Murder mystery from 800 years ago finally solved as weapon revealed as Boomerang

Murder mystery from 800 years ago finally solved as weapon revealed as Boomerang

Mangalore Today News Network

Sep 24, 2016: An ancient murder mystery which has endured for more than 800 years has finally been cracked.

A skeleton unearthed two years ago with a long gash with its skull in Australia was killed by a boomerang, researchers believe.

 

Extensive investigation determined that the airborne weapon left the gaping wound from frontal bone down to the jaw.

It is thought that the man was between 25 and 35 when he died and had dined on crayfish and possum for his final meal, Live Science reports.

He had been carefully buried and was well-preserved when he was found on a riverbank in Toorale


An ancient murder mystery which has endured for more than 800 years has finally been cracked.

A skeleton unearthed two years ago with a long gash with its skull in Australia was killed by a boomerang, researchers believe.

Extensive investigation determined that the airborne weapon left the gaping wound from frontal bone down to the jaw.

It is thought that the man was between 25 and 35 when he died and had dined on crayfish and possum for his final meal, Live Science reports.

He had been carefully buried and was well-preserved when he was found on a riverbank in Toorale

 Experts from Griffith University then turned their attention to aboriginal tools such as stone axes - eventually settling on the boomerang as the most likely murder weapon.

Their research, to be published next month in the journal Antiquity, determined that the 6-inch wound was caused by the sharp wooden end of the flying boomerang.

It could be that a variety of other wounds meant Kaakutja died from blood loss, they added.

The boomerang in question is thought to be different from the traditional returning one and was bigger and sharper, often used for hunting.

Because there were no defensive wounds, the paper authors suggested he was killed in a surprise attack.

They wrote: "The nature and expression of trauma suggests that some edged weapons from traditional Aboriginal culture had the capacity to inflict injuries similar to those produced by edged metal weapons."

It is hoped the discovery will afford an insight into aboriginal conflict in the centuries before Europeans arrived in Australia.