Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of an Indigenous ritual in Australia that appears to have been practiced continuously for 500 generations—from as far back as 12,000 years ago to the 19th century—a study has revealed.
Remarkable findings from a cave located in the southeast of the country represent what is likely the “oldest archaeological evidence” for a ritual that has also been documented by modern ethnographers, study author Bruno David of Monash University in Australia, told Newsweek. (Ethnography—a branch of anthropology that involves the study of cultures—did not truly emerge as a scientific discipline until the 18th-19th centuries.)
“Nowhere else on Earth has archaeological evidence of a very specific cultural practice previously been tracked so far back in time,” David said in a press release.
The latest discoveries, documented in a study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, shed light on the rich cultural heritage of the GunaiKurnai—an Aboriginal Australian nation that is one of the world’s oldest living cultures.
At the invitation of GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Elders, David and colleagues undertook archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave, located in Click here to read the rest of this article
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