Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

The Cohuna Skull

This skull was unearthed in 1925 by a plough on the northwest edge of Kow Swamp, southeast of Cohuna. Like the Talgai skull, the teeth and palate are much larger than the typical Aboriginal skull, or even the Talgai skull. The size and robustness of the Cohuna skull far exceeds that of the Talgai skull. Otherwise it is typically Aboriginal. The forehead has been flattened artificially.

The Cohuna skull was low, broad and elongated, had a cranial capacity of about 750-1250 ml, it had a median sagittal ridge and supraorbital ridges with postorbital constriction, receding frontal contour, occipital bun or torus and the cranial wall was thicker than usual in all parts of the skull and the nuchal area was extended for muscle attachment. The braincase was narrower than the zygomatic arch. The facial architecture was heavy with alveolar (maxilla) prognathism. It had no chin (mentum), a wide ramus and large jaw. The postcranial bones were thick and heavy, and the teeth were generally large.

http://www.canovan.com/HumanOrigin/kow/kowswamp.htm

Timeline of Burials

Links

• Cohuna & District Historical Society
• Cohuna map

Sources & Further reading