The seascape in stone: Archaeological and cosmological assessment of maritime motifs in Yanyuwa ‘rock art’

Située au coeur de la Caraïbe, l’île volcanique de Guadeloupe, ou Basse-Terre, recèle le plus important ensemble d’art rupestre précolombien des Petites Antilles. Ces manifestations graphiques sont généralement attribuées aux communautés céramistes horticoles très mobiles ayant vécu dans les Antilles au Néoindien entre env. 300 av. et 1200 apr. J.-C. Suite aux récentes recherches de terrain menées sur ces sites ornés de plein-air, de nombreuses données nouvelles ont été acquises. Leur analyse spatiale est proposée ici sur des bases quantitatives afin d’aborder les modalités socioculturelles d’ornementation et de fréquentation des sites ornés et, plus largement, le rapport à l’espace insulaire des sociétés précolombiennes ainsi que leurs interactions physiques et symboliques au sein de ce dernier. Les résultats obtenus font ressortir l’existence de plusieurs contextes topographiques distincts du point de vue de l’altitude et de la distance aux ressources en eau douce (source et/ ou rivière). Ils montrent par ailleurs que les sites côtiers occupent préférentiellement les zones du littoral les plus favorables au niveau pluviométrique, mais aussi les plus proches des îles avoisinantes. Une corrélation directe entre la position topographique des sites ornés, le degré d’élaboration et les dimensions des figures qu’ils comprennent est également relevée. Cette corrélation se traduit par une plus forte proportion de grandes figures élaborées aux embouchures et/ ou près de sources côtières comparativement aux sites de plateau et de rivière. Mis en perspective avec les réflexions actuelles sur la dimension archipélique des territoires précolombiens, ceci suggère une utilisation des sites ornés du littoral par une pluralité de groupes différents dans le cadre de leur approvisionnement en eau lors de trajets interinsulaires ou lors de rassemblements périodiques. Par contraste avec l’art rupestre de l’intérieur des terres, la forte proportion de grandes figures élaborées présentes sur les côtes est alors à envisager comme l’expression performative d’un rapport à des espaces partagés et aux autres groupes humains susceptibles de les fréquenter également.

Four centuries of rock art exploration and research in Siberia resulted in considerable achievements in documentation, cultural and chronological attributions of style and traditions and learning about ancient ritual practices related to rock art. However, the range of interpretational frameworks has remained rather limited, and the active role rock art played in prehistoric ethno-cultural processes has been overlooked. Rock art motifs and styles have been by default considered as mere markers of ethno-cultural groupings and migrations. This thesis continues a long-established Soviet/Russian tradition of considering rock art sites in their archaeological context but poses and answers new questions which are relevant not only for Siberian but also global rock art research, namely, why rock art was created, why specific styles emerged and why changes in rock art production occurred. These questions are explored through anthropological perspectives on ethnicity, identity, community and symbolism. Aiming to answer these questions, macro ethno-cultural and social processes that took place in East Siberia in the prehistoric period are reconsidered through the development of rock art styles and traditions. Importantly, this PhD is primarily fieldwork based because publications available for the rock art of East Siberia contain only black-and-white drawings and few low-quality black-and-white photographs. This research is focused on East Siberia which lies east of the Yenisey River, and specifically deals with the following regions: 1) Cis-Baikal, an area to the west from Lake Baikal; 2) Trans-Baikal, an area to the east from Lake Baikal which includes Zabaykalsky Krai and Buryatia; and 3) Sakha Republic (Yakutia). This project’s fieldwork was carried out in Sakha Republic (Yakutia) and Trans-Baikal. In total, 108 rock art sites with more than 6,000 designs were recorded. In addition, rock art sites in the Lower Amur River basin and Tomskaya Pisanitsa in West Siberia were surveyed during this fieldwork. Prior to this PhD project, rock art sites of the Upper Lena River in Cis-Baikal were visited by the author to gain better understanding of the area’s rock art. This thesis is focused on three chronological rock art groups: 1) the earliest, possibly Paleolithic rock art, 2) Neolithic rock art, and 3) Bronze Age rock art styles and traditions. The concept of style is employed as an analytical tool to investigate diachronic and spatial patterns. Several rock art styles and traditions, such as Amur, Angara, Selenga and Kyakhta, were better defined, and their chronology was elaborated based on the archaeological record and analogues in art objects from archaeological contexts. Such an accurate placement of rock art in time and space allowed the exploration of the role rock art played in constructing and reconstructing ethno-cultural identities, which contributes to the wider field of archaeology and cultural anthropology. The most important observation made in this research addresses the questions of why rock art is created, why specific styles and traditions emerge and why changes in rock art occur. Rock art sites create and maintain a strong connection between people, their past and their land. Rock art does not just reflect group or individual identities but helps construct them through powerful emotional attachments. The emergence or change of rock art styles occurs in a situation of major cultural changes, the reasons and dynamics of which may vary. The important factor is that people had to protect their tradition, culture and well-being in a situation of threat to their ethno-cultural continuity. In protecting continuity, it is inevitable changes in a rock art tradition occur. It becomes highly important to mark rocks with symbols of now ‘hot’ identity thus expressing belongingness, and those marks remain there for millennia continuing to structure identities of those who claim their belongingness to these places afterward. Specific styles and motifs become these symbols which need to be threefold – exhibiting the connection with the past, expressing a new identity and being perceived by an outsider. Therefore, a rock art tradition/style simultaneously features continuity, change and similarity to other synchronous traditions/styles which is a shared field of interaction. This view explains why rock art styles do not fit into neat culture-historical frameworks and do not have clear-cut temporal and spatial limits. This explanatory framework can be applied elsewhere in any other study on rock art and identity. This PhD thesis not only contributes to Siberian rock art research in a major new way but also shows many new directions for future rock art research globally.

