Microscopic plant traces reveal 25,000 years of ritual burning in Australian cave

Overview

Updated 50 minutes ago

Microscopic silica particles left by plant cells show that GunaiKurnai ancestors carried whole grass plants into Cloggs Cave in southeastern Australia and burned them in thin layers. The practice spans at least 25,000 years, covering a thousand generations of ritual use at a single site.

The study, published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, pairs phytolith analysis with cultural knowledge held by GunaiKurnai elders and practices recorded by anthropologist Alfred Howitt in the 1880s. It confirms the cave was a secluded ritual site where mulla-mullung, powerful learned men and women, performed healing, cursing and spiritual work.

Why it matters

The finding extends documented Indigenous ritual practice on GunaiKurnai Country back 25,000 years, pairing scientific analysis with traditional knowledge.

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Key Indicators

25,000

Years of documented plant use at Cloggs Cave

Phytolith evidence shows people carried plants into the cave for roughly 25,000 years.

18.3%

Peak burnt phytolith share in one excavation unit

The highest proportion of heat-altered phytoliths recorded at the site, indicating low-temperature burns.

Thin ash layers around the standing stone

Repeated cool burns of soft plant matter around a stone erected roughly 2,000 years ago.

Miniature ritual fireplaces with fat-smeared Casuarina sticks

Dated to roughly 12,000 and 11,000 calibrated years before present, matching 19th-century ethnographic records of GunaiKurnai ritual installations.

Voices

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People Involved

Bruno David

Professor of archaeology, Monash University; lead author of the Cloggs Cave phytolith study

Active researcher in Australian Indigenous archaeology

Russell Mullett

GunaiKurnai elder and co-author of the Cloggs Cave study

Collaborating researcher with Monash University

Organizations Involved

Monash University

Public research university

Lead research institution

Lead institution behind the Cloggs Cave phytolith study.

GunaiKurnai people

Traditional Owners

Co-owners of cultural knowledge and research partnership

The Aboriginal Traditional Owners of Gippsland in southeastern Victoria, where Cloggs Cave lies.

Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology

Peer-reviewed academic journal

Publishing venue for the study

Peer-reviewed journal that published the Cloggs Cave phytolith study in July 2026.

Timeline

1880s c. 9,05

9 events Latest: Today

Tap a bar to jump to that date

c. 9,05
Second miniature fireplace installed
Upcoming Ritual installation

A second fireplace with a fat-smeared Casuarina stick is laid down, matching GunaiKurnai ritual installations described in 19th-century ethnography.
c. 9,050 BCE
c. 50 C
Standing stone erected inside cave
Upcoming Ritual installation

A 28.1 cm-high standing stone is erected; vegetation burning around it begins and continues roughly 400 years.
c. 50 CE
c. 350
Burning around standing stone ends
Upcoming Ritual practice

After roughly four centuries, the repeated cool burns of soft plant matter around the standing stone stop.
c. 350 CE
c. 23,0
Earliest plant use evidence in the cave
Upcoming Archaeological evidence

Phytoliths show people began carrying plants into Cloggs Cave for burning roughly 25,000 years ago.
c. 23,000 BCE
c. 10,0
First miniature ritual fireplace built
Upcoming Ritual installation

People install a small fireplace with a trimmed Casuarina cunninghamiana or glauca stick smeared with animal or human fat.
c. 10,050 BCE
September 2026
ScienceDaily reports on the study
Today Media coverage

ScienceDaily summarizes the Cloggs Cave findings for a broader audience, highlighting the 25,000-year ritual record and standing stone.
Today
July 2026
Phytolith study published
Publication

Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology publishes the study showing burnt grass phytoliths across the cave's 25,000-year sequence, confirming ritual use.
July 22nd, 2026
January 1971
Josephine Flood excavates Cloggs Cave
Excavation

Archaeologist Josephine Flood performs the first excavations at Cloggs Cave, uncovering its stratified deposits for the first time.
January 1st, 1971
1880s
Ethnographers record GunaiKurnai ritual practice
Ethnography

Alfred Howitt and others document GunaiKurnai ceremonies using ash, charcoal and grass, including initiation rituals where men were smeared with ash and wore grass tufts.
1880s

Scenarios

New excavations at Cloggs Cave uncover more ritual features

Possible Resolves by End of 2028

Discussed by: Study authors; Monash University has an ongoing research program at the cave

Monash and the GunaiKurnai Land Council announce another excavation phase. The cave's deeper and lateral deposits remain untested, and the study authors note the phytolith record has limits that additional excavation could resolve. New finds would extend or refine the 25,000-year chronology.

Phytolith method applied to other GunaiKurnai caves

Possible Resolves by End of 2028

Discussed by: The study's methodology; the authors note other limestone caves in the region could be tested

The same phytolith approach is used at other caves in GunaiKurnai Country in East Gippsland. Results would show whether ritual grass burning was unique to Cloggs Cave or part of a broader regional practice across multiple sites.

Chronology of cave ritual use is revised by new analysis

Possible Resolves by End of 2028

Discussed by: The study authors, who acknowledge dating limits and phytolith production bias

A follow-up paper uses radiocarbon dating or additional phytolith morphotype analysis to refine the timeline. This could push the known start date earlier, narrow the span of ritual use, or clarify whether use was continuous or intermittent.

Historical Context

3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.

1968-1974

Mungo Man (1974)

Geomorphologist Jim Bowler found 40,000-year-old human remains at Lake Mungo in New South Wales. The discovery pushed back the known age of Aboriginal occupation of Australia by tens of thousands of years.

Then

Mungo Man rewrote Australian prehistory and triggered decades of debate over the age and significance of the find.

Now

Lake Mungo became a World Heritage site, and the remains were eventually returned to Aboriginal custodians in 2017 after a long repatriation effort.

Why this matters now

Like Cloggs Cave, Mungo Man showed Australian Indigenous heritage is far older than earlier scholarship assumed, but it was discovered largely without Indigenous consultation. Cloggs Cave represents the modern model: Indigenous elders as co-authors from the start.

2002-2008

Paisley Caves coprolite analysis (2008)

Researchers extracted ancient DNA from fossilized human feces found in Paisley Caves in Oregon, dating human presence to 14,000 years ago. The technique proved that coprolites could survive for millennia and carry usable genetic information.

Then

The results were contested by other archaeologists for years before being largely accepted.

Now

The method opened a new analytical lane in archaeology: using microscopic biological traces to settle debates about when people arrived and what they did at a site.

Why this matters now

Phytolith analysis at Cloggs Cave works the same way: microscopic plant remains, invisible to the naked eye, resolve questions about ancient human behavior that macrofossils cannot answer.

2012-2017

Madjedbebe rock shelter (2017)

Excavation at Madjedbebe in Australia's Northern Territory, working with Mirarr Traditional Owners, dated Aboriginal occupation to 65,000 years ago, the oldest known human presence in Australia.

Then

The dates were published in Nature and immediately challenged by some archaeologists who questioned the sediment dating.

Now

Madjedbebe set the standard for Indigenous-led excavation in Australia, with Traditional Owners embedded in the research team and decision-making.

Why this matters now

Cloggs Cave follows the same partnership model, and like Madjedbebe, its significance rests on combining high-resolution scientific techniques with Indigenous knowledge of Country.