRAMID OF EGYPT

MUNGO LADY AND MUNGO MAN

Source: © Bradley Wood


Task 5: What did the archaeologists find?

Exhibit 1

(ULNA)

Fig. 1Archaeological drawing showing the position of the skeleton and the sharp spear points when the body was discovered in 2005. Not all the bones of the skeleton were in the grave. (Adapted from McDonald 2007 by B. Wood).

Source: ‘The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia’ by McDonald, J, Donlon, D, Field, J, Fullagar, R, Brenner Coltrain, J, Mitchell, P. & Rawson, M, Antiquity, 2007, 81: 1-9.


Exhibit 2One of the sharp spear points lodged inNarrabeen Man’s spine.

Fig. 2

Exhibit 3A damaged vertebra where one of the sharp spear points was lodged.

Fig. 3

Exhibit 4The arrow shows damage to the skull probably caused by the impact of a small, sharp stone point found next to it. The dark area below is evidence that the body was partially burnt after death.

Fig. 4

Source: All images from ‘The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia’ by McDonald, J, Donlon, D, Field, J, Fullagar, R, Brenner Coltrain, J, Mitchell, P. & Rawson, M, Antiquity, 2007, 81: 1-9


Source: © Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Exhibit 5Forensic anthropologist Dr Denise Donlon with the bones of Narrabeen Man.

Fig. 5

Source: © Australian Broadcasting Corporation

‘Close-up of death spear showing resin compound and placement of artefacts found with skeleton of Narrabeen Man’.

h tt p : / / w ww.a b c. n e t.a u / c a t al y s t / f o r e n sic s /

Exhibit 6Reconstruction of a ‘death spear’ from the time of Narrabeen Man. It shows how the small, sharp pieces of stone were fixed to the shaft of the spear with resin.

Fig. 6


Task 6: What did the experts say?Expert 1: Dr Jo McDonald, archaeologist

Source: © Jo McDonald

Fig. 7

It doesn’t appear to be a burial at all. He certainly lookedas though he’d been flung on the ground. He had one arm across his neck and his head had been shifted off the top of his vertebral column. Most formal burials that you find in Australia are in particular postures and this certainly wasn’t one of them.

Death may have been swift if an artery was pierced by a spear or from a head injury caused by a blow to the head. Death may have been lingering if the bowel was pierced or if the head wounds were not instantly fatal.These are currently the oldest dated skeletal remains in theSydney Basin.

Extracts from Catalyst transcript “Narrabeen Man”, reproduced by permission of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and ABC Online. © 2008 ABC.

Expert 2: Dr Denise Donlon, physical anthropologist

Source: © Denise Donlon

Fig. 8

The shape of the base of the nose is Aboriginal, and of course the very large teeth and strong tooth ware indicate a traditional Aboriginal diet. I estimated from his limb bones that he was 183 centimetres tall, and this is very tall for an Aboriginal man. The average height for Aboriginal men was167 centimetres. He was unusually tall.

The most amazing wound was found in his lumbar vertebra [lower spine] and it was a spear tip embedded in the vertebra. It would have actually passed through his abdomen from the front and the side and would have caused immense damage to the abdominal cavity.

In the stomach region we found these tiny fish bones which must have been his last meal. It’s interesting because this is also consistent with analysis which was done of the bone which also showed he had a marine diet. This suggests he was a coastal dweller.



Expert 3: Allen Madden, Aboriginal Cultural and Educational Officer

Source: © Australian BroadcastingCorporation

Fig. 9

Even when we looked at this guy, this guy seemed to be very thick boned. He was very tall for Aboriginal people that were in this region and around the Ku-ring-gai Garrigal mob.

He hasn’t been initiated. If he was he would have his front two teeth removed or knocked out. And that was the initiation ritual around this area in the Sydney basin that a lot of the young boys went through to become men.

He must have done something very bad to the mobs here. What he did would only be speculation on my behalf, but the way the wounds are and what we see of him, it would have been something really bad.

The most common spear around this area was the fishing spear. You had ceremonial spears here, then you had hunting spears, for different animals that you hunted. There were different tips that would penetrate and couldn’t come outand that was the same with death spears. And I think this fella got the bloody lot of them.


Expert 4: Dr Paul Willis, ABCscience reporter

Source: © Australian BroadcastingCorporation

Fig. 10

Narrabeen Man has all of his upper front teeth and he’s thought to be thirty to forty years of age, so either he’s not from the local area or the practice of knocking out front teeth at initiation had not started 4000 years ago.

One spear entered from the front, cutting the intestines anda kidney and lodging in the spine. A second spear was thrown from behind and also lodged in the spine. A third spear bounced off the skull, and it was also hit with another sharp implement. Other artefacts suggest more spears were embedded in the body but they did not do any damage to the bones.

Death spears have got a central wooden shaft. A number of small sharp pieces of stone called ‘backed artefacts’ would have been stuck into resin at the top of the shaft. There could be a couple of dozen of these sharp stone pieces in the head of a death spear. Narrabeen man was the victim of at least three kinds of this spear.



Expert 5: Dr Richard Fullagar, archaeologist specialising in stone tools

Source: © Richard Fullagar

Fig. 11

The skeletal injuries, penetration depth [into the spine]and position of fragments in the grave indicate a minimum of three weapons, and probably more, were used in the slaying of the Narrabeen Man.

The Narrabeen artefacts provide the first Australian archaeological evidence of [these weapons] being used for fighting, payback killing or other human violence, as distinct from hunting animals.


Your task• Go back to the questions you asked at the beginning of the investigation.• Write them in the spaces in the left column. Add any other questions you would like

to answer.• Carefully examine the images of the discoveries and the information provided by the

experts.• Select the evidence that will answer your questions and write it in the column on the

right.

What do I need to know? Evidence

1

2

3

4


Task 7: What happened to Narrabeen Man?

Your task• Carefully examine the images of the discoveries and the information provided by the

experts.• Think about what you have discovered and discuss the information with other

students.• Do you agree with the interpretations of the experts? If so, why?• Do you disagree with the interpretations of the experts? If so, why?• Do you have your own interpretation of what happened to Narrabeen Man? If so,

write down your own interpretation and support it with evidence.

Interpretations Evidence to support interpretations


Task 8: Forensic report on the death of Narrabeen ManThe work done by historians and archaeologists is very much like the work of detectives and forensic investigators. They all examine sources of evidence and develop theories to solve mysteries about past events.

Your task• Use the form provided to write a forensic report on the death of Narrabeen Man.• Follow the tips below to help structure your report.• Your report should be about 300 words long.

How to write a forensic* reportYour report should include

1. Details of the event that took place – when it happened, where it happened, who was involved.

2. Description of what happened to the victim – position when discovered, injuries, associated artefacts.

3. The most likely explanation for what happened to the victim.4. Evidence to support your conclusion. Use evidence from experts – state their

opinions about what happened, how it happened and why it happened.5. Your conclusions. Your previous information must support your conclusions.

*forensic: scientific methods and techniques of analysis to investigate and report on a crime.


Forensic report on the death of Narrabeen Man

Investigator

Date of discovery

Estimated date of death

Location of deceased

Description of skeleton (position, injuries, associated artefacts)

Theory(you can have more than one theory)

Supporting evidence

Conclusions and recommendations


Documents

smcgc.weebly.comsmcgc.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/7/7/23773793/narrabeen_man_kit.docx · Web view2. Make a list of new words and their meanings to help your investigation