Narrabeen Man Case Study Answers

Narrabeen Man Information Report

In January 2005, contractors were excavating blocks of pavement to place electricity cables right at the corner of Ocean Street and Octavia Street, Narrabeen, NSW. The project was suspended due to an unanticipated discovery of a human skeleton buried underground, right beside a public bus shelter. The bones were in good state although some parts were missing. Fragments of primitive artefacts were also found around and inside the skeleton.

The skeleton had a hideous impact to the community and was predicted by local investigators to be reasonably modern. To get better understanding and avoid confusion, a bone sample was sent to a laboratory in the USA for investigation and analysation using series of scientific

But if the bowel¬ was pierced by a sharp instrument or the head injury is not completely fatal, the death could be very slow and painful. Dr McDonald said that Narrabeen Man is the oldest skeleton ever dated in the Sydney Basin.

Dr Denise Donion, a physical anthropologist confirmed that Narrabeen Man was an aboriginal man by looking at the base of his nose. She came to a conclusion that he was 183 cm tall by looking at his limb bones. This is a very uncommon height for an Aboriginal man as their average height is only 167 cm. “He was unusually tall,” she said.

There were plenty of wounds discovered in the bones of Narrabeen man, but the most significant was found in his lumbar vertebra, where what seem to be a spear tip was embedded. By this finding, a statement can be made that the spear (if there were any) passed through his abdomen from the front and the side and cause significant damage to the organs inside.

Dr Donion found out from the sample tests that the bones were influenced by a strong marine diet. Remains of a small fish bone were also found inside his belly, which was most likely to be his last meal before his death. These matching factors suggest that he lived his whole life in coastal areas. “Coastal dweller,” as she