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Ancient burnt grass reveals millennia of spiritual rituals inside Cloggs Cave.
The entry into the limestone cavern known as Cloggs Cave resembles a massive cathedral door. Situated on a bluff in southern Australia not far from the town of Buchan, Victoria, this very cave has beckoned members of the Australian Aboriginal nation called the GunaiKurnai for generations. Direct evidence of their visits is literally baked into the walls—the ceiling is now blackened by the smoke from countless bonfires lit inside. Both 19th century ethnographic reports and the GunaiKurnai’s own oral traditions detail how men and women serving as respected “Old Ancestor” spiritual leaders called “mulla-mullung” utilized the space for healing, magic, and even cursing rituals.
These practices often involved burning native grasses, and their microscopic remains have now revealed just how long Aboriginal peoples have been venturing into the cave. Based on analysis detailed in a study published today in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, humans have relied on Cloggs Cave for at least 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,” explained study co-author and Australian National University archaeologist Elle Grono. “Over time, sediments covered these burnt layers, preserving each layer on top of another over thousands of years.”
The study’s co-authors also relied heavily on GunaiKurnai community representatives while conducting their fieldwork, and consulted them during the analysis and dissemination of their findings. Key evidence came in the form of microscopic silica remnants from plant tissues called phytoliths. While pollen is often distributed by insects, animals, and the wind, phytoliths typically remain where the plant itself decays. Because sunlight doesn’t reach into Cloggs Cave, the phytoliths inside almost certainly arrived either from people or animals.
“We focused on half-burnt phytoliths from ashy layers, which can only have been brought in by people, as unburnt ones might have arrived through either means,” explained Grono.
Carbon dating on phytoliths deposited across the 73 topmost ash layers inside a pair of excavation pits revealed plant burnings inside Cloggs Cave between around 4,400 and 1,600 years ago. The team discovered 29 types of vegetation ranging from grasses and herbs to woody plants. The most common species belong to the Pooideae subfamily of grasses found in cool and temperate climates, as well as the Panicoideae subfamily seen in warmer and more humid areas. Many of these grasses were intentionally selected from near the cave entrance, and almost a fifth of the phytoliths were either melted or incinerated. Additional dated burnt plant evidence implied local communities began bringing their materials into the cave as far back as 25,000 years ago.
One of the most surprising discoveries had nothing to do with plants, but rocks. Inside one of the pits, archaeologists also excavated a nearly one-foot-tall standing stone likely used during ceremonies. This artifact was surrounded by similar phytolith ashes.
“Their burning is consistent with GunaiKurnai traditional practices of using ash to perform magic and rituals, and also to track the footsteps of anyone coming in, including spirit-beings,” added Monash University archaeologist Bruno David.
