A missing part of the rock art gallery
Amelia Nichele
Newly described images show human-animal relationships.
Maliwawa macropod over 3MFC hand stencil, Namunidjbuk. Credit: P. Taçon
Arnhem Land rock art is continuing to provide a window into Australia’s past, with scientists describing 572 previously unknown images in a paper in the journal Australian Archaeology.
The Maliwawa Figures, which range in age from 6000 to 9400 years, were documented across 87 sites from Awunbarna (Mount Borradaile area) to the Namunidjbuk Estate of the Wellington Range in northwest Arnhem Land.
The researchers suggest they are a missing link between early-style Dynamic Figures, 12,000 years in age, and X-ray figures made in the past 4000 years.
The images were created in various shades of red, with stroke-infill or outline forms and a few red strokes as infill. Some are more than 50-centimetres high.
The scenes depict humans and macropods, including three bilbies and a dugong, and lead researcher Paul Taçon, from Australia’s Griffith University, suggests the presence of various forms of headdresses shows they are not just simple depictions of everyday life.
More:
https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/archaeology/a-missing-part-of-the-rock-art-gallery/