Explanipedia

Graffiti, Vandalism and Destruction: Preserving Rock Art in a Globalized World Open

Paul Taçon · 2024

Rock art and frontier conflict in Southeast Asia: Insights from direct radiocarbon ages for the large human figures of Gua Sireh, Sarawak Open

Jillian Huntley, Paul Taçon, Andrea Jalandoni, Fiona Petchey, Émilie Dotte-Sarout , et al. · 2023

Gua Sireh, located in western Sarawak (Malaysian Borneo), is known for its rock art. The cave houses hundreds of charcoal drawings depicting people, often with headdresses, knives and other accoutrements. Here, we present direct radiocarbo…

This cave on Borneo has been used for 20,000 years – and we’ve now dated rock art showing colonial resistance 400 years ago Open

Jillian Huntley, Paul Taçon, Andrea Jalandoni, Émilie Dotte-Sarout, Fiona Petchey · 2023

Archaeology of animate ancestors and entanglement at Mayarnjarn in the Wellington Range region, Northern Territory Open

Duncan Wright, Ladislav Nejman, Steve Skitmore, Wayne Brennan, Rebecca S. V. Parkes , et al. · 2023

The Wellington Range region, in far Northern Australia, provides a remarkable record of cultural encounter. Cathedral‐sized rock art galleries include contact imagery referencing Macassan and European visitors while lithic artefact assembl…

Hand stencils and communal history: A case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea Open

Roxanne Tsang, Sebastien Katuk, Sally K. May, Paul Taçon, François‐Xavier Ricaut , et al. · 2023

Hand stencils directly represent modern humans in landscape settings around the world. Yet their social and cultural contexts are often overlooked due to the lack of ethnography associated with the artwork. This paper explores the hand ste…

Majumbu (‘Old Harry’) and the Spencer-Cahill bark painting collection Open

Paul Taçon, Luke Taylor, Sally K. May, Joakim Goldhahn, Andrea Jalandoni , et al. · 2023

From 1912, British anthropologist W. Baldwin Spencer and buffalo-shooter Paddy Cahill collected 163 bark paintings made by artists who also painted in rock shelters in western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. Spencer made detailed notes ab…

The history of Arnhem Land rock art research: A multicultural, multilingual and multidisciplinary pursuit Open

Paul Taçon · 2022

Introduction Open

Paul Taçon, Sally K. May, Ursula Frederick, Jo McDonald, Mary Blyth · 2022

Histories of Australian Rock Art Research Open

Melissa Marshall, Jeffrey Lee, Gabrielle O’Loughlin, Kadeem May, Jillian Huntley , et al. · 2022

Australia has one of the largest inventories of rock art in the world with pictographs and petroglyphs found almost anywhere that has suitable rock surfaces – in rock shelters and caves, on boulders and rock platforms. First Nations people…

Monitoring and Maintenance of Open-Air Rock Art Sites Open

Melissa Marshall, Paul Taçon · 2022

Research into rock art conservation and management strategies has been undertaken for a comparatively short period of time in Australia: a mere 40–50 years. However, there has been a strong focus on strategies and interventions relevant fo…

Marra Wonga: Archaeological and contemporary First Nations interpretations of one of central Queensland’s largest rock art sites Open

Paul Taçon, Suzanne C. Thompson, Kate Greenwood, Andrea Jalandoni, Michael Williams , et al. · 2022

A large sandstone rock art site, Marra Wonga, near Barcaldine, central Queensland, is the focus of this paper. This 160-metre-long rock shelter is estimated to have over 15,000 petroglyphs, which are mostly animal tracks, lines, grooves an…

Extraordinary Back-to-Back Human and Animal Figures in the Art of Western Arnhem Land, Australia: One of the World's Largest Assemblages Open

Paul Taçon, Sally K. May, Joakim Goldhahn, Luke Taylor, Liam M. Brady , et al. · 2022

Depictions of mythical beings appear in many different forms of art world-wide, including rock art of various ages. In this paper we explore a particular type of imagery, back-to-back figures, consisting of two human-like figures or animal…

Rock Art and (Re)Production of Narratives: A Cassowary Bone Dagger Stencil Perspective from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea Open

Roxanne Tsang, Sebastien Katuk, Sally K. May, Paul Taçon, François‐Xavier Ricaut , et al. · 2022

Cassowaries ( Casuarius ) are one of the largest indigenous animal species of New Guinea. Researchers have long been trying to understand their local socio-cultural significance. Here we present new results from interviews recorded in 2018…

Meaningful choices and relational networks: Analysing western Arnhem Land’s Painted Hand rock art style using chaîne opératoire Open

Liam M. Brady, Luke Taylor, Sally K. May, Paul Taçon · 2022

High-precision U-series dating of the late Pleistocene – early Holocene rock paintings at Tiger Leaping Gorge, Jinsha River valley, southwestern China Open

Yun Wu, Yanuo Jiao, Xueping Ji, Paul Taçon, Zhijian Yang , et al. · 2021

Agency, affect and archaeologists: Transforming place with rock art in auwim, upper karawari-arafundi region, east sepik, Papua new Guinea Open

Roxanne Tsang, Liam M. Brady, Sebastien Katuk, Paul Taçon, F.X. Ricaut , et al. · 2021

Contemporary narratives and interpretations surrounding rock art production in present-day settings provide important insights into rock art practices in the past and present. These traditions can still be seen today in places such as Afri…

