The case for continuity of human occupation and rock art production in the Kimberley, Australia

Abstract

The Kimberley region hosts a large body of figurative and non-figurative rock art, which we argue has changed through time as people have utilised it to interact with social and environmental changes. While the dating of this art is still nascent, preliminary evidence shows that some of the Kimberley’s earliest rock art dates to the terminal Pleistocene. This early art includes cupules as well as naturalistic animal, human, and plant figures. We focus on the continuity of these figurative motif types across styles, as matched to the occupation of archaeological sites and landscapes through time. We present a revised framework for relating style phases to changing social organisation, landscapes, and environments. This framework relies on new dates for rock art and archaeological data sets, as well as improved palaeoclimatic and sea level data. The relationship is explained by deploying a combination of Information Exchange and Group Boundary Formation Theory. This approach allows us plausibly to link changes in art, human occupation, and palaeo-environmental records at longer millennia-increment time scales.