Austronesians are a genetically-related people, recognized by the similarities in their languages, and with a shared past evidenced by material culture. Research into the origin and migration route of Austronesians has progressed through the disciplines of Linguistics, Archaeology, and Genetics. Out of Taiwan is currently the dominant theory with strong evidence from the three disciplines involved. Consequentially, the Philippines is the first stop of the migrating Austronesians, and therefore the closest link to the homeland in Taiwan linguistically, archaeologically, and genetically. The archaeological approach to understand the Austronesian diaspora has been tracing material culture like nephrite and ceramics. However, rock art as a traceable material culture has been underutilized, especially in places like the Philippines where the rock art is relatively unknown and lacks research. The two rock art styles that have been identified in Borneo, East Timor, and Southwest Pacific and have been linked to Austronesians are the Austronesian Painting Tradition (APT) and the Austronesian Engraving Style (AES). The aim of this research has been to test the validity of APT and AES in the Philippines. An inventory of rock art of the Philippines was needed to enable descriptions and comparisons with the region. This was achieved through low-cost 3D modelling using Structure-from- Motion (SfM) photogrammetry. However, the physical and socio-economic environment in the Philippines makes rock art research a difficult undertaking. One of the challenges of studying Philippine rock art was the geological condition obfuscating the rock art at some of the sites. Remote sensing techniques were used during this research to address the issue. Specifically, an innovative method of combining SfM and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) algorithms was developed so that obscure engraved rock art was made clearly visible. Being able to properly identify the rock art allowed for a more accurate inventory, thereby increasing the reliability of the interpretations. There are 22 verified rock art sites in the Philippines and seven areas with alleged sites. Of the verified sites, four have engravings, 16 have black figures, and two have predominantly orange figures. Four of the sites (three engraving and one painting site) were completely recorded with 3D models which resulted in spatially-linked databases of the three engraving sites. All other sites were described from past publications, museum reports, and empirical observations. By compiling the rock art in an inventory and comparing the inventory to the prescribed qualities of APT and AES, it is evident that APT and AES are not descriptive of Philippine rock art. Furthermore, primary sources of Taiwanese rock art reveal that it is highly unlikely APT originated in Taiwan since there is no known painted rock art on the island. Although the Taiwanese engraved rock art matches the description of AES and could therefore originate in Taiwan, it is inconclusive because the description of AES is too generic. A systematic quantitative literature review of the rock art of Southeast Asia and Micronesia was compiled to ascertain the amount of research conducted and to compare the inventory of the Philippines with the rock art of the region. For example, parallels in anthropomorphic depictions are found within the Philippines and between the Philippines and the region. Aside from determining similarities, conspicuous absences in motifs and styles were also noted, such as hand stencils and painted boats. An example of the unique aspect of Philippine rock art is the textured vulva-forms of Alab because they are not similar to the few other examples of engraved vulva-forms in Southeast Asia. In addition, a summary of Micronesian rock art is provided which might be the first for the region. Micronesian rock art potentially has information of an Austronesian style of rock art. The first colonizers of Micronesia were Austronesians and they remained the sole inhabitants for millennia on some islands until European contact in the 16th century, making the rock art found in Micronesia very likely Austronesian. Cost-effective techniques were emphasized throughout the research, not just as an efficient way to conduct this particular research but also to encourage the continuity of the research into Philippine rock art. Beyond the Philippines, the methods are relevant to any rock art research on a limited budget, which is typical of most rock art projects. It should be noted that the methods employed, while low-cost, were still state-of-the-art for rock art recording. With a baseline of the current conditions of the rock art sites, a longitudinal study can be organised for the quantitative monitoring of change. In addition to answering archaeological questions, the inventory can be used to develop conservation plans and influence government policies.

