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빅토리아 동부/구나이쿠르나이 컨트리 동굴에서 최소 12,000년 동안 행해진 원주민 의식: 연구

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빅토리아 동부/구나이쿠르나이 컨트리 동굴에서 최소 12,000년 동안 행해진 원주민 의식: 연구

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과학 기자 벨린다 스미스(Belinda Smith) 작성

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브루노 데이비드(왼쪽)와 러셀 멀렛은 구나이쿠르나이 컨트리에서 클로그스 동굴을 발굴한 연구팀의 일원이었습니다. (공급: 구나이쿠르나이 토지 및 물 원주민 공사)

abc.net.au/news/gunaikurnai-ritual-fireplaces-sticks-cloggs-cave-archaeology/104034756링크 복사

링크 복사됨기사 공유

간단히 말해서:

빅토리아 주 깁스랜드(Gippsland)의 한 동굴 발굴에서 11,000~12,000년 전의 두 개의 벽난로와 타서 지방이 묻은 막대기가 발굴되었습니다.

호주에서 발견된 가장 오래된 목조 공예품인 벽난로와 막대기는 이 의식이 약 500세대의 구나이쿠르나이 사람들을 통해 사실상 변함없이 전해졌음을 시사합니다.

무엇 향후 계획?

전통적인 소유자와 연구자들은 손가락으로 새긴 표시가 있는 천장을 포함하여 해당 지역의 다른 유적지를 발굴할 계획입니다.

약 12,000년 전 현재 빅토리아 동부에 있는 한적한 동굴에서 강력한 구나이쿠르나이 의사 또는 물라물룽이 벽난로와 지방이 묻은 막대기를 사용하여 주문을 걸었습니다.

이 잔해는 흙으로 덮여 있었고 2020년에 발굴될 때까지 동굴 내부에 묻혀 있었으며, 동일한 의식을 수행한 약간 더 어린 사례의 잔해와 함께 있었습니다.

Nature Human Behaviour 저널에서 전통 소유자와 고고학자로 구성된 팀은 유럽 기록에 따르면 특정 의식이 1800년대 후반까지 행해졌으며 지식은 약 500세대에 걸쳐 전해졌음을 시사합니다.

약간 그을린 막대기는 호주에서 가장 오래된 것으로 알려진 목조 공예품이기도 합니다.

연구 공동 저자인 Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation의 Russell Mullett은 이번 발견을 “특별하다”고 말했습니다.

그러한 통찰력은 “우리 국민, 신념 체계, 전통에 대한 더 넓은 이야기의 일부이며 이를 공유하는 것이 중요합니다”라고 그는 말했습니다.

“이것은 깊은 과거부터 현재, 미래까지의 경험에 관한 것입니다.”

지역 정착민의 이름을 따 클로그스 동굴(Cloggs Cave)이라고 불리는 이 동굴은 구나이쿠르나이 컨트리(Gunaikurnai Country)/깁스랜드(Gippsland)의 나암(Naarm)/멜버른(Melbourne)에서 동쪽으로 거의 300km 떨어져 있습니다.

현재 구나이쿠르나이 지식과 ​​고고학적 발견에 따르면 이 지역의 유사한 동굴과 마찬가지로 클로그의 시원하고 조용한 내부 방은 남의 눈을 피해 의식을 수행하는 물라물렁(mulla-mullungs)의 영역이었습니다.

멀렛 씨는 “이들은 의사들이었고 가족들이 치료법을 제공하기 위해 찾는 사람들이었습니다”라고 말했습니다.

“하지만 그들은 사람들에게 해를 끼칠 수 있는 다른 힘도 가지고 있었습니다.

“그래서 물라물렁은 받아들여졌지만 두려움도 있었습니다. 당신이 좋은지 나쁜지에 따라 다릅니다.”

불과 지방이 묻은 막대기를 사용하는 ‘마법사’와 관련된 것을 포함하여 이러한 힘과 의식은 1800년대 후반에 민족지학자 Alfred Howitt에 의해 문서화되었습니다.

[지방이 묻은 막대기는] 불이 붙기 전 땅에 비스듬히 꽂혀 있고, 당연히 서서히 쓰러질 정도의 위치에 놓여 있다. 마법사는 이 기간 동안 자신의 매력을 노래해 왔습니다. 흔히 표현하듯이 ‘남자의 이름을 부른다’고 하며, 막대기가 떨어지면 매력이 완성된다. 관행은 여전히 ​​​​존재합니다.

