Mystery surrounding 14,000-year-old rings outside Melbourne solved
The truth behind giant 14,000 year old rings found on the outskirts of Melbourne has been revealed.
Archaeology
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The mystery behind a series of century-old rings located on the outskirts of Melbourne has finally been solved, with new research revealing the giant formations are not the result of a natural phenomenon.
The chain of large ‘earth rings’, located in Sunbury, 40km northwest of Melbourne, have long baffled researchers, with one of the rings the subject of the only known excavation of earth rings in Australia.
Similar rings have been found in England, Amazonia and Cambodia.
A recent study, published by Australian Archaeology, found the ancient rings were created centuries ago by Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people – the traditional custodians of a large area in central-southern Victoria.
According to the study – which combined the only known archaeological excavation of one of the rings combined with Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung knowledge – the rings were created between 590 and 1,400 years ago.
The study found Woi-wurrung speaking people constructed the rings by scrapping back soil to create the mounds, while rocks were layered to create stone arrangements.
Researchers believe the rings, which hold cultural significance and represent Indigenous Australian’s ongoing connection to the Country, may have been the locations of ceremonies.
The study notes one of the rings, Sudbury Ring G, also “represents a location of Ancestors travelling and coming together”.
Residue left on stone artefacts suggests Woi-wurrung-speaking people may have used stone tools to craft feather adornments or scar human skin for ceremonies.
“Woi-wurrung speaking people made, used and left artefacts inside the ring after they constructed it sometime between 590 and 1,400 years ago,” the study reads.
Hundreds of rings destroyed
It’s estimated Australia once contained hundreds of earth rings but many were destroyed following European colonisation, with only about 100 remaining today.
The rings in Sunbury are the only documented rings of their kind in Victoria.
In 1979, Archaeologist David Frankel was the first to excavate Sunbury Ring G – the only known excavation of an earth ring in Australia.
Decades later, in 2022, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people led analysis of a166 stone artefacts discovered in the original excavation.
“Braiding together Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung understandings of the biik wurrdha landscape with archaeological investigations into the buried traces of activities carried out inside Sunbury Ring G has created richer, contextual understandings of the activities that occurred at the ring and across the biik wurrdha landscape over many generations of Woi-wurrung speaking people,” the study reads.
“These understandings include biik wurrdha as a cultural landscape, and Sunbury Ring G as an important location between traditional estates and along travel routes where Woi-wurrung speaking people came together to undertake a range of activities, probably including ceremony.”
Originally published as Mystery surrounding 14,000-year-old rings outside Melbourne solved
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