Into the Past: A Step Towards a Robust Kimberley Rock Art Chronology
The recent establishment of a minimum age estimate of 39.9 ka for the origin of rock art in Sulawesi has challenged claims that Western Europe was the locus for the production of the world’s earliest art assemblages. Tantalising excavated evidence found across northern Australian suggests that Australia too contains a wealth of ancient art. However, the dating of rock art itself remains the greatest obstacle to be addressed if the significance of Australian assemblages are to be recognised on the world stage. A recent archaeological project in the northwest Kimberley trialled three dating techniques in order to establish chronological markers for the proposed, regional, relative stylistic sequence. Applications using optically-stimulated luminescence (OSL) provided nine minimum age estimates for fossilised mudwasp nests overlying a range of rock art styles, while Accelerator Mass Spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) results provided an additional four. Results confirm that at least one phase of the northwest Kimberley rock art assemblage is Pleistocene in origin. A complete motif located on the ceiling of a rockshelter returned a minimum age estimate of 16 ± 1 ka. Further, our results demonstrate the inherent problems in relying solely on stylistic classifications to order rock art assemblages into temporal sequences. An earlier than expected minimum age estimate for one style and a maximum age estimate for another together illustrate that the Holocene Kimberley rock art sequence is likely to be far more complex than generally accepted with different styles produced contemporaneously well into the last few millennia. It is evident that reliance on techniques that produce minimum age estimates means that many more dating programs will need to be undertaken before the stylistic sequence can be securely dated.
'Ancient Mariners' in Northwest Kimberley Rock Art: An Analysis of Watercraft and Crew Depictions
The first Australians are believed to have arrived by boat some 50-60,000 years ago with the northern coastline of the continent a likely beach-head. The prospect of intact or even partial remains of ancient watercraft turning up in the archaeological record is remote. The expansion and contraction or the coastline over the last 60,000 years means that early landing sites would have been inundated as sea levels rose and fell, and the organic materials, perhaps wood or other plant material, from which such early watercraft would have been constructed have long since rotted away. Rock art assemblages from Australia's north then, represent the most likely record of venturesome mariners, who may have reached the coast over the millennia since initial occupation, or of watercraft constructed by Aboriginal inhabitants settled in coastal regions.