Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T18:54:45.424Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Oceanic rock art: first direct dating of prehistoric stencils and paintings from New Caledonia (Southern Melanesia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Christophe Sand
Affiliation:
1Département d'Archéologie, Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie, BP: 2393, 98846 Nouméa, New Caledonia
Hélène Valladas
Affiliation:
2Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS 1572, Bât. 12, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Hélène Cachier
Affiliation:
2Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS 1572, Bât. 12, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Nadine Tisnérat-Laborde
Affiliation:
2Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS 1572, Bât. 12, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Maurice Arnold
Affiliation:
3Laboratoire de Mesure du Carbone 14, UMS 2572, Bât. 450, CEA Saclay, F-91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
Jacques Bolé
Affiliation:
1Département d'Archéologie, Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie, BP: 2393, 98846 Nouméa, New Caledonia
André Ouetcho
Affiliation:
1Département d'Archéologie, Musée de Nouvelle-Calédonie, BP: 2393, 98846 Nouméa, New Caledonia

Extract

Rock art in an inland cave on the island of Lifou, New Caledonia, has been radiocarbon dated. A cluster of early paintings date to 2500 years ago, soon after the arrival of the first settlers, who must have quickly gone inland probably in pursuit of fresh water, available near the cave. They left their mark on the cave in the form of numerous hand stencils. During the first millennium AD, later generations of artists used the same cave, drawing birds and a circular sign for water still recognised by the present community.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

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

Anderson, A., Bedford, S., Clark, G., Lilley, I., Sand, C., Summerhayes, G. & Torrence, R.. 2001. An inventory of Lapita sites containing dentatestamped pottery, in Clark, G., Sorovi-Vunidilo, T. & Anderson, A. (ed.) The archaeology of Lapita dispersal in Oceania: 113. Canberra: Terra Australis 17.Google Scholar
Arnold, M., Bard, E., Maurice, P. & Duplessy, J. C.. 1987. 14C dating with the Gif-sur-Yvette Tandetron accelerator: status report. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B29: 120–3.Google Scholar
Ballard, C. 1992. Painted rock art sites in Western Melanesia: Locational evidence for an ‘Austronesian’ painting tradition, in Mc Donald, J. & Haskovec, I. (ed.) State of the art: regional rock art studies in Australia and Melanesia: 94106. Melbourne: Occasional AURA Publications 6, Australian Rock Art Association.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 1997. The Lapita Peoples: ancestors of the Oceanic world. Cambridge (MA): Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kirch, P. V. 2000. On the Roads of the Winds: an archaeological history of the Pacific Islands before European contact. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Monnin, J. & Sand, C.. 2004. Kibo, le serment gravé. Essai de synthèse sur les pétroglyphes calédoniens. Nouméa: Les Cahiers de l'Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 16.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1995. “Le temps d'avant”. La préhistoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Sand, C. 1998. Recent Archaeological Research in the Loyalty Islands of New Caledonia. Asian Perspectives 37 (2): 194223.Google Scholar
Sand, C., Bolé, J., Ouetcho, A. & Batick, J. P.. 1998. La grotte ornée de Fetra-Hé à Wanaham (District de Wetr, Lifou): étude d'un site souterrain auxîles Loyauté. Nouméa: Département d'Archéologie du Service des Musées et du Patrimoine.Google Scholar
Sand, C., Bolé, J. & Ouetcho, A.. 2003. Prehistory and its perception in a Melanesian Archipelago: the New Caledonia example. Antiquity 77: 505–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sand, C. & Kirch, P. V.. 2002. L'expédition archéologique d'Edward W. Gifford et Richard Shutler Jr. en Nouvelle-Calédonie au cours de l'année 1952. Edward W. Gifford and Richard Shutler Jr's Archaeological Expedition to New Caledonia in 1952. Nouméa: Les Cahiers de l'Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 13.Google Scholar
Specht, J. 1979. Rock art in the western Pacific, in Mead, S. (ed.) Exploring the visual art in Oceania: 5882. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii.Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1997. The Island Melanesians. Cambridge (MA): Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Beck, J.W., Burr, G.S., Hughen, K.A., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Plicht, J.v.d. & Spurk, M.. 1998. Intcal98 Radiocarbon age calibration, 24,000-0 Cal BP. Radiocarbon 40: 1041–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, C., Thomas, Y., Brunet, P., Lips, B. & Lips, J.. 1996. Expédition en Nouvelle-Calédonie. Lifou 1995. Unpublished Field Report.Google Scholar
Valladas, H., Cachier, H., Maurice, P., Bernaldo De Quiros, F., Clottes, J., Cabrera Valdes, V., Uzquiano, P. & Arnold, M.. 1992. Direct radiocarbon dates for prehistoric paintings at the Altamira, El Castillo and Niaux caves. Nature 357: 6870.Google Scholar
Valladas, H., Tisnerat-Laborde, N., Cachier, H. & Arnold, M.. 1999. Datation directe des peintures préhistorique par la methode du carbon 14 en spectrometrie de masse par accélérateur. Revue Archéométrie Supplement 1999: 3944.Google Scholar
Valladas, H., Tisnerat-Laborde, N., Cachier, H., Arnold, M., Bernaldo De Quiros, F., Cabrera-Valdes, V., Clottes, J., Courtin, J., Fortea-Perez, J., Gonzales-Sainz, C. & Moure-Romanillo, A.. 2001. Radiocarbon AMS dates for Paleolithic cave paintings. Radiocarbon 43: 977–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M. 2002. Picturing Pacific Prehistory. The rock-art of Vanuatu in a western Pacific context. Unpublished PhD thesis, The Australian National University.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. 2003. Rock-art transformations in the western Pacific, in Sand, C. (ed.) Pacific Archaeology: assessments and prospects: 265–84. Nouméa: Les Cahiers de l'Archéologie en Nouvelle-Calédonie 15.Google Scholar