A series of large rings rising out of the hills on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia, are not natural occurrences.
Instead, they represent extraordinary feats of human activity and the ancient connection that Aboriginal people have with the land.
These “earth rings” are located in Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in the suburb of Sunbury. Only one of these rings has ever been excavated.
The archaeological excavation broadens our knowledge of Australia’s rich heritage, which has been shaped by over 65,000 years of continuous occupation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Earth rings have been reported around the world, including in Cambodia, England, and Amazonia. People created them thousands of years ago by digging up dirt and piling it in a large circle that measures hundreds of feet in diameter.
In Australia, earth rings symbolize the secret and sacred locations of ceremonial events for different Aboriginal groups.
After European colonizers arrived and land development was increased, many earth rings were destroyed.
It is estimated that there used to be hundreds of earth rings in New South Wales and Queensland alone. But today, only around 100 remain. A smaller number of rings have been documented in Victoria, including five earth rings in Sunbury.
The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people are considered the traditional custodians of a large region in central-southern Victoria, which encompasses much of greater Melbourne. They led the first cultural study of the landscape from 2021 to 2022.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
To the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people, this landscape has a lot of cultural significance. It’s where their ancestors have lived and raised generations of people.
The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people have managed the landscape for thousands of years in keeping with their traditions and customs.
Today, they continue to be responsible for taking care of the land. Currently, they are working to restore the health of such a culturally important area.
In 2022, Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people led an archaeological excavation of one of the rings, referred to as Sunbury Ring G. The ring represents a place where their ancestors traveled and gathered together in ceremony.
The ring was first excavated in 1979 by archaeologist David Frankel. To this day, no other excavation of an earth ring in Australia has been known. The Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people dated and analyzed the 166 stone artifacts that were unearthed in 1979.
By studying the features of the artifacts and the ring deposits, they were able to uncover some clues on how Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people made and used stone tools at the ring.
Their findings revealed that ancient Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people created the ring between 590 and 1,400 years ago.
They cleared away plants and land, scraped back rock and soil, and layered rocks to make stone arrangements. They also lit campfires and crafted stone tools to use on a number of plants and animals.
Patterns of wear and residue on some of the stone tools indicate that Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people may have used them to produce feather adornments and scar human skin for ceremonies.
The full study was published in Australian Archaeology.