LAKE MUNGO: The oldest human remains found in Australian were on Friday returned to the Outback desert that he roamed some 42,000 years ago in a ceremony celebrated by traditional owners.

The Ice Age Aborigine was dubbed Mungo Man after the dry salt Lake Mungo where he was found in 1974 in remote New South Wales state 750 kilometres west of Sydney.

He was studied in the national capital Canberra at the Australian National University, which handed him back to traditional owners two years ago and formally apologised for the pain caused by his removal.

Local Aborigines burnt eucalypt leaves is a traditional smoking ceremony to welcome the black hearse that carried his remains in a coffin.

Published in Dawn, November 18th, 2017