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AMS dating of rock art in the Laura Region, Cape York Peninsula, Australia – protocols and results of recent research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

Noelene Cole  and
Alan Watchman
Noelene Cole
Affiliation:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia (Email: [email protected])
Alan Watchman
Affiliation:
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia
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Abstract

The authors describe rock art dating research in Australia using the oxalate method. While the array of dates obtained (which range from c. 1200 to c. 25 000 BP) show a satisfactory correlation with other archaeological data, there are mismatches which suggest that some motifs were often imitated by later artists, and/or that the mineral accretions continued to form periodically, perhaps continuously, as a regional phenomenon over a long period of time.

Keywords

PleistoceneHoloceneAustraliarock artQuinkan
Type
Method
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 305 , September 2005 , pp. 661 - 678
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

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