Bruno David, Russell Mullett, Nathan Wright, Birgitta Stephenson, Jeremy Ash, Joanna Fresløv, GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Matthew C. McDowell, Jerome Mialanes, Fiona Petchey, Lee J. Arnold, Ashleigh J. Rogers, Joe Crouch, Helen Green, Chris Urwin, Carney D. Matheson
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
In societies without writing, ethnographically known rituals have rarely been tracked back archaeologically more than a few hundred years. At the invitation of GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders, we undertook archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Australian Alps. In GunaiKurnai Country, caves were not used as residential places during the early colonial period (mid-nineteenth century CE), but as secluded retreats for the performance of rituals by Aboriginal medicine men and women known as ‘mulla-mullung’, as documented by ethnographers. Here we report the discovery of buried 11,000- and 12,000-year-old miniature fireplaces with protruding trimmed wooden artefacts made of Casuarina wood smeared with animal or human fat, matching the configuration and contents of GunaiKurnai ritual installations described in nineteenth-century ethnography. These findings represent 500 generations of cultural transmission of an ethnographically documented ritual practice that dates back to the end of the last ice age and that contains Australia’s oldest known wooden artefacts. Australian archaeological finds of 12,000-year-old fireplaces and artefacts match nineteenth-century GunaiKurnai ritual practices. They represent approximately 500 generations of cultural transmission of this ritual.
期刊介绍:
Nature Human Behaviour is a journal that focuses on publishing research of outstanding significance into any aspect of human behavior.The research can cover various areas such as psychological, biological, and social bases of human behavior.It also includes the study of origins, development, and disorders related to human behavior.The primary aim of the journal is to increase the visibility of research in the field and enhance its societal reach and impact.