Seed grinding at Cuddie Springs
Molienda de semillas en Cuddie Springs
- Date
- c. 30 ka · confidence low
- Place
- Cuddie Springs, New South Wales, Australia
- Credited to
- Aboriginal peoples of inland Australia
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
At this former inland lake, grinding stones were found with starch and phytolith residues from grass seeds, about 30,000 years old. They indicate that Aboriginal people ground seeds into a paste, a kind of early flour, long before Old World agriculture.
The stratigraphy of Cuddie Springs is much debated (coexistence of humans and megafauna); the Madjedbebe grinding stones are considerably older, so Cuddie Springs is no longer Australia's earliest seed-grinding example.
What it led to
- seed bread and doughs baked in the embers, a staple of the dry interior
- grinding techniques with stones that persisted into recent times
- management of wild grasses in arid areas