Ray was on the radio this morning talking about the first programme that's filmed in Australia; he's corroborating with a British archaeologist who specialises in ancient farming practices - really sounds interesting. Ray said that the Aboriginals showed them how they grate yam using a snail shell with a nick in it - the archaeo said that he would never have realised that the shell was a tool had he previously come across one in a dig.

Ray also talked about ritual and song that often accompanies the hunting or gathering of food; when butchering an animal for example it's always the eldest who leads the process, even when everyone else has done it a hundred times before. On one occasion the elder remembers that long ago the carcass would have been cut with a stick, "You mean like this?" says another as she breaks a stick in two and begins cutting with it. The archaeologists again notes that if such a technique had been used in prehistoric times not only would there be no trace of the stick there would probably have been no trace of cuts on the animal bones either.