신성한 장소를 연구하다

클로그스 동굴의 고고학적 발굴은 1970년대 전통 소유자의 허가 없이 시작되었습니다.

클로그스 동굴의 발견은 고대 음식 관행에 ‘눈을 뜨게 합니다’

한 연구팀이 빅토리아 동부의 한 동굴에 있는 숫돌 도구에서 2,000년 된 보공나방 유적을 발견했는데, 이는 전통적인 소유자들이 깁스랜드 역사의 알려지지 않은 부분을 하나로 모으는 데 도움이 되었습니다.

더 읽어보세요

Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation과 Monash University 간의 최근 동맹을 통해 현장에서의 연구가 다시 시작되고 전통적인 소유자가 주도할 수 있게 되었습니다.

연구자들이 동굴 바닥의 퇴적물을 조심스럽게 파헤치는 동안 재와 불에 탄 막대기로 완성된 한 쌍의 소형 벽난로가 발견된 것은 바로 이러한 새로운 발굴 과정에서였습니다.

팀은 벽난로 하나와 40cm 길이의 막대기가 약 12,000년 전의 것으로 추정했고, 길이가 약 20cm인 두 번째 벽난로와 막대기는 11,000년에 더 가까웠습니다.

이러한 관행은 적어도 12,000년 전부터 구나이쿠르나이 사람들이 선교지로 밀려나 지식의 전달이 중단될 때까지 구나이쿠르나이 국가에서 변함없이 유지되었습니다. 그러나 알프레드 호위트(Alfred Howitt)와 같은 민족지학자들의 저술 덕분에 사라지지는 않았습니다. 라고 멀렛 씨는 말했습니다. .

연구 공동 저자이자 모나쉬 대학 고고학자인 브루노 데이비드(Bruno David)는 몇 가지 요인이 잿빛 벽난로와 막대기를 수천 년 동안 좋은 상태로 유지했다고 말했습니다.

새로운 연구에서 보고된 두 개의 나무 공예품과 벽난로 중 하나. 막대기의 길이는 거의 20센티미터에 달합니다.(제공: Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation)

예를 들어, 막대기를 둘러싼 퇴적물은 매우 약알칼리성이어서 나무를 보존하는 데 도움이 되었습니다.

Aboriginal ritual performed for at least 12,000 years in east Victorian/Gunaikurnai Country cave: study

ABC Science

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By science reporter Belinda Smith

Posted 6h ago6 hours ago

Two men standing in a limestone cave
Bruno David (left) and Russell Mullett were part of a research team who excavated Cloggs Cave in Gunaikurnai Country.(Supplied: Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation)

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In short:

Excavations from a cave in Gippsland, Victoria unearthed two fireplaces and burnt, fat-smeared sticks, dated to 11,000 to 12,000 years old.

The fireplaces and sticks, which are the oldest-known wooden artefacts found in Australia, suggest a ritual was passed down virtually unchanged through around 500 generations of Gunaikurnai people.

What’s next?

Traditional owners and researchers plan to excavate other sites in the area, including one with a ceiling of finger-etched markings.

Some 12,000 years ago in a secluded cave in what is now eastern Victoria, a powerful Gunaikurnai doctor or mulla-mullung cast a spell using a fireplace and a stick smeared with fat.

These remnants were covered by soil and remained buried inside the cave until they were unearthed in 2020, along with remains of a slightly younger instance of the same ritual.

In the journal Nature Human Behaviour, a team of traditional owners and archaeologists suggests the specific ritual was practised until the late 1800s, according to European records, with knowledge passing down around 500 generations.

The slightly charred sticks are also the oldest-known wooden artefacts in Australia.

Study co-author Russell Mullett, from the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation, called the discoveries “extraordinary”.

Such insights are part of “a broader story about our people, our belief systems, our traditions, and it’s important to share that”, he said.

“It’s all about experience from the deep past, to the present, and into the future.”

The cave in which the discoveries were made, called Cloggs Cave after a local settler, is almost 300 kilometres east of Naarm/Melbourne in Gunaikurnai Country/Gippsland.

