Year: 2017
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: Western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, holds a special place in the history of Australian archaeology. Over 65 years of research since the late 1940s has led to numerous rockshelters being excavated and the documentation of an astonishing array of imagery on shelter walls and ceilings (Figure 1.1). Arnhem Land’s spectacular rocky landscapes, home to rare flora and fauna, hold one of the richest and longest archaeological records in Australia. To the broader world remote and rugged in its physical state, Arnhem Land was transformed over tens of thousands of years of Aboriginal settlement into sequential networks of cultural landscapes, clan estates, sacred sites and places imbued with complex history. Its rock art is amongst the richest, most diverse and visually most impressive regional assemblage anywhere in the world. Themes in recent rock art research include detailed analysis of changing subject matter, radiocarbon dating of beeswax figures, Harris Matrix sequences and excavating in deposits under painted surfaces – all further developed in this monograph.
Source: ANU Press eBooks
Authors: Bruno David, Paul S.C. Taçon, Robert Gunn, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Jean-Michel Geneste
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Awards: Australian rock art history, conservation and Indigenous well-being, Before, during and after Lapita: 5000 years of cultural continuity and transformation at Caution Bay, southern Papua New Guinea, G2829775499, Archaeology of the Gulf Province Lowlands, Papua New Guinea, Archaeology of rock art in Jawoyn country, western Arnhem Land, Picturing change: 21st Century perspectives on recent Australian rock art, especially that from the European contact period., ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage
OpenAlex ID: W2770103019