Aboriginal Ritual Passed Down Over 12,000 Years, Cave Find Shows

The discovery was made inside Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in Australia's southeast, in a region long inhabited by the Gunaikurnai people. (AFP Photo)
The discovery was made inside Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in Australia's southeast, in a region long inhabited by the Gunaikurnai people. (AFP Photo)
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Aboriginal Ritual Passed Down Over 12,000 Years, Cave Find Shows

The discovery was made inside Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in Australia's southeast, in a region long inhabited by the Gunaikurnai people. (AFP Photo)
The discovery was made inside Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in Australia's southeast, in a region long inhabited by the Gunaikurnai people. (AFP Photo)

Two slightly burnt, fat-covered sticks discovered inside an Australian cave are evidence of a healing ritual that was passed down unchanged by more than 500 generations of Indigenous people over the last 12,000 years, according to new research.

The wooden sticks, found poking out of tiny fireplaces, showed that the ritual documented in the 1880s had been shared via oral traditions since the end of the last ice age, a study in the journal Nature Human Behaviour said on Monday, AFP reported.

The discovery was made inside Cloggs Cave in the foothills of the Victorian Alps in Australia's southeast, in a region long inhabited by the Gunaikurnai people.

When the cave was first excavated in the 1970s, archaeologists discovered the remains of a long extinct giant kangaroo that had previously lived there.

But the Gunaikurnai people were not involved in those digs, "nor were they asked for permission to do research there", lead study author Bruno David of Monash University told AFP.

Further excavations starting from 2020 included members of the local Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC).

Carefully digging through the soil, the team found a small stick poking out -- then they found another one. Both well-preserved sticks were made from the wood of casuarina trees.

Each one was found in a separate fireplace around the size of the palm of a hand -- far too small to have been used for heat or cooking meat.

The slightly charred ends of the sticks had been cut specially to stick into the fire, and both were coated in human or animal fat.

One stick was 11,000 years old and the other 12,000 years old, radiocarbon dating found.

"They've been waiting here all this time for us to learn from them," said Gunaikurnai elder Russell Mullett, a co-author of the study and head of GLaWAC.

Mullett spent years trying to find out what they could have been used for, before discovering the accounts of Alfred Howitt, a 19th-century Australian anthropologist who studied Aboriginal culture.

Some of Howitt's notes had never been published, and Mullett said he spent a long time convincing a local museum to share them.

In the notes, Howitt describes in the late 1880s the rituals of Gunaikurnai medicine men and women called "mulla-mullung".

One ritual involved tying something that belonged to a sick person to the end of a throwing stick smeared in human or kangaroo fat. The stick was thrust into the ground before a small fire was lit underneath.

"The mulla-mullung would then chant the name of the sick person, and once the stick fell, the charm was complete," a Monash University statement said.

The sticks used in the ritual were made of casuarina wood, Howitt noted.

Jean-Jacques Delannoy, a French geomorphologist and study co-author, told AFP that "there is no other known gesture whose symbolism has been preserved for such a long time".

"Australia kept the memory of its first peoples alive thanks to a powerful oral tradition that enabled it to be passed on," Delannoy said.

"However in our societies, memory has changed since we switched to the written word, and we have lost this sense."

He lamented that the ancient animal paintings found in French caves would probably "never reveal their meaning" in a similar way.

Indigenous Australians are one of the oldest continuous living cultures, and Mullett said the discovery was a "unique opportunity to be able to read the memoirs of our ancestors".

It was "a reminder that we are a living culture still connected to our ancient past," he added.

juc-dl/bc

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Mercedes 1955 ‘Streamliner’ Set to Smash F1 Record at Auction

Mechanics push a W196 old timer racing car at a Mercedes Benz vintage car show marking the German car maker's 125 anniversary at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, August 27, 2011. (Reuters)
Mechanics push a W196 old timer racing car at a Mercedes Benz vintage car show marking the German car maker's 125 anniversary at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, August 27, 2011. (Reuters)
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Mercedes 1955 ‘Streamliner’ Set to Smash F1 Record at Auction

Mechanics push a W196 old timer racing car at a Mercedes Benz vintage car show marking the German car maker's 125 anniversary at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, August 27, 2011. (Reuters)
Mechanics push a W196 old timer racing car at a Mercedes Benz vintage car show marking the German car maker's 125 anniversary at the former Tempelhof airport in Berlin, August 27, 2011. (Reuters)

A sleek, long-nosed Mercedes raced by Stirling Moss and five-times Formula One world champion Juan Manuel Fangio in 1955 could become the most expensive grand prix car of all time at an auction in Stuttgart on Saturday.

The W196 R Stromlinienwagen ("Streamline car"), one of only four complete examples in existence, is being sold by RM Sotheby's on behalf of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) at a target price of more than 50 million euros ($52 million).

If it meets the estimate, it would also be the second costliest car ever sold at auction after a 1955 Mercedes 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe sportscar that changed hands for 135 million euros in May 2022.

The most expensive grand prix car sold at auction to date was another ex-Fangio 1954 Mercedes W196 that fetched $29.6 million at Goodwood in 2013.

The IMS car is the first streamline-bodied W196 R to become available for private ownership and, in its open-wheel form, was driven to victory by Fangio at the non-championship Buenos Aires Grand Prix in 1955.

Moss raced it with the streamline body at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, retiring after setting the fastest lap at an average speed of 215.7 kph.

Mercedes withdrew from factory-sponsored motorsport in 1955 after a Le Mans 24 Hours disaster that killed 84 people, returning to Formula One as an engine maker in 1994.

The car is presented in its Monza livery with full documentation.

"Without any doubt, it's the most beautiful race car in the world and ever. Nothing can compare. It's simply a masterpiece of style and design," Marcus Breitschwerdt, head of Mercedes-Benz heritage, told Reuters Television.

"It is very fast. The top speed is actually above and beyond 300 kph.

"I wouldn't expect that it's too much of an effort to get it back to driving condition. And we gladly will offer whoever buys the car to do it for them."

The car, chassis number 00009/54, was donated to the IMS by Mercedes in 1965 and is being sold to raise funds for the museum's restoration efforts.

The Indianapolis museum, which is aiming to become more US-focused, is selling a total of 11 cars from its collection at three separate auctions this year.

The Mercedes "Silver Arrows" dominated the immediate pre- and post World War Two era of grand prix racing with the W196 R a world-beater in 1954 and 1955.

The streamlined bodywork with enclosed wheels was used at high-speed circuits, with the open-wheeled version favored for more twisty tracks.