Current Gunaikurnai knowledge and archaeological finds show that, like similar caves in the area, Cloggs’ cool, quiet inner chambers were the domain of mulla-mullungs, medicine men and women who performed rituals away from prying eyes.

“These were doctors, and they were sought after by families to provide cures,” Mr Mullett said.

“But they had these other powers, too, that could harm people.

“And so mulla-mullungs were accepted, but they were also feared. Depends on whether you were good or bad.”

Such powers and rituals, including one that involved a “wizard” using a fire and fat-smeared stick, were documented by ethnographer Alfred Howitt in the late 1800s:

[The fat-smeared stick is] stuck slanting in the ground before a fire, and it is of course placed in such a position that by-and-by it falls down. The wizard has during this time been singing his charm; as it is usually expressed, he ‘sings the man’s name,’ and when the stick falls the charm is complete. The practice still exists.

Studying sacred sites

Archaeological excavations at Cloggs Cave began in the 1970s without permission from traditional owners.

Discovery in Cloggs Cave ‘opens our eyes’ to ancient food practices

A team of researchers found 2,000-year-old Bogong moth remains on a grindstone tool at a cave in eastern Victoria, helping traditional owners piece together untold parts of Gippsland’s history.

Two men lean over an excavated pit marked by string, with a gazebo roof above them.

Read more

A recent alliance between the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation and Monash University enabled research at the site to restart and be led by traditional owners.

It was during these fresh excavations that the pair of miniature fireplaces, complete with ash and burnt sticks, were found while researchers carefully dug into sediments in the floor of the cave.

The team dated one fireplace and 40-centimetre stick to around 12,000 years old, while a second fireplace and stick, which was around 20cm long, was closer to 11,000 years old.

The practice remained unchanged in Gunaikurnai Country from at least 12,000 years ago until the Gunaikurnai people were pushed to mission stations, when the transmission of that knowledge was interrupted — but not lost, thanks to the writings of ethnographers such as Alfred Howitt, Mr Mullett said.

A few factors kept the ashy fireplaces and sticks in such good nick over the millennia, study co-author and Monash University archaeologist Bruno David said.

A stick with a burnt end surrounded by rocks
One of the two wooden artefacts and fireplace reported in the new study. The stick is almost 20 centimetres long.(Supplied: Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation)

For instance, the sediment that surrounded the sticks was very slightly alkaline, which helped preserve the wood.

They must have been buried quickly, too. Ash that’s left in the open air tends to disappear.

But crucially, the soil in the cave remained incredibly dry, even as the outside world emerged from an ice age around 11,700 years ago and more rain began to fall.

Professor David said the team even found entire leaves, perfectly preserved, in older layers of cave sediment.

“It’s like they were put there yesterday, but they’re more than 12,000 years old. We’re talking truly old things.”

Rituals with deep history

Caroline Spry, an archaeologist at La Trobe University, who was not involved with the study, called it “exciting and unusual” as it brought together archaeological evidence, traditional knowledge and written accounts.

“Often when we’re trying to understand past ritual practices, we may only have one of those strands of evidence available to us,” Dr Spry said.

“But in this case, it’s possible to weave together multiple strands of evidence that all match.”

The calculated ages of the pair of fat-smeared sticks, she added, were “robust”.

“They didn’t just date the sediment from around the wooden artefacts — they dated the wooden artefacts themselves.

“Sometimes you only have one or the other, but in this case, they had both.”

The Cloggs Cave fireplaces are just one example of Aboriginal practices with deep history.

Other examples in south-eastern Australia are carved trees or marara on Wiradjuri Country in NSW, which marked burial sites of Wiradjuri men of high standing, as well as rings of rock and earth, such as those found on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country near Sunbury in Victoria, Dr Spry said.

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“They’re reported to be locations of ceremony and initiation, and they’re very rare these days.”

Monash University researchers are still analysing the Cloggs Cave sticks, and will return them to Country when finished.

But Mr Mullett, Professor David and their colleagues are also already investigating yet another cave in the area.

It has more than 20 metres of ancient grooves and designs made by human fingers in the soft rock in the ceiling above.

“We’re starting to do the research to tell this [Gunaikurnai] story,” Professor David said.

“If it wasn’t for telling the story, we wouldn’t be doing it.”

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Posted 6h ago