This Australian cave hid 25

Microscopic plant remains are revealing how GunaiKurnai ancestors used Cloggs Cave for ritual practices over thousands of years. People deliberately gathered whole grasses, carried them into the dark cave, and burned them in thin layers, leaving behind traces that may span 25,000 years. A standing stone erected around 2,000 years ago and other ritual objects strengthen the evidence that the cave was a long-lived spiritual site.

This Australian cave hid 25,000 years of ritual secrets. This Australian cave hid 25,000 years of ritual secrets Science News from research organizations This Australian cave hid 25,000 years of ritual secrets Burned grasses preserved in an Australian cave reveal ritual traditions that may stretch back an astonishing 25,000 years. Caves within their lands have long been linked to spiritual practices.

Accounts recorded in the 19th century, together with oral traditions, describe them as places where powerful learned women and men known as ‘mulla-mullung’, along with other spiritual practitioners, carried out rituals involving magic, healing, and cursing. Archaeological evidence now shows that one of these sites, Cloggs Cave, was used for such activities over an extraordinary span of roughly 25,000 years. "Here we show that the Old Ancestors selected whole grasses from the wider landscape and carried them into Cloggs Cave to spread out in thin layers and burn.

Over time, sediments covered these burnt layers, preserving each layer on top of another over thousands of years," said Dr Elle Grono, a postdoctoral researcher at the Australian National University and the corresponding author of a new study published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology.