Week 6 - The Rock Art of Arnhem Land
One of the readings for this week was a series of videos by Paul S.C. Taçon, an archaeologist, cultural anthropologist, and rock art expert from Griffith University in Queensland. The videos talked about the Rock Art of Arnhem Land at Djulirri, one of the top sites in Australia for Rock art. Here are some notes and facts i wrote down about the video series and rock art.
There are at least 3000 paintings on the site arranged with up to 20 layers of paintings
They date back to 15,000 years ago with the most recent about 50 years ago
There is an abundance of ancient imagery including extinct animals and the changing landscape of fauna and flora
It shows the contact with other races that have visited the area - there are many drawings of ships from various countries including Britain
It is an extensive recording of their history and the area's history
It is regarded as a library, an encyclopaedia of time and environment
What i found intriguing within many of the drawings was how Europeans were depicted. At all times, they were drawn with hands on their hips, and quite commonly also with sailors hats on. This was how they were distinguished from Indigenous people in the drawings. Even when one hand was on the ships steering wheel, another was on the hips.