Although notions of resistance are not new in rock art research concerning cross‐cultural colonial encounters, this study shows how multiple dimensions of Indigenous resistance can be explored through a multidisciplinary analysis of rock art in northern Australia. The study explores the intersections between introduced “Western” and pre‐existing “traditional” motifs in rock art near Yingalarri waterhole in Wardaman Country, Northern Territory, analysing the visual conventions and superimpositions with an eye towards Wardaman epistemological engagements with rock art and experiences of colonial occupation. These intersections reveal further dimensions of Wardaman responses to colonial occupation, including the negotiation of shifting inter‐regional relationships and engagements with Country as well as the continued emphasis on inherited artistic practices. The study also explores the continuing role that rock art, and its interpretation, plays in Indigenous colonial resistance. Wardaman discussions of introduced motifs documented during the 1988–1991 Earthwatch project brought the paintings out of the past, giving them contemporary significance via kinship connections and narratives of survival that challenge colonial efforts to erase Indigenous experiences of early colonial contact and occupation. The paper contributes to archaeological understandings of inter‐regional connections between northern Australian rock art regions and rock art production and discussion as a means for Aboriginal resistance and remembrance after the arrival of Europeans.

Rock art sites are significant repositories of cultural knowledge. Generations of Indigenous Australians lived through some of the most cataclysmic climate change events in human history, including the last glacial period that finished around 25,000 years ago. The knowledge Indigenous societies acquired from these events is held in stories and songlines and is also depicted in images on rock faces around the continent. This is also the case throughout Southeast Asia where rock art depicts the interrelationship of humans and the world around them. Many rock art sites contain images of species now extinct, and scientific analysis of rock art is also providing evidence of the changes in climate over millennia. With rising sea levels, coastal rock art sites are at risk from the impacts of human-induced climate change. This chapter examines the evidence held in rock art, the evidence of climatic damage to rock art, and discusses some of the approaches to rock art management that can incorporate responses for the preservation of rock art in a changing climate.

Reviewed by: Images and Power: Rock Art and Ethics by Polly Schaafsma Jack W. Brink Images and Power: Rock Art and Ethics. By Polly Schaafsma. New York: Springer, 2013. xii + 104 pp. Photographs, references, index. $39.95 paper. Polly Schaafsma’s book on rock art and ethics is a thin volume but it packs in a lot of heavy food for thought. This is not a book for people who love to look at rock art images; there are few here, and only as needed to illustrate specific arguments. Instead, this is an in-depth discussion of some of the most complex and contentious issues facing those who study, manage, or have an interest in rock art. The work is strongly and passionately argued and is sure to stimulate debate, the whole point of the Springer series. Schaafsma begins with a discussion of what rock art is, and whether or not it should be called “art.” Her voice on this issue quickly sets the tone for topics that follow. In response to Native Americans who believe that labeling their ancient imagery as “art” denigrates it by equating it with Western secular traditions, Schaafsma argues that to not call it art is a greater disservice, relegating beautiful works to simple “marks on rocks” and diminishing the heritage of the creators and their descendants. The author serves notice that the book will not simply be an impartial review of the debates pertaining to aboriginal rock art; it will be a passionate defense of positions that Schaafsma feels are most ethical. Schaafsma considers differing, and sometimes conflicting, worldviews of Western science and indigenous people. Concepts of time, space, and landscape are discussed, as is the overarching question of whether or not we can begin to understand these concepts—pictured for us by ancient cultures—given the formative underpinnings of the cultures in which the observer has been reared. Western methods of recording and interpreting rock art, including a heavy reliance on ethnography, are contrasted with the understanding of rock art through oral traditions. Schaafsma highlights the value inherent in all approaches, but cautions that that they are very different ways of seeing the world and cannot be expected to correspond. She notes that to discard the voice of the archaeologist (admittedly dominant for two centuries) in favor of solely a native voice simply replaces one form of imperialism with another. It is precisely the issue of making interpretations of rock art conform to certain expected or “acceptable” views of the past that produces the most strongly argued statements. Schaafsma is unequivocal: archaeologists cannot let themselves be pressured into distorting their research-based interpretations of rock art imagery in order to conform with the desires or expectations of relevant interest groups. Violence is a prime example. Many, including the general public, want ancient indigenous cultures to be models of peace. Schaafsma argues that rock art and other archaeological evidence simply don’t support this. There is much more in this book, including an important discussion of who can or should “own” rock art and the point at which it becomes the heritage of humanity, as well as on the widespread appropriation of rock art images for commercial purposes. I was disappointed, however, that the thorny issue of attempting to preserve rock art as opposed to letting it erode away received no more than a passing comment. The book is finely written by a seasoned veteran of the discipline. It is meant to be provocative, and it is, but [End Page 84] it also strives for understanding. Aft er all, the one absolute is that all art produced by human beings is vitally important in defining who we are. Jack W. Brink Royal Alberta Museum Edmonton, Alberta Copyright © 2015 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

