Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T23:26:19.925Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Paul S.C. Taçon
Affiliation:
School of Humanities, Gold Coast Campus, Griffith University, Queensland 4222, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Michelle Langley
Affiliation:
School of Social Science, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia Campus, Queensland 4072, Australia
Sally K. May
Affiliation:
Research School of Humanities, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Ronald Lamilami
Affiliation:
Kakadu Health Services, PO Box 721, Jabiru, Northern Territory 0886, Australia
Wayne Brennan
Affiliation:
Burramoko Archaeological Services, PO Box 217, Katoomba, New South Wales 2780, Australia
Daryl Guse
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Natural History, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

Abstract

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.

Type
Research articles
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bahn, P. 1998. The Cambridge illustrated history of prehistoric art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Beaton, J. & Walsh, G.. 1977. Che-ka-ra. Mankind 11(1): 4647.Google Scholar
Bindon, P. 1976. The devil's hands: a survey of the painted shelters of the Shoalhaven River basin. Unpublished BA dissertation, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Bourke, P., Brockwell, S., Faulkner, P. & Meehan, B.. 2007. Climate variability in the mid to late Holocene Arnhem Land region, north Australia: archaeological archives of environmental and cultural change. Archaeology in Oceania 42(3): 91101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaloupka, G. 1993. Journey in time. Sydney: Reed Books.Google Scholar
Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C.. 1998. The many ways of dating Arnhem Land rock-art, in Chippindale, C. & Taçon, P.S.C. (ed.) The archaeology of rock-art: 90111. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Flood, J. 1997. Rock art of the Dreamtime. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.Google Scholar
Forge, A. 1991. Handstencils: rock art or not art, in Bahn, P., & Rosenfeld, A., (ed.) Rock art and prehistory: papers presented to symposium G of the AURA Congress, Darwin 1988 (Oxbow Monograph 10): 3944. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Gorecki, P. & Jones, R.. 1988. A new rock art province in New Guinea. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Jones, R. (ed.) 1985. Archaeological research in Kakadu National Park. Canberra: Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service.Google Scholar
Lamilami, L. 1974. Lamilami speaks. Sydney: Ure Smith.Google Scholar
Layton, R. 1992. Australian Aboriginal art: a new synthesis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1988. The rock paintings of Arnhem Land, Australia: social, ecological and material culture change in the post-glacial period (British Archaeological Reports International Series 415). Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.Google Scholar
McCarthy, F.D. 1976. Rock art of the Cobar Pedeplain. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
McCarthy, F.D. & Macintosh, N.W.G.. 1962. The archaeology of Mootwingee, western New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 25(13):249298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, J. 1992. The Great Mackerel rockshelter excavation: women in the archaeological record? Australian Archaeology 35: 3250.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. 2008. Dreamtime superhighway: Sydney basin rock art and prehistoric information exchange (Terra Australis 27). Canberra: ANU E-Press.Google Scholar
McGlone, M.S., Kershaw, A.P. & Markgraf, V.. 1992. El Ni˜no/Southern Oscillation climatic variability in Australasian and South American paleoenvironmental records, in Markgraf, V., & Diaz, H.F. (ed.) El Ni˜no: historical and paleoclimatic aspects of the Southern Oscillation: 435462.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, D. 1977. The hand stencil as symbol, in Uuko, P.J. (ed.) Form in indigenous art: 318324. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Morwood, M. 2002. Visions from the past. The archaeology of Australian Aboriginal art. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Mulvaney, D.J. & Joyce, E.B.. 1965. Archaeological and geomorphological investigations on Mt. Moffat Station, Queensland, Australia. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 31: 147212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Officer, K. 1984. From Tuggerah to Dharawal. Variation and function within a regional art style. Unpublished BA dissertation, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Pizzey, G. 1985. A field guide to the birds of Australia. Sydney: Collins.Google Scholar
Podestá, M.M., Paunero, R.S. & Rolandi, D.S.. 2005. El arte rupestre de Argentina indígena Patagonia. Buenos Aires: Grupo Abierto Communicaciones.Google Scholar
Poignant, R. 1995. Lost conversations, recovered archives. Tenth Eric Johnston Lecture 1995 (Occasional Paper 49). Darwin: Northern Territory Government. Available at: http//www.ntl.nt.gov.au/data/assets/pdf file/0015/5262/occpaper49_ej10.pdf, accessed 3 August 2009.Google Scholar
Quinnell, M.C. 1979. Schematisation and naturalism in the rock art of south central Queensland, in Ucko, P.J. (ed.) Form in indigenous art: 415417. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Roberts, R., Walsh, G., Murray, A., Olley, J., Jones, R., Morwood, M., Tuniz, C., Lawson, E., Macphail, M., Bowdery, D. & Naumann, I.. 1997. Luminescence dating of rock art and mud-wasp nests in northern Australia. Nature 387: 696699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenfeld, A. 1993. The Panaramittee tradition, in Smith, M., Spriggs, M., & Fankhauser, B., (ed.) Sahul in review: Pleistocene archaeology in Australia, New Guinea and Island Melanesia: 7180. Canberra: Department of Prehistory, RSPacS, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Sefton, C. 1993. Stencil art on the Woronara Plateau: a description and analysis of sites and artefacts including stencils, charcoal drawings and petroglyphs. Rock Art Research 10(1): 6164.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C. 1989. From Rainbow Snakes to ‘X-ray’ fish: the nature of the recent rock painting tradition of western Arnhem Land, Australia. Unpublished PhD dissertation, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C. 1992. Somewhere over the rainbow: an ethnographic and archaeological analysis of recent rock paintings of western Arnhem Land, Australia, in McDonald, J., & Haskovec, I.P. (ed.) State of the art: regional rock art studies in Australia and Melanesia: proceedings of symposium C ‘Rock art studies in Australia and Oceania’ and symposium D ‘The rock art of Northern Australia’ of the First AURA Congress held in Darwin in 1988 (Occasional AURA Publication 6): 202215. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C. 2001. Australia, in Whitley, D., (ed.) Handbook of rock art research: 530575. Walnut Creek (CA): Altamira.Google Scholar
Taçon, P.S.C. & Brockwell, S.. 1995. Arnhem Land prehistory in landscape, stone and paint. Antiquity 69: 676695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trezise, P. 1971. Rock art of south-east Cape York. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.Google Scholar
Wade, V. 2009. Style, space and social interaction: an analysis of the rock-art on middle Park Station, northwest Queensland. Unpublished BA dissertation, Flinders University.Google Scholar
Walsh, G. 1983. Composite stencil art: elemental or specialized? Australian Aboriginal Studies 2: 3444.Google Scholar
Watchman, A. & Hatte, E.. 1996. A nano approach to the study of rock art: ‘The Walkunders’, Chillagoe, north Queensland. Rock Art Research 13(2): 8592.Google Scholar