At the Lake Mungo site in Australia, the evidence for religion is compelling. A cremation and burial from about forty thousand years ago and a scattering of other human remains are evidence of rich ritual traditions. Other evidence from the site reminds us that Paleolithic societies, like modern human societies, underwent profound upheavals, many caused by the unpredictable climate changes of the most recent ice age. There were regular periods of aridity from the moment humans first arrived in the Willandra Lakes Region, perhaps fifty thousand years ago. About forty thousand years ago, aridity
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