Cloggs Cave evidence shows 25,000 years of GunaiKurnai ritual practice

September 15, 2026 at 08:01 PM2 min

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Archaeological analysis of Cloggs Cave in southeastern Australia reveals continuous ritual use by the GunaiKurnai people spanning roughly 25,000 years. Microscopic plant remains and layered ash deposits indicate that Aboriginal practitioners repeatedly carried grasses into the cave and burned them in thin layers. The findings, published in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, link the site to documented 19th-century accounts of mulla-mullung ritual specialists.

Key Facts

Cloggs Cave contains 73 thin ash layers deposited between approximately 4,400 and 1,600 years ago.
A standing stone measuring 28 cm high was found among the ash layers.
The GunaiKurnai Land and Waters Corporation requested the 2019–2020 excavations and participated in research design, fieldwork, and interpretation.
Phytolith analysis was conducted by researchers from Australia, France, and New Zealand, led by Dr Elle Grono of the Australian National University.

Ritual Use of Cloggs Cave

The GunaiKurnai, traditional custodians of Gippsland and the southern Victorian Alps, have long associated caves on their lands with spiritual practices. Nineteenth-century accounts and oral traditions describe powerful practitioners known as mulla-mullung performing rituals involving magic, healing, and cursing in these caves. Archaeological evidence now indicates that Cloggs Cave was used for such activities over a span of roughly 25,000 years. Dr Elle Grono, a postdoctoral researcher at the Australian National University and corresponding author of the study, stated that the Old Ancestors selected whole grasses from the wider landscape and carried them into the cave to spread in thin layers and burn.

Phytolith Evidence

Researchers examined phytoliths—microscopic silica structures that form within plant tissues—recovered from buried sediments inside Cloggs Cave. Because no plants grow inside the dark cave, the presence of half-burnt phytoliths in ashy layers indicates that people intentionally brought grasses into the site. The team focused on half-burnt phytoliths, which could only have been introduced by human activity, unlike unburnt phytoliths that might have arrived via animals such as possums. The research grew out of excavations in 2019 and 2020 designed to determine how people collected and used plants inside the cave in the distant past.

Excavation Findings

Using microscopy, the researchers classified thousands of phytoliths collected from two excavation pits measuring 1.5 m and 2.3 m deep. The upper sections of those pits contained 73 thin layers of ash deposited by people between approximately 4,400 and 1,600 years ago. Researchers established those ages using optically stimulated luminescence and carbon dating via accelerator mass spectrometry. Hidden among the layers was a standing stone measuring 28 cm high.