Sally K. May

A Minimum Age for Early Depictions of Southeast Asian Praus in the Rock Art of Arnhem Land, Northern Territory

Abstract In 2008, we began two related research projects that focus on recent Australian rock art, made after the arrival of Asians and Europeans, in part of northwest Arnhem Land’s Wellington Range. This area has extensive and diverse rock art, including many examples of paintings that reflect contact between local Aboriginal people and visitors to their shores. At some sites figures made of beeswax are found superimposed under and over paintings, thus providing a means of obtaining minimum and maximum ages for pigment art. We report on the results of an initial radiocarbon beeswax dating programme at the Djulirri site complex. Results include the earliest age for a depiction of a Southeast Asian watercraft in Australian rock art, which is also Australia’s earliest contact period rock art depiction discovered so far. Based on the probability distribution of the calibrated ages, it is 99.7% probable this image dates to before AD 1664 and likely is much older. The significance of this result is discussed in relation to early contact history, as revealed by historic documents and archaeological excavation. Other important results suggest a close encounter between local Aboriginal people and Europeans occurred in the 1700s, before British exploration and settlement in the Arnhem Land region.

Painting History: Indigenous Observations and Depictions of the 'Other' in Northwestern Arnhem Land, Australia

Abstract In this paper we focus on contact rock paintings from three sites in northwestern Arnhem Land, Australia. In doing so we highlight that such sites provide some of the only contemporary Indigenous accounts of cross-cultural encounters that took place across northern Australia through the last 500 years. Importantly, they have the potential to inform us about the ongoing relationships that existed between different parties. The lack of research on contact rock art is emphasised and the development of a large-scale project (of which this fieldwork is part) aimed at addressing this problem is outlined. Important new findings for contact rock art are presented, including evidence for ‘traditional’ protocols relating to rock art continuing long after first contact, evidence for particular contact period subject matter dominating in art of this region, and the oldest date yet recorded for contact art in Australia.

Naturalism, Nature and Questions of Style in Jinsha River Rock Art, Northwest Yunnan, China

The naturalistic rock art of Yunnan Province is poorly known outside of China despite two decades of investigation by local researchers. The authors report on the first major international study of this art, its place in antiquity and its resemblance to some of the rock art of Europe, southern Africa and elsewhere. While not arguing a direct connection between China, Europe and other widely separated places, this article suggests that rock-art studies about the nature of style, culture contact and the transmission of iconography across space and time need to take better account of the results of neuroscience research, similar economic/ecological circumstances and the probability of independent invention.

Ancient bird stencils discovered in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia

The discovery of rare bird stencils from a unique Australian rock art complex is reported, the species they most closely resemble is discussed and their significance in terms of world rock art and climate change is highlighted.

Early Australian Anthropomorphs: Jabiluka's Dynamic Figure Rock Paintings

Early depictions of anthropomorphs in rock art provide unique insights into life during the deep past. This includes human engagements with the environment, socio-cultural practices, gender and uses of material culture. In Australia, the Dynamic Figure rock paintings of Arnhem Land are recognized as the earliest style in the region where humans are explicitly depicted. Important questions, such as the nature and significance of body adornment in rock art and society, can be explored, given the detailed nature of the human figurative art and the sheer number of scenes depicted. In this paper, we make a case for Dynamic Figure rock art having some of the earliest and most extensive depictions of complex anthropomorph scenes found anywhere in the world.

Painted shark vertebrae beads from the Djawumbu–Madjawarrnja complex, western Arnhem Land

Abstract In Europe and Africa, fine grained use wear and residue analyses of various organic bead technologies have provided remarkable information about specialist artisans and their affiliate communities. Ethnographic research suggests that personal ornaments represent one of the best ways to explore past human interactions and ethno-linguistic diversity. The study of material culture featured in rock art is now well established in Australia, but few detailed analyses have concentrated on personal ornaments recovered from the archaeological record. Fewer still have assessed the potential of this medium for assessing regional variations, despite rich ethnographic histories which point to the significance of these objects for self-differentiating communities and/or clans. This paper examines a collection of painted shark vertebrae beads recently discovered during archaeological survey in Arnhem Land. Detailed morphometric and use wear analysis is presented for these ornaments, alongside Aboriginal oral traditions, and assessment of similar artefacts held in museum collections across Australia. The potential of this combined approach within the Australian context is discussed, including how these studies add to our understanding of group signifying behaviour.

The rock art of Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II)

The western Arnhem Land site of Madjedbebe – a site hitherto erroneously named Malakunanja II in scientific and popular literature but identified as Madjedbebe by senior Mirarr Traditional Owners – is widely recognised as one of Australia’s oldest dated human occupation sites (Roberts et al. 1990a:153, 1998; Allen and O’Connell 2014; Clarkson et al. 2017). Yet little is known of its extensive body of rock art. The comparative lack of interest in rock art by many archaeologists in Australia during the 1960s into the early 1990s meant that rock art was often overlooked or used simply to illustrate the ‘real’ archaeology of, for example, stone artefact studies. As Hays-Gilpen (2004:1) suggests, rock art was viewed as ‘intractable to scientific research, especially under the science-focused “new archaeology” and “processual archaeology” paradigms of the 1960s through the early 1980s’. Today, things have changed somewhat, and it is no longer essential to justify why rock art has relevance to wider archaeological studies. That said, archaeologists continued to struggle to connect the archaeological record above and below ground at sites such as Madjedbebe. For instance, at this site, Roberts et al. (1990a:153) recovered more than 1500 artefacts from the lowest occupation levels, including ‘silcrete flakes, pieces of dolerite and ground haematite, red and yellow ochres, a grindstone and a large number of amorphous artefacts made of quartzite and white quartz’. The presence of ground haematite and ochres in the lowest deposits certainly confirms the use of pigment by the early, Pleistocene inhabitants of this site. However, we know very little about what the materials were used for. Many of the earliest occupation sites in Australia, including Madjedbebe, have revealed finds of ochre with ground facets, sometimes in considerable quantities (Clarkson et al. 2017; Davidson and Noble 1992:139), and it would not be too far-fetched to suggest that the haematite and other ochres were used for cultural ‘business’, such as body art, decoration of objects (spears, dilly bags, etc.), the production of rock art or other such activities. Whatever the case, here we argue that the rock art is an important part of the archaeological story of Madjedbebe, and it deserves particular attention. In this chapter, we focus on the 1068 paintings, stencils and beeswax figures that exist above current ground level at Madjedbebe. Our work draws on environmental, archaeological and ethnographic evidence to place the art and the site in their wider regional contexts.

Dynamic Figures of Mirarr Country: Chaloupka’s four-phase theory and the question of variability within a rock art style

Dynamic Figures of Mirarr Country : Chaloupka’s 4-phase theory and the question of variability within a rock art ‘style’