Arnhem Land Maliwawa rock art opens window to past

Beautiful Arnhem Land rock art photos including three rare depictions of bilbies and a dugong have been explained by researchers in a new paper in Australian Archaeology right now (Oct one).

Led by Professor Paul Taçon, Australian Investigation Council Laureate Fellow and Griffith College Chair in Rock Artwork Investigation, the crew documented 572 earlier mysterious photos ranging in age from 6000 to 9400 decades from 87 web-sites from 2008 to 2018.

Named Maliwawa Figures, they are uncovered in northwest Arnhem Land and recorded at web-sites from Awunbarna (Mount Borradaile location) to the Namunidjbuk clan estate of the Wellington Selection.

The Maliwawa photos include large (about 50cm significant, in some cases lifestyle-sizing) naturalistic people and macropods with animals more typically depicted than human figures. Painted in various shades of crimson with stroke-infill or define varieties with a number of crimson strokes as infill, they are shown with minimal materials tradition other than various varieties of headdresses.

Professor Taçon mentioned the rock art presented a window into the past and confirmed us what men and women were being performing at this time. “They’re a missing url among the well-known early-style Dynamic Figures, about twelve,000 decades of age, and X-ray figures created in the past 4000 decades.”

“Maliwawas are depicted as solitary figures and as element of group scenes exhibiting various functions and some may well have a ceremonial context. Human figures are frequently depicted with animals, particularly macropods, and these animal-human relationships seem to be central to the artists’ information,” he mentioned.

He also mentioned the Maliwawa Figures and scenes were being not just very simple depictions of daily lifestyle.

“The artists are clearly speaking facets of their cultural beliefs, with an emphasis on essential animals and interactions among people and other people or animals.

“Indeed, animals are a lot more prevalent than in the Dynamic Figure style rock art in conditions of share of subject matter make a difference, as 89% of Dynamic Figures are human, whereas only about 42% of Maliwawa Figures are human.”

Professor Taçon mentioned in some photos animals pretty much appeared to be taking part in or watching some human action.

“This event, and the frequency and variability of headdresses, indicates a ritual context for some of the production of Maliwawa rock art.

Co-writer Dr Sally K. May well from Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Artwork Heritage Device mentioned the discovery of what seem to be depictions of ‘bilbies’ at an Awunbarna web-site was astonishing.

“Bilbies are connected with arid and semi-arid environments considerably to the south and Arnhem Land has not been inside their variety in historic periods,” she mentioned.

“Two of these animals are back again-to-back again and pretty much equivalent in sizing. The third bilby-like depiction seems to have been created at a distinct time, and most likely by a distinct artist, as it is larger, has a extended snout, has more line infill, and is in a lighter shade of crimson.

“There is also the probability that the depictions are of Agile Wallabies, Northern Nailtail Wallabies or Short-eared Rock-wallabies, all popular throughout Kakadu-Arnhem Land right now, but all of these species have a lot shorter ears and snouts than extant bilbies and the creatures depicted at Awunbarna.”

The researchers also recorded the oldest know depiction of a dugong.

“The solitary dugong painting also looks out of position,” Dr May well mentioned.

“Currently it is located about 15 kilometres south of the Arafura Sea but 6000-9400 decades ago the coastline would have been further north. It indicates a Maliwawa artist visited the coastline but the deficiency of other saltwater fauna may well propose this was not a repeated event.”

At some web-sites there are two large macropods shown back again-to-back again with a smaller area among them. There are also some back again-to-back again human figures and the back again-to-back again ‘bilbies’.

“The Maliwawa back again-to-back again figures are the oldest known for western Arnhem Land and it seems this painting convention began with the Maliwawa style. It continues to the present with bark paintings and paintings on paper,” Professor Taçon mentioned.

“But was the Maliwawa rock art sporadic and created during a limited time period of time or did it proceed about a extended period of time of time?

He mentioned they could not rule out the probability that Maliwawa rock paintings were being produced by a smaller variety of artists. It is even achievable only a few artists created most of the paintings, with a person liable for the more define varieties with nominal infill and a different creating a lot of the fuller stroke-line infill illustrations.

“At the very same time, a lot art produced after the Maliwawa style demonstrates a impressive consistency in the way of depiction and a considerable maximize in the standardisation of some subject matter make a difference these kinds of as X-ray fish.

“So, most likely what we are observing is expanding standardisation in the way of depiction after the period of time in which Dynamic Figures were being created. This has implications for rock art investigation just about everywhere in which a style or way of depiction is instructed to have been created about hundreds of decades or millennia.”

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