Evidence of the world's oldest witchcraft ritual discovered

12,000-year-old Australian Aboriginal sticks are evidence of the world's oldest witchcraft ritual.

Cloggs Cave, where archaeologists have discovered evidence of the world's oldest witchcraft ritual. (Source: Live Science)

A study published on July 1 in the journal Nature Human Behavior found that the 12,000-year-old remains of two small fireplaces and two mysterious wooden pokers discovered deep in a cave in South Australia may be evidence of the world's oldest witchcraft ritual.

These artifacts, analyzed in a new study using both scientific analysis and Aboriginal oral history, may have been used by ancient Aboriginal people in a ritual to "curse" and harm their opponents.

The artifacts resemble those commonly used in a ritual by the Gunaikurnai people (an indigenous group living on the southern coast of Australia) that involves smearing a wooden object with animal fat and throwing it into a sacrificial fire to curse a rival turtle.

Due to the similarities between the objects found in the cave and Gunaikurnai rituals, elders of the Gunaikurnai Aboriginal group asked archaeologists to help excavate the cave, which they called Cloggs Cave, and study the artifacts.

“This cave was not a habitable place but was used for special ritual purposes. It was first used for this purpose about 25,000 years ago and continued to be used until 1,600 years ago,” said study author Bruno David, an archaeologist at Monash University in Australia, as reported by Live Science.

Beginning excavations in 2020, David and his team discovered two ceremonial sites, each containing a small fire pit with a wooden poker. Dating of the pokers showed one to be between 11,930 and 12,440 years old, and the other between 10,870 and 11,210 years old, making them the oldest wooden artifacts ever found in Australia.

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