The analysis of style is a widespread method for describing classes of rock art and plays a significant role in forming a chronology for Arnhem Land rock art assemblages. A longstanding issue identified in Arnhem Land rock art has been the ill-defined nature of the ‘Large Naturalistic Style’ (LNS) as originally proposed by rock art researcher George Chaloupka. We have re-examined the distribution, frequency and the stylistic design attributes of 163 early naturalistic macropod paintings from 88 rock art sites across the region utilising predominately legacy records. This provides us with an opportunity to re-examine Chaloupka’s stylistic category of the LNS and describe and map the stylistic attributes used by Indigenous artists in the depictions of early naturalistic animal forms that occur through the Early and Middle Periods (from Pleistocene to early Holocene). We examine Chaloupka’s LNS against established criteria for the definition of a style, such as whether it exhibits a specific and characteristic manner of production and if it is localised to a specific time and place. We present the first reported quantifiable dataset of design attributes for this regional art type. The results provide an opportunity to re-evaluate the temporal and spatial coherence of the Large Naturalistic Style class of rock art. Although a generalised standard depiction of naturalistic macropod forms exists in Early Period rock art, the original definition of LNS and its chronological placement in the rock art sequence is not supported. Therefore, we propose using the more generalised term ‘early large naturalistic fauna’ to represent this class of rock art, rather than LNS in the Arnhem Land rock art schema. This provides a platform by which future research can attempt to investigate the function of early large naturalistic fauna and the potential links of this class of rock art to group identity, ritual and religious behaviours in northern Australia.

