Miniature Rock Art Found in Australia May Have Been Stencilled by Children

[Judi Lynn]

By George Dvorsky on 27 May 2020 at 2:00AM

Archaeologists working at a rockshelter in northern Australia have discovered a trove of unusual miniaturised rock art made using stencils. This rare form of rock art may have served an ominous supernatural purpose – or it might be whimsical doodles made by children.

Nearly 60 small-scale stencils have been documented at the Yilbilinji 1 rockshelter at Limmen National Park in northern Australia. Rock art in which figures and objects are portrayed in miniature is exceptionally rare, with the only other two examples found at Nielson’s Creek in New South Wales and Kisar Island in Indonesia. The small-scale stencils at Yilbilinji 1 now comprise the largest collection of this kind of rock art in the world. Details of the research, led by archaeologist Liam Brady from Flinders University in Australia, will be published in the June edition of Antiquity.

The Yilbilinji 1 rockshelter is traditionally owned by the Maara Aboriginal people and was first documented by archaeologists in 1974. Three years ago, Brady and his colleagues performed an exhaustive survey of rock art at the site, resulting in the documentation of over 350 distinct artworks. The expedition was a collaborative effort, in which the archaeologists were assisted by park rangers and Marra Traditional Owners.



Samples of art found at Yilbilinji 1. (Image: L. M. Brady et al., 2020/Antiquity)

Of the 59 stencils found at Yilbilinji 1, 17 were classified as miniature or small-scale, in which the subject matter is “considerably smaller than life size or whose proportions are unrealistic when compared to full- or life-sized examples,” according to the paper.

The stencilled depictions included human figures, animals and animal parts (e.g. crabs, turtles, and kangaroo paws), boomerangs, shields, geometric shapes, and wavy lines. No dates were given for the stencils, but rock art in the region dates back for thousands of years.

More:
https://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2020/05/miniature-rock-art-found-in-australia-may-have-been-stencilled-by-children/