Wooden artefacts found in an Australian cave suggest that an Indigenous ceremony documented in the 19^th century may have been practised 12,000 years ago, making it possibly the oldest known cultural ritual anywhere in the world.

Between 2019 and 2020, a team of archaeologists and members of a local Indigenous community called the GunaiKurnai from south-eastern Australia conducted an excavation at Cloggs cave, near the Snowy river in Victoria.

The site had been partly dug in the 1970s, but during the new work the team discovered two preserved fireplaces, which contained mostly unburnt artefacts made of wood from local Casuarina trees. Chemical analysis revealed these artefacts were smeared with animal or human fat and dated to between 11,000 and 12,000 years ago, making them among the oldest wooden artefacts found in Australia.

On its own, this would have been a major but mysterious discovery. However, the researchers and community members were at the same time examining an ethnographic report by 19^th-century anthropologist Alfred Howitt, who researched the customs and traditions of tribes in south-eastern Australia in the 1880s.

In 1887, very close to Cloggs cave, he recorded the practices of Indigenous 鈥渨izards鈥�, now referred to as 鈥渕ulla-mullung鈥�, who are powerful GunaiKurnai medicine men and women. He wrote a detailed account of one ceremony that involved smearing animal or human fat on throwing sticks made of Casuarina wood and placing them in small ceremonial fires as a magic charm or curse. He understood the ritual to be used against an enemy or someone whom those conducting the ritual wished to harm.

鈥淭he wizard has during this time been singing his charm; as it is usually expressed, he 鈥榮ings the man鈥檚 name,鈥� and when the stick falls the charm is complete. The practice still exists,鈥� wrote Howitt.

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at Monash University in Melbourne and , a GunaiKurnai elder, say the similarities between the archaeological discoveries and the ethnographic account have convinced them that the same ritual was used for up to 12,000 years.

Mullett says he was convinced of the connection because Howitt鈥檚 account so closely matched what they had found in the cave 鈥� the type of wood and the fats smeared on the stick, positioned exactly as Howitt had described.

鈥淭his cements the longevity of our oral traditions and knowledge and the transferral of that knowledge from generation to generation,鈥� says Mullett.

David says the conclusions grew slowly following the discovery of such rare timber artefacts.

鈥淎rchaeologists never get to see the performances behind such ancient deposits,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o me, it鈥檚 absolutely remarkable the physical evidence that corresponds so closely to the cultural knowledge has survived virtually intact, and for so long. It exactly matches the practices described by Howitt.鈥�

鈥淭he team鈥檚 methods are meticulous and remarkable,鈥� says at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia.

There were lots of changes to these communities over time, says Ta莽on, but this ritual seems to have stayed the same. 鈥淲hat strikes me about this case is that this same form of ritual practice must have been considered to have been important and effective to have been perpetuated over such a long period of time.鈥�

Around 1200 years ago in a Maya city, the bones of several royal people were burned and unceremoniously discarded within the foundations of a new temple. These recently discovered remains may have marked a fiery political transition at a time of upheaval in the Maya world.

鈥淲hen we first started excavating, we had no idea what this was,鈥� says at the University of Montreal. She and her colleagues made the discovery in 2022 at the archaeological site of Ucanal, located in present-day Guatemala.

The researchers found the deposit mixed in with rocks beneath a pyramid temple structure. The deposit contained the bones of at least four people, along with thousands of ornamental fragments and beads. The bones of two individuals and many of the ornaments showed evidence of burning at high temperature.

It was clear this wasn鈥檛 a normal set of remains, says Halperin. But it was the nosepiece and obsidian eye discs of a burial mask that made clear they were royal individuals. She says sifting these clues from the ash 鈥渢ook forever鈥�.

Despite their apparent highborn origins, the royals鈥� burned remains were not carefully buried but were instead 鈥渄umped there鈥�, says Halperin. Radiocarbon dating of the bones and ash also indicated at least one individual had died up to a century before the remains were burned between AD 773 and 881. This suggests the bones were exhumed from a previous burial and then burned.

This timing corresponds with the rise of a new leader at Ucanal named Papmalil, an outsider who came to power amid a wider unravelling of Maya society. Within that context, the researchers think the deposit may be the product of what is known as the 鈥渇ire-entering rite鈥�, a Maya ritual聽that dramatically marked the destruction and end of the previous dynasty and the preeminence of the next. 鈥淭his rite seems to be both an act of veneration, but also an act of destruction,鈥� says Halperin.

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聽at the University of Pennsylvania says the discovery provides vivid physical evidence for the theory that influence from outside cultures contributed to radical shifts in Maya society during this period. 鈥淭hese are the ancestors. These are the forebears,鈥� he says. 鈥淭o do this kind of thing is really tearing all of that up.鈥�

Early humans living in South America carved giant sloth bones into decorative ornaments that may have been worn as jewellery. The discovery also provides new evidence that people arrived in central Brazil during or before the end of the last glacial period.

Giant sloths larger than polar bears and armoured with bony plates once roamed South America during the last glacial period, in the Pleistocene Epoch. Climate warming and hunting by people drove the ground-dwelling sloths to extinction around 10,000 years ago, and some of their remains are preserved in cave shelters inhabited by people, including the Santa Elina rock shelter in Brazil.

Though giant sloth skeletons are largely degraded, thousands of their fossilised bony dermal plates, called osteoderms, are preserved as fossils. Three of these scale-like bones, which are between 16,000 and 27,000 years old, have intrigued scientists for decades because of their unusual shape and smooth texture. The bones had complete or partial holes drilled near the border as if to be threaded on a string.

Archaeologists had speculated that the giant sloth bones were modified by humans using stone tools, says at the Federal University of S茫o Carlos in Brazil, 鈥渂ut the great question is, were those artefacts made by humans during the coexistence of humans and [giants sloths]?鈥�

To find out, Pacheco and her colleagues examined the bones using high-resolution microscopes and x-rays. Their analysis revealed scratches going in different directions and repeated gouges made by early stone tools. The bones鈥� shape and texture couldn鈥檛 be explained by natural erosion or animal bites.

The bones were shaped before being fossilised, suggesting humans arrived in the Americas before the end of the last glacial period. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really exciting to have this window into how people in the past were engaging with these species that we don鈥檛 have around anymore,鈥� says at Middlebury College in Vermont, who was not involved in the work.

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The smoothness of the bones suggests repeated friction, possibly from being worn daily as a personal adornment. If so, this is among the earliest evidence of personal artefacts in the Americas, but more research is needed to determine their significance.

鈥淚t would be interesting to see if they [used these bones] for decoration, for fashion, or to show that they were from a specific group,鈥� says , part of the team. 鈥淏ut we definitely know that they were using them.鈥