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Archaeologists in Australia have discovered evidence of an ancient indigenous ritual that has been practiced for over 500 generations.
Melbourne – Discoveries from the past can be extremely valuable. They provide information about how people behaved thousands of years ago. In Australia, experts have now found evidence of an indigenous ritual. This was apparently practiced continuously for 500 generations – from 12,000 years ago to the 19th century.
Archaeologists discover wooden artifacts in southeast Australia
Amazing discoveries have been made in a cave in the southeast of the country. Wooden artifacts dated to be between 11,000 and 12,000 years old were discovered. Bruno David, the author of the study from Monash University, explained in a press release: “Nowhere else on Earth has archaeological evidence for a very specific cultural practice been traced back so far before.” A significant historical discovery was also recently made in Austria.
The study results, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour published, shed light on the rich cultural heritage of the GunaiKurnai – an Australian Aboriginal nation that is one of the oldest living cultures in the world. The excavations took place at the invitation of the GunaiKurnai Aboriginal elders in Cloggs Cave in the state of Victoria.
Analysis showed that the discovery dates back to the last ice age
Two miniature fireplaces were discovered, each containing a single shaped stick made of casuarina wood. Chemical analysis of both sticks showed that they had been coated with animal or human fat and dated to around the last Ice Age.
However, the sticks, now considered to be Australia’s oldest known wooden artefacts, were not used for cooking or heating. They were apparently used for a special ritual by medicine men called a “mulla-mullung”, which was described by the ethnographer Alfred Howitt as early as the late 19th century.
Aboriginal ritual is said to have survived 500 generations – today it is no longer practiced
What did this ritual look like? According to Howitt, something belonging to a sick person was tied to the end of a throwing stick smeared with human or kangaroo fat. The throwing stick was then stuck into the ground at an angle and a fire was lit underneath. The Mulla-Mullung chanted the sick person’s name and when the stick fell, the spell was complete. Howitt also named the type of wood casuarina.
According to study author David, everything fits together: the sticks were easily burned using miniature fires, the type of wood was right and the fat on the sticks was right. The practice has therefore probably survived 500 generations. However, the ritual is no longer practiced by the Aborigines today. When white settlers came, the locals were driven from their land and this part of the culture was lost.
99 percent of the earth’s population was also lost: 800,000 years ago, almost all humans died out. (cgsc)
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