A Companion to Rock Art Edited by Jo McDonald and Peter Veth Wiley Blackwell, 2012 ISBN 978-1-4443-3424-1. Pp. xxxiv+680. 133.30 [pounds sterling]. This international volume on rock art provides a complete, comprehensive and up-to-date overview of most of the main research theories and methods used, and the research questions addressed, in current archaeological debates on rock art, be they global or regional. It was conceived by the editors as a tool teaching the next generation of rock art researchers in a 13-week semester cycle. But this volume is more than a collection of educational materials. It gathers research papers addressing some key topics in rock-art studies, and thus becomes essential reading for anyone interested and/or conducting rock-art research today. The 37 contributions by 57 international scholars from five continents are structured into 11 meaningful sections, with two to four papers per section. While the chapters in each section are intended to address a specific issue, well defined by the section headings (I. Explanatory frameworks; II. Inscribed landscapes; III. Rock art at the regional level; IV. Engendered approaches; V. Form, style and aesthetics; VI. Contextual rock art; VII. The mediating role of rock art; VIII. Rock art, identity and indigeneity; IX. Rock art management and interpretation, X. Dating rock art, XI. Rock art in the digital age), some key questions are explored recursively across the volume. This shows their significance for achieving a more complete understanding of rock art, as a tool for exploring past and present human behaviour and cultural practices. Questions of time (relative or chronometric), place, past and present as well as individual and group identities, function and/or meaning are explored through the systematic deconstruction and analysis of the motifs, themes and panels, their patterns of variation, the context and/or the landscapes, from a variety of international perspectives and backgrounds. Case studies from Australia and the Pacific, Northern and Southern America, Siberia, Europe, Africa and India, and a wide range of periods, from the European Upper Palaeolithic to current Australian rock art, fully illustrate these questions. All these studies remind us once more that rock art is not only about the decoration of passive surfaces with beautiful images, as emphasised by Blinkhorn et al. in chapter 11. Rock art is an alternative source of information about human behaviour and practices, and can be used to explore continuities and discontinuities, human interaction, past territoriality, group mobility, symbolic behaviour and so forth. The large number of chapters prevents us from briefly summarising each of them, but some key issues for current debates are worth mentioning. Of special interest for interpretative approaches is Lewis-Williams' reflective contribution (chapter 2) on the misinterpretation and misuse of his concept of to universally interpret rock art. As he states, shamanism is only one of the many potential interpretations of rock art, and thus it cannot be systematically used to interpret past arts. While past interpretative trends used to emphasise a unique function for Pleistocene art (for a brief summary of past interpretative schools, see Moro and Gonzalez, chapter 15), current studies recognise the multiple functions of past and present imagery and the variety of social contexts (religious, social and political) in which art operates. Take as an example the multiple functions of Western Desert People's rock art, summarised by McDonald and Veth (chapter 6: 96), which includes marking place and individual's affiliation, storytelling or instructive purposes, initiation ceremonies, visual representation of an ancestral being or event, and so forth. It is fully accepted throughout the volume that only through a thoughtful analysis and understanding of the context of rock art (the walls, the surrounding archaeological site, the geographical context, the acoustic or other sensorial properties, etc. …

That is a cassowary foot… and we are the cassowary clan. Dugulbarra fieldworker's initial reaction to locating a Wet Tropics dendroglyph (March 2014). Identity is a key concept in Australian rock art research. Archaeological interpretations of rock imagery recognise that motifs and their production convey information, not just about the artist, but also about the cultural and social context in which motifs were produced. Rock art studies provide a unique window into the world view of the artists that is not available through other archaeological material. Aboriginal custodians are also interested in the relationship between imagery and identity, often through a lens that does not separate the social, cultural and physical landscapes. Dendroglyphs, although rare, offer similar opportunities to explore visual expression, identity and place. The Wet Tropics of Queensland offers a unique set of circumstances to investigate style in Late Holocene visual culture. The rock art, affected by the high humidity, was likely created relatively recently (Edwards 2007; Gunn and Thorn 1994; Ward et al. 1995) while dendroglyphs, only as old as the trees on which they are carved, are not likely to exceed a few hundred years in age (Buhrich et al. 2016). In this thesis, I explore the relationships between rock art, dendroglyphs and language in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland to understand relationships between stylistic choices and social context. My research identifies that rock art production was, and continues to be, strongly linked to cultural identity. However, in the Wet Tropics at least, language was not the main factor in determining style in either rock art or dendroglyphs. Across Australia, Aboriginal social and cultural identity was multi-faceted and individuals belonged to a complex web of intersecting identities that included language, clan, totems and moieties. While language has emerged as the most significant in post-colonial Australia, my findings suggest this may not always have been the case. Wet Tropics Aboriginal groups have consistently voiced the need for researchers to collaborate with them in all stages of research. My research design responds to this by incorporating both formal and informed approaches through quantitative (site and motif recording) and qualitative methods (multiple interviews with relevant Aboriginal people). By combining these forms of data, the rock art and dendroglyphs can be studied within context of broader Aboriginal cultural landscapes. Forty-five rock art sites and twelve dendroglyph sites were examined, in six language areas. While similarities identify a Wet Tropics rock art style characterised by painting as the main technique, significant differences were found between rock art styles in the eastern and western zones of the study area which, in some cases, intersect linguistic boundaries. Dendroglyphs, found in the east, where figurative designs dominate the rock art corpus, are mostly non-figurative like the western style rock art. Furthermore, dendroglyphs and rock art are found in different contexts, suggesting that, as forms of visual expression, they had distinct roles. Today, rock art sites and dendroglyphs continue to be highly significant to Aboriginal people, as part of a living cultural landscape that incorporates story places, walking tracks and ceremonial sites.

