Melbourne, We often hear that Aboriginal people have existed in Australia for 65,000 years, “the oldest living cultures in the world.” But what does this mean, given that every living people on Earth has an ancestry stretching back to the dawn of time?
Our new discoveries, announced today in the scientific journal Nature Human Behavior, shed new light on this question.
Under the direction of GunaiKurnai elders, archaeologists from GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and Monash University excavated Cloggs Cave near Buchan, in the foothills of the highlands near the Snowy River in East Gippsland, Victoria.Lo What we found was extraordinary. Under the dim, dim light deep in the cave, buried under layers of ash and silt, the tip of the trowel revealed two unusual chimneys. Each of them contained a single sawed-off stick associated with a small spot of ash.
A sequence of 69 radiocarbon dates, including those of wooden filaments from the sticks, date one of the chimneys to 11,000 years ago, and the deeper of the two to 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Comparison of the observed physical characteristics of the chimneys with the 19th century GunaiKurnai ethnographic records shows that this type of chimney has been in continuous use for at least 12,000 years.Enigmatic grease-smeared sticks
These were not just any chimneys: the upper one was the size of the palm of a human hand.
A stick protruded from the center, with one slightly burned end still stuck in the middle of the ashes of the fire. The fire did not last long and did not reach significant heat. No food remains were found associated with the chimney. Two small twigs that once grew from the stick had been cut off, so the stem was now straight and smooth.
We performed microscopic and biochemical analyzes on the stick, demonstrating that it had come into contact with animal fat. Parts of the rod were covered in lipids, fatty acids that cannot dissolve in water and can therefore remain on objects for long periods of time.
The decorations and arrangement of the stick, the small size of the fire, the absence of food remains, and the presence of grease smeared on the stick suggest that the fireplace was used for more than just cooking. The stick came from a casuarina tree, a Holm oak. The branch had been broken and cut when it was green. We know this from the extended fibers at the broken end. The stick was never removed from the fire during use; We found it where it was placed.
A second miniature chimney a little further down the excavation also had a single branch emanating from it, this one with an angled rear end like that of a throwing stick, and with five small twigs trimmed flush with the stem. It had keratin-like fragments of faunal tissue on its surface; It had also come into contact with grease.
The role of these fireplaces in ritual. Local ethnography from the 19th century has good descriptions of these types of fireplaces, so we know that they were made for ritual practices performed by mulla-mullung, powerful GunaiKurnai healers.
Alfred Howitt, a pioneering government geologist and ethnographer, wrote in 1887: Kurnai's practice is to fasten the article [something that belonged to the victim] to the end of a throwing stick, together with some eagle falcon feathers and some human fat or kangaroo
The throwing stick is then stuck inclined into the ground before the fire and, of course, placed in such a position that it gradually falls. The magician has been during this time chanting his spell; As it is often expressed, “sing the name of the man,” and when the stick falls the spell is complete. The practice still exists. Howitt noted that those ritual sticks were made of Casuarina wood. Sometimes the stick imitated a throwing stick, with a hooked end. Never before has a miniature chimney with a single Casuarina stem trimmed and smeared with fat been found archaeologically.
500 generations
The miniature chimneys are the remarkably preserved remains of two ritual events dating back 500 generations. Nowhere else on Earth have archaeological expressions of a very specific cultural practice known through ethnography, but traceable back so far, been previously found. back.
The GunaiKurnai ancestors had transmitted very detailed and particular cultural knowledge and practice to the country for about 500 generations.
GunaiKurnai's eldest uncle, Russell Mullett, was at the site when the chimneys were excavated. When the first one was revealed, he was amazed: That he survived is simply amazing. He is telling us a story. He's been waiting here all this time for us to learn from him. Reminding us that we are a living culture still connected to our ancient past. It is a unique opportunity to read the memories of our Ancestors and share them with our community. What does it mean to be one of the oldest living cultures in the world? It means that despite millennia of cultural innovations, the Ancient Ancestors also continued to pass on cultural knowledge and knowledge, generation after generation, and have done so since the last Ice Age and beyond. (The conversation) GRS
GRS
Our new discoveries, announced today in the scientific journal Nature Human Behavior, shed new light on this question.
