A skull found on the banks of a river in rural Australia is believed to date from the 1600s and has challenged the view that Captain Cook was the first white person to set foot on the country’s east coast.
Carbon dating showed the skull belonged to a Caucasian male and had an 80 per cent chance of dating back to the 1600s, long before Captain Cook first reached Australia in 1770.
The tests were ordered by local police after the intact skull was found near Taree, a town about 200 miles north of Sydney. No other skeletal remains were found.
Dr Stewart Fallon, a carbon dating expert at the Australian National University, said the results were “fascinating” and showed the man was either from the mid-1600s or late 1700s – though probably the former.
However, experts said the results do not necessarily mean that a white man beat Captain Cook to Australia’s east coast.
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