Rock art conjures up images of the distant past. Petroglyphs and pictographs on the sheer rock faces above Lake Superior and on those of other waterways, such as the Milk River in Alberta or Canyon del Muerto in Arizona, attract tourists and scholars who puzzle over their age and meaning. To many Natives, these rock-art sites are considered sacred and private. This traditional attitude, however, is challenged by a number of contemporary Canadian artists of Aboriginal descent, who regard these rock art images as sources of inspiration and iconography for new art works executed in various media. Rock art has been appropriated. Contemporary artists are reclaiming this as part of their history, and this recycling and reusing of existing is a widespread phenomenon among both self-taught and university-educated artists. This paper intends to examine some of these new art works with ancient as evidence of altered contexts and blurred distinctions between past and present. Appropriation is a strategy common to postmodernism because to appropriate is to dismantle traditional notions of (Solomon-Godeau 1984, 81). In fact, Peter Wolheim says, we must dispense with concepts of exclusive authorship and originality in favour of a notion of creative interdependence and received imagery (Wolheim 1986, 26). Contemporary artists, however, are using these images because they are old and, therefore, historical. Most importantly, rock art images are indigenous and immediately recognizable as Native rather than as another European import. The re-presentation of rock art as new is as varied as the artists who employ it. Two Alberta artists who use rock art as an inspiration and as a sign of identity are Joane Cardinal-Schubert (1942- ) and Jane Ash Poitras (1951- ). Their references to rock art forms are not duplicates of those found on rock faces, but rather new designs, which emulate the linear character of rock art images. The angularity of figures painted in this mode by Cardinal-Schubert reveal the Milk River petroglyphs as source, whereas Ash Poirras uses Milk River forms, but also adopts a distinctive figure type found only in Arizona. In Northern Ontario, Norval Morrisseau and his followers in the Woodland School use rock art images to convey the legends and stories of the Ojibwa. In addition to Morrisseau, Debassige and Angeconeb also alter the rock art by adding color and internal detail to the rock art images. An exception is Carl Beam's art, for when he employs a rock art image in one of his paintings or prints, the forms re tain the red ochre color and the silhouetted shapes as found on the old traditional rock sites. Why Beam's recycling of rock art is different from the other artists appears to be a matter of personal choice rather than one of background or artistic training. The Alberta Artists How does the use of traditional rock art by contemporary artists differ? Starting with the Alberta artists, Joane Cardinal-Schubert uses rock art examples in her new art, but also uses the authentic ones to inspire her own versions. Jane Ash Poitras, who lives and works in Edmonton, has used image types from the Milk River, but has also borrowed pictographic designs from the southwestern United States to exert her view that all groups have an affinity that is not limited to Canada alone. Both Cardinal-Schubert and Ash Poitras were raised as non-Natives and only began to explore their heritage as adults. They have both achieved university degrees in art. Joane Cardinal-Schubert In Cardinal-Schubert's painting The Earth is for Everyone (1984) pictographic images are situated below an arched landscape, capturing the placement of the Milk River petroglyphs on steep rock coulees formed by the Milk River, which is just north of the Montana border; the rock art designs are within view of the Sweet Grass Hills, a spiritual place, and, although sacred in themselves, are subordinate in function and meaning to the location itself (Vastokasl992, 37). …

ABSTRACTWe write from an ontological premise that there are other ways to know and understand the “archaeological record” and “rock art” that are devoid of Western ontology, and there have been for many millennia. In this article, we consider one specific Indigenous place and its associated visual elements, what might be commonly referred to as “rock art.” This place, Nalangkalurru, is replete with meaning, grounded in a well‐founded and understood logic and reason. Nalangkalurru belongs to the Yanyuwa people of the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria region, northern Australia. By adopting methodological openness, we take a journey of steadied nondistraction oriented towards the Yanyuwa ontology that is in place. When viewing the visual elements of Nalangkalurru, which include Ancestral Beings that are visually present on the cave's large rock surface, Yanyuwa have resolutely declared that this “is not a painting.” We explore what this comment means and expand the discussion to consider the nature of rock art research, when “rock art” is not “rock art.” These insights inspire a reflective discussion on the ways Yanyuwa, and Indigenous ontologies more broadly, unsettle and aid the ontological turn. [ontology, rock art, colonialism, Indigenous, Australia]