Under the direction of GunaiKurnai elders, archaeologists from GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and Monash University excavated Cloggs Cave near Buchan, in the foothills of the highlands near the Snowy River in East Gippsland, Victoria.Lo What we found was extraordinary. Under the dim, dim light deep in the cave, buried under layers of ash and silt, the tip of the trowel revealed two unusual chimneys. Each of them contained a single sawed-off stick associated with a small spot of ash.
A sequence of 69 radiocarbon dates, including those of wooden filaments from the sticks, date one of the chimneys to 11,000 years ago, and the deeper of the two to 12,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Comparison of the observed physical characteristics of the chimneys with the 19th century GunaiKurnai ethnographic records shows that this type of chimney has been in continuous use for at least 12,000 years.Enigmatic grease-smeared sticks
These were not just any chimneys: the upper one was the size of the palm of a human hand.
A stick protruded from the center, with one slightly burned end still stuck in the middle of the ashes of the fire. The fire did not last long and did not reach significant heat. No food remains were found associated with the chimney. Two small twigs that once grew from the stick had been cut off, so the stem was now straight and smooth.
We performed microscopic and biochemical analyzes on the stick, demonstrating that it had come into contact with animal fat. Parts of the rod were covered in lipids, fatty acids that cannot dissolve in water and can therefore remain on objects for long periods of time.
The decorations and arrangement of the stick, the small size of the fire, the absence of food remains, and the presence of grease smeared on the stick suggest that the fireplace was used for more than just cooking. The stick came from a casuarina tree, a Holm oak. The branch had been broken and cut when it was green. We know this from the extended fibers at the broken end. The stick was never removed from the fire during use; We found it where it was placed.
A second miniature chimney a little further down the excavation also had a single branch emanating from it, this one with an angled rear end like that of a throwing stick, and with five small twigs trimmed flush with the stem. It had keratin-like fragments of faunal tissue on its surface; It had also come into contact with grease.
The role of these fireplaces in ritual. Local ethnography from the 19th century has good descriptions of these types of fireplaces, so we know that they were made for ritual practices performed by mulla-mullung, powerful GunaiKurnai healers.
Alfred Howitt, a pioneering government geologist and ethnographer, wrote in 1887: Kurnai's practice is to fasten the article [something that belonged to the victim] to the end of a throwing stick, together with some eagle falcon feathers and some human fat or kangaroo
The throwing stick is then stuck inclined into the ground before the fire and, of course, placed in such a position that it gradually falls. The magician has been during this time chanting his spell; As it is often expressed, “sing the name of the man,” and when the stick falls the spell is complete. The practice still exists. Howitt noted that those ritual sticks were made of Casuarina wood. Sometimes the stick imitated a throwing stick, with a hooked end. Never before has a miniature chimney with a single Casuarina stem trimmed and smeared with fat been found archaeologically.
500 generations
The miniature chimneys are the remarkably preserved remains of two ritual events dating back 500 generations. Nowhere else on Earth have archaeological expressions of a very specific cultural practice known through ethnography, but traceable back so far, been previously found. back.
The GunaiKurnai ancestors had transmitted very detailed and particular cultural knowledge and practice to the country for about 500 generations.
GunaiKurnai's eldest uncle, Russell Mullett, was at the site when the chimneys were excavated. When the first one was revealed, he was amazed: That he survived is simply amazing. He is telling us a story. He's been waiting here all this time for us to learn from him. Reminding us that we are a living culture still connected to our ancient past. It is a unique opportunity to read the memories of our Ancestors and share them with our community. What does it mean to be one of the oldest living cultures in the world? It means that despite millennia of cultural innovations, the Ancient Ancestors also continued to pass on cultural knowledge and knowledge, generation after generation, and have done so since the last Ice Age and beyond. (The conversation) GRS
GRS
