Bodies Revealed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Early Research ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The World ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Contemporary Artists

This chapter examines X-ray art in western Arnhem Land in northern Australia, considering how relatively contemporary artists used it to enrich the meaning of their work. After discussing early research on the meanings of X-ray and developing interpretations of art of the ancestors, the chapter explores the use of X-ray representation in rock art in western Arnhem Land, then analyzes the use of art in ceremony, focusing on Mardayin and Lorrkon, as well as the production of bark paintings made for sale through commercial outlets. It shows that understanding X-ray imagery helps to create intellectual connections between many areas of experience of the world. The chapter looks at the first creators, Yingarna and Ngalyod the rainbow serpents, and their role in promoting creative uses of X-ray infill and concludes that art helps initiates understand the powers of Djang not only as corporeal entities but also in more metaphysical terms.

The identification of extinct megafauna in rock art using geometric morphometrics: A Genyornis newtoni painting in Arnhem Land, northern Australia?

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rommy Cobden ◽  
Chris Clarkson ◽  
Gilbert J. Price ◽  
Bruno David ◽  
Jean-Michel Geneste ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geometric Morphometrics ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Arnhem Land

Themes in the prehistory of tropical Australia

Antiquity ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (265) ◽  
pp. 747-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Morwood ◽  
D. R. Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Distinctive Pattern ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Local Sequence ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Tropical Australia

The wetter tropical zones of northern Australia are linked by their monsoonal climates. Their archaeology shows its own distinctive pattern as well, and rock-art is an important source of evidence and insight. This study focusses on a part of Queensland, setting this local sequence alongside Arnhem Land (reported by the paper of Taçon & Brockwell) and in the northern pattern as a whole.

The characterisation of pigments used in X-ray rock art at Dalakngalarr 1, central-western Arnhem Land

2016 ◽  
Vol 126 ◽  
pp. 524-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandria Hunt ◽  
Paul Thomas ◽  
Daniel James ◽  
Bruno David ◽  
Jean-Michel Geneste ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Arnhem Land

scholarly journals Archaeology of rock art at Dalakngalarr 1, centralwestern Arnhem Land

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel James ◽  
Bruno David ◽  
Jean-Jacques Delannoy ◽  
Robert Gunn ◽  
Alexandria Hunt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Present Position ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The Past ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Archaeological Excavations ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

In 2011, we began researching the subsurface archaeology, geomorphology and rock art ofDalakngalarr 1, a moderately sized rock shelter on top of the central-western Arnhem Landplateau in Jawoyn Country. Here, four lines of evidence give relative or absolute ages for rockart:1. Archaeological excavations adjacent to a boulder that contains a painting of a red macropodreveal when that boulder attained its present position, so the red macropod must have beenpainted sometime afterwards.2. Paintings of axe/hoes with metal heads indicate that they were painted during the Europeancontact period. A nearby group of X-ray images are painted in comparable pigments,suggesting that they are contemporaneous with the axe/hoes.3. Geomorphological evidence suggests that parts of the site’s ceiling collapsed at datable timesin the past, indicating that the art on that roof must post-date the roof collapse.4. Direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on beeswax art.

Memorialization and the Stencilled Rock Art of Mirarr Country, Northern Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hayward ◽  
Iain G. Johnston ◽  
Sally K. May ◽  
Paul S.C. Taçon
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Arnhem Land

This paper addresses the motivations for producing the rare object stencils found in the rock art of western Arnhem Land. We present evidence for 84 stencils recorded as part of the Mirarr Gunwarddebim project in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Ranging from boomerangs to dilly bags, armlets and spearthrowers, this assemblage suggests something other than a common or ongoing culture practice of stencilling objects used in everyday life. Instead, we suggest that these stencils represent an entirely different function in rock art through a process of memorialization that was rare, opportunistic and highly selective.

scholarly journals Of Lightning Brothers and White Cockatoos: dating the antiquity of signifying systems in the Northern Territory, Australia

Antiquity ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 68 (259) ◽  
pp. 241-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno David ◽  
Ian McNiven ◽  
Val Attenbrow ◽  
Josephine Flood ◽  
Jackie Collins
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
The World

Northern Australia is one of the very few regions of the world where an established tradition of rock-art has continued and extends into present-day knowledge. Excavation of deposits under the painted surfaces allows the age of the paintings to be estimated, by linking across to these deposits and their dateable contexts. One can begin to assess the antiquity of those systems of knowledge and of ‘signifying’.

The Use of Harris Matrices in Rock Art Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Harris ◽  
Robert G. Gunn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

The Harris Matrix was developed in the 1970s to correctly interpret the sequence of data derived from archaeological excavations. When layers of pigment are applied over surfaces to make rock art, they also form sequences through time. Understanding motif superimpositions is a key to understanding sequential changes in rock art repertoires. The use of the Harris Matrix in rock art research was first proposed by Chippindale and Taçon in the 1990s and was used to derive a firm sequence for western Arnhem Land rock art in northern Australia. Their work was amplified in subsequent larger projects in South Africa that clearly demonstrated the potential of the Harris Matrix in rock art studies. Despite these successes, the Harris Matrix has been little employed elsewhere; this chapter is a timely re-evaluation of the method and its underlying principles.

Australia's Ancient Warriors: Changing Depictions of Fighting in the Rock Art of Arnhem Land, N.T.

1994 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Taçon ◽  
Christopher Chippindale
Keyword(s):  
Early Development ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Territory ◽  
Pronounced Change ◽  
Middle Phase ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
The World ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Battle Scenes ◽  
Land Region

Depictions of battle scenes, skirmishes and hand-to-hand combat are rare in hunter-gatherer art and when they do occur most often result from contact with agriculturalist or industrialized invaders. In the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia we have been documenting rare depictions of fighting and are able to show that there has been a long tradition of warrior art. At least three phases have been identified and in each of them groups of hunter-gatherers are shown in combat. The oldest are at least 10,000 years old, and constitute the most ancient depictions of fighting from anywhere in the world, while the newest were produced as recently as early this century. Significantly, a pronounced change in the arrangement of figures began with the second, middle phase — beginning perhaps about 6000 years ago. This appears to be associated with increased social complexity and the development of the highly complicated kinship relationships that persist in Arnhem Land today. Evidence from physical anthropological, archaeological and linguistic studies supports the idea of the early development of a highly organized society of the type more commonly associated with agriculturalists or horticulturalists.

Palaeolithic Cave Art at Creswell Crags in European Context

2007 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Pleistocene ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Upper Palaeolithic ◽  
Southern France ◽  
European Context ◽  
The World ◽  
Cave Art ◽  
Illustrated Book

Cave art is a subject of perennial interest among archaeologists. Until recently it was assumed that it was largely restricted to southern France and northern Iberia, although in recent years new discoveries have demonstrated that it originally had a much wider distribution. The discovery in 2003 of the UK's first examples of cave art, in two caves at Creswell Crags on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border, was the most surprising illustration of this. The discoverers (the editors of the book) brought together in 2004 a number of Palaeolithic archaeologists and rock art specialists from across the world to study the Creswell art and debate its significance, and its similarities and contrasts with contemporary Late Pleistocene ("Ice Age") art on the Continent. This comprehensively illustrated book presents the Creswell art itself, the archaeology of the caves and the region, and the wider context of the Upper Palaeolithic era in Britain, as well as a number of up-to-date studies of Palaeolithic cave art in Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy which serve to contextualize the British examples.

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