For more than 10,000 years, people in a part of Australia practiced the same healing ritual. A new study has shown the ability of oral traditions to keep such practices alive across hundreds of generations.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence that shows how Indigenous oral traditions were able to pass down knowledge over 500 generations, the journal Nature Human Behaviour reported on Monday.

Miniature fireplaces with protruding trimmed wooden artifacts smeared in fat were found in a series of caves in Australia's Victorian Alps that match the description of Gunaikurnai healing rituals written down in the 19th century.

The findings are believed to be 12,000 years old, dating them to the end of the last ice age.

"Determining the longevity of oral traditions and ‘intangible heritage' has important implications for understanding information exchange through social networks down the generations," the authors said in their report.