One of the major challenges facing archaeologists and cultural heritage/resource managers is how to better approach and understand concepts of significance and value of archaeological features (e.g. stone tools, rock art sites, pottery, stone arrangements, shell middens) in contemporary Indigenous settings. In this article, I focus on exploring contemporary Indigenous engagement and interaction with one specific type of archaeological feature—rock art—to develop a better understanding of how significance and value are attributed to sites and motifs. Through the lens of affectual, relational, and cultural understandings of rock art in northern Australia and the American Southwest I examine the complex nature of encounters and responses (e.g. verbal and gestural) to sites and motifs to illustrate how concerns with significance go beyond the archaeological realm. Using Gell's (1992 The Technology of Enchantment and the Enchantment of Technology. In Anthropology, Art, and Aesthetics, edited by Jeremy Coote and Anthony Shelton, pp. 40–67. Clarendon Press, Oxford) ideas of agency and affect as a starting point, and then unpacking the responses that are elicited from visiting or viewing rock art, I focus on investigating the structure of the relationship between people and the contemporary social significance of archaeological features. A key outcome from this research is the realization that contemporary engagement with rock art is diverse and can be shaped by a variety of factors including ontological and epistemological understandings, emotional experiences (e.g. fear), social memory, and the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Mineral deposition systems at rock art sites, Kimberley, Northern Australia — Field observations

One of the aspects that distinguishes the investigation and conservation of rock art in Australia, the Americas and parts of Africa from other parts of the world is the intrinsic link between rock art and living Indigenous cultures. Many Australian rock art sites benefit from the presence of a continuity of cultural connectedness. There are both challenges and advantages to these connections in relation to rock art research and site management. We discuss these by focussing on two sites located in Carnarvon Gorge in the remote Southern Central Highlands of Queensland. These sites, Art Gallery and Cathedral Cave, manifest cultural continuity, albeit with some disruptions. We show how Indigenous knowledge frameworks can be incorporated into rock art research and site management, especially for the prevention of site vandalism such as graffiti. There is a need to translate this into more robust policy design that brings Indigenous involvement to the fore. As has been argued for a number of Australian and international rock art sites, the incorporation of the Indigenous voice in site management enhances the safeguarding of the rock art for current and future generations. However, there are many challenges for Indigenous communities wanting to be more directly involved in the management of their heritage including Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland.

As with many other parts of the world, rock art research has blossomed in Australia since the mid-1 980s. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this, including the formation of new national and international rock art organisations and a growing sense of confidence in the archaeological ability to characterise rock art practices in both space and time (these two trends are presumably related). Until recently many archaeologists tended largely to ignore rock art as it could not easily be dated, and therefore could not easily be situated within regional models of prehistory. The advent of AMS radiocarbon dating on tiny amounts of carbon, such as is sometimes available in charcoal drawings, organic binders contained within pigments, and stratified oxalates located either immediately beneath or above rock art, changed this by offering archaeologists a means by which the antiquity of artistic expressions could realistically be investigated (e.g. Ilger et al. 1995, 1996; Van de Merwe et al. 1987; Watchman 1993; Watchman and Cole 1993; but see McDonald et al. 1990). Long before the advent of AMS radiocarbon dating, however, many attempts were made to order the art chronologically by dividing it into stylistic and/or technological sets or by reference to assumed evolutionary trends, and thence arguing for their temporal differentiation with little absolute or relative chronological information (e.g. Walsh 1994); indeed, such endeavours continue to this day (e.g. see discussions in Lorblanchet and Bahn 1993). In Australia, this approach has been articulated at various geographical and temporal scales, such as Maynard's (1979) influential scheme dividing Australian rock art into three time periods, the Panaramitee, simple figurative and complex figurative (from earliest to latest), any given region possessing at least one of these three periods, in the understanding that their relative temporal ordering always stayed the same. More recently, Walsh (1994) has argued for a more complex chronological series of rock art phases for the Kimberley of northwestern Australia. Again, each phase consists of a specified set of artistic conventions, such as the use of certain pigment colours, the depiction of certain items of material culture and the employment of certain brush strokes, but at this stage no evidence has been presented for the temporal relationship of types. Other examples of the typological ordering of images to construct chronological models can be found, both in Australia and elsewhere (e.g. see discussion by Watchman 1996). Our aims here are not to criticise the construction of types, typologies or typological systems, but rather to argue that the ensuing temporal ordering of types should be based on explicitly temporal data (see also McDonald 1994). Some of the work presented here was previously addressed in Lecole (1996). In this spirit, this paper presents new data from Wardaman Aboriginal country in northern Australia, where both techniques and rock surfaces have influenced motif forms. There is as yet no evidence for change in motif forms through time.