Revisiting Francis Birtles’ painted car: exploring a cross-cultural encounter with Aboriginal artist Nayombolmi at Imarlkba Gold Mine, 1929–1930 Open

Joakim Goldhahn, Sally K. May, Paul Taçon · 2021

Inspired by an intriguing photograph of a painted Bean car with Aboriginal designs, this paper explores the cross-cultural encounter between the renowned adventurer Francis Birtles (1881–1941) and Aboriginal artist Nayombolmi (c. 1895–1967…

An Analysis of Motif Clusters at the Nanguluwurr Rock Art Site, Kakadu National Park, N. T. Australia Open

John A. Hayward, Sally K. May, Joakim Goldhahn, Andrea Jalandoni, Paul Taçon · 2021

During recent detailed recording of Nanguluwurr, a rock art site that is part of the Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) complex of cultural sites in Kakadu National Park, Australia, the data showed discrete clusters of specific motif types distribute…

The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence Open

Sally K. May, Daryl Wesley, Joakim Goldhahn, Ronald Lamilami, Paul Taçon · 2021

The contact period rock art of northern Australia provides unprecedented insights into Aboriginal cross-cultural experiences during the last few hundred years. Northwest Arnhem Land, Australia, has an extensive rock art assemblage and a co…

“Our dad’s painting is hiding, in secret place”: Reverberations of a rock painting episode in Kakadu National Park, Australia Open

Joakim Goldhahn, Linda Biyalwanga, Sally K. May, Julie Blawgur, Paul Taçon , et al. · 2021

This paper presents and discusses a 1972 rock painting episode at Koongarra in Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, Australia. This painting, which depicts a macropod, was created by Billy Miargu when he camped at a sandstone ou…

FIRST DIRECTLY DATED ROCK ART IN SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS Open

Andrea Jalandoni, Marie Grace Pamela G. Faylona, Aila Shaine Sambo, Mark Willis, Caroline Marie Q. Lising , et al. · 2021

This paper integrates the first rock art directly dated with radiocarbon ( 14 C) in Southeast Asia with the archaeological activity in the area and with stylistically similar rock art in the region. Peñablanca is a hotspot of archaeologica…

History Disappearing: The Rapid Loss of Australian Contact Period Rock Art Open

Paul Taçon, Sally K. May, Daryl Wesley, Andrea Jalandoni, Roxanne Tsang , et al. · 2021

In Australia, recent climate change has resulted in prolonged droughts, massive devastating bushfires, extreme flooding, and more frequent and intense cyclones, all of which affect archaeological and historic heritage. In this paper, we re…

Rock art and (re)production of narratives: A cassowary bone dagger stencil perspective from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guine Open

Roxanne Tsang, Sebastien Katuk, Sally K. May, Paul Taçon, François‐Xavier Ricaut , et al. · 2021

Cassowaries (Casuarius) are one of the largest indigenous species of New Guinea. Researchers have long been trying to understand their local perspectives as they have sociocultural significance. Here we present new results from fresh inter…

Agency, affect and archaeologist: transforming place with rock art in Auwim, upper Karawari Arafundi Region, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea Open

Roxanne Tsang, Liam M. Brady, Sebastien Katuk, Paul Taçon, François‐Xavier Ricaut , et al. · 2021

International audience

Rock art and long-distance prehistoric exchange behavior: A case study from Auwim, East Sepik, Papua New Guinea Open

Roxanne Tsang, William Pleiber, Jason Kariwiga, Sébastien Plutniak, Hubert Forestier , et al. · 2020

Since 1909, patrol officers, anthropologists, archaeologists, and others have identified evidence of a pre-contact trading network linking New Guinea with the Torres Strait. Current research in the Lower Sepik River Basin reported various …

Maliwawa figures—a previously undescribed Arnhem Land rock art style Open

Paul Taçon, Sally K. May, Ronald Lamilami, Fiona McKeague, Iain G. Johnston , et al. · 2020

In this paper, a previously undescribed rock art style consisting of large human figures and animals with stroke-line infill is introduced. These depictions have been named Maliwawa Figures. They are primarily found in northwest Arnhem Lan…

Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia Open

Sally K. May, Luke Taylor, Catherine J. Frieman, Paul Taçon, Daryl Wesley , et al. · 2020

This paper explores the complex story of a particular style of rock art in western Arnhem Land known as ‘Painted Hands’. Using new evidence from recent fieldwork, we present a definition for their style, distribution and place in the styli…

What painting? Encountering and interpreting the archaeological record in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia Open

Liam M. Brady, Sally K. May, Joakim Goldhahn, Paul Taçon, PATRICK LAMILAMI · 2020

Research into contemporary Indigenous relationships with the archaeological record has increasingly drawn upon frameworks emphasising relational, affectual and cultural understandings to learn about the complex ways that meaning and symbol…

New Insights into the Rock Art of Anbangbang Gallery, Kakadu National Park Open

Sally K. May, Jillian Huntley, Melissa Marshall, E. Joan Wilson Miller, John A. Hayward , et al. · 2020

This paper presents findings from a recent study of the Anbangbang Gallery in the Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) site complex of Kakadu National Park, Australia. Using new technologies alongside established methods for rock art documentation, we …

Introducing the Maliwawa Figures: a previously undescribed rock art style found in western Arnhem Land Open

Paul Taçon, Sally K. May · 2020

Western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, has a remarkable range and number of rock art sites, rivalling that of Europe, southern Africa and various parts of Asia. Several thousand sites have been documented and each year new discoveries ar…

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