Dating the Dreaming: extinct fauna in the petroglyphs of the Pilbara region, Western Australia
Examples of striped marsupial depictions have been reported from both the coastal and inland Pilbara. Many are regarded as images of the thylacine, an animal that disappeared from mainland Australia some 3000–4000 years ago. Also observable in the rock art is the 'fat-tailed macropod', a distinctive rendition of a marsupial with an extremely thick tail. Recent investigations in the Tom Price area and on the Burrup Peninsula confirm that both motifs pertain to the more ancient rock art corpus. Restricted artistic variation within the depiction of these two species confirms the trend to naturalistic style within animal subjects and suggests a extensive, culturally cohesive, artistic tradition across the Pilbara during the Pleistocene and early Holocene. At two specific locations, aspects of the rock art may be explained in terms of contemporary oral traditions and cultural practices, affording one way of placing temporal parameters on these early graphic traditions. I argue that the rock art is not just representational; that it communicates mythological narratives and behavioural traits, which have a deep antiquity to the Dreaming of more than just a few thousand years.
Of Turtles in Particular: a Distributional Study of an Archaeological Landscape in Southern Burrup
An audit of rock art and other archaeological sites was undertaken of a limited area of the Pilbara Iron lease, on the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia. An analysis of the finds found that occupation was focused on two rich resource areas, foreshore and inland waterholes. Rock art, however, was found throughout the area but was more concentrated around the inland waterholes, with secondary concentrations on the foreshore but not in association with the coastal midden. Examination of the variation of one particular motif, turtles, showed that while reflecting the pattern of overall motif concentrations, particular patterned forms did not occur over the whole area. One interpretation of the distribution could be that individual patterns were produced (or owned) by particular groups or persons. It is also possible that the stylistic forms reflect chronological phases in the production of rock art.