Abstract:
The Murray River Valley was one of the most densely occupied areas of inland Australia during the Holocene. Unlike other areas of Australia, the record of burials and human remains dominates archaeological narratives of this area’s Aboriginal experience. In this article, we review bioarchaeological evidence from the region. In addition to mortuary remains, also discussed in this article are evidence from human morphological variation, palaeopathology, and diet. While the valley is often treated as a single region, Aboriginal communities who lived along the Murray shared aspects of economic and cultural systems but also demonstrated diversity and local trajectories. Rather than a single grand narrative the valley’s bioarchaeological evidence shows variation which is the product of multiple local factors.
Keywords: mortuary practices, bioarchaeology, palaeopathology, morphological variation, Aboriginal burial places, southeastern Australia, stable isotope analysis, non-metric variation