Continuity and change in the anthropomorphic figures of Australia’s northwest Kimberley

Abstract

One of the largest concentrations of rock paintings in Australia is found in the rugged Kimberley region in the northwest of the continent. A temporal sequence of visually distinctive figurative styles is presumed to span periods of cultural change and major climatic events. As the nature and course of these changes are poorly understood, this paper investigates the relationships between continuity and change in the stylistic attributes of the selected anthropomorphic figures in the rock art assemblage. Some previous Kimberley rock art researchers have argued for an abrupt discontinuity in the art assemblage between the Wararrajai Gwion (the most recent of the Gwion styles) and Painted Hand Periods (formally Clothes Peg Figure and Clawed Hand Periods respectively), while others have argued for more gradual change. Based on the study of 204 rock art sites from 15 site complexes, which included a total of 7,579 motifs and 3,685 identifiable anthropomorphic figures, we identify the core characteristics of anthropomorphic figures in each of the established stylistic periods and show that there is no evidence to support notions of an abrupt discontinuity of art through time. Rather, attribute preferences changed gradually, existing as clades of variation rather than discrete units, with identifiable threads of continuity and periods when certain attributes (core characteristics) are preferentially adopted. A quantitative analysis supports our interpretation.