Rock Art and Ritual: An Archaeological Analysis of Rock Art in Arid Central Australia

Ross, June; Davidson, Iain

doi:10.1007/s10816-006-9021-1

Cited by 58 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…A vast number of regional Simple Figurative art bodies have now been documented across the country (Cole and Trezise 1992;David 1992David , 1994David and Cole 1990;Flood 1987;Gunn 1983Gunn , 1995Gunn , 2000Gunn , 2003Hatte 1992;Layton 1992a;McDonald 1998aMcDonald , 1999McDonald and Veth 2006;Morwood 1984Morwood , 1988Morwood , 1992bOfficer 1984Officer , 1992Ross 1997Ross , 2003. While being cohesive style regions -usually defined by bio-geological regions -internal variation (both synchronic and diachronic) is found in these.…”

Section: Sydney Art In the General Scheme Of Australian Rock Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dreamtime Superhighway (TA27) : Sydney Basin Rock Art and Prehistoric Information Exchange

McDonald¹

2008

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Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present. List of volumes in Terra AustralisVolume 1: Burrill Lake and Currarong: Coastal Sites in Southern New South Wales. R.J. Lampert (1971) Volume 2: Ol Tumbuna: Archaeological Excavations in the Eastern Central Highlands, Papua New Guinea. J.P. White (1972) Volume 3 vi Dreamtime Superhighway: an analysis of Sydney Basin rock art and prehistoric information exchange FOREWORD I remember the visit with clarity: it was 1991 and my first trip to Australia. One day was spent at Sydney's West Head with the young and enthusiastic Jo McDonald, where we toured some of the rock engraving sites and the painted Great Mackerel rock shelter. I can still see the large flat curving rocks at West Head on which animals had been engraved -fish, kangaroos, a goanna. And, as is so often the case when I visit rock art sites, my imagination gets going as to the 'how's' and 'why's'. I try to run some sort of a show in my head as to the people who produced these, viewed these, and what kinds of significations the images and their makings played in the lives of past peoples. At the time of this visit, Jo McDonald was well into her 1994 dissertationthe work upon which this monograph is based. Already, in that PhD dissertation, she was able to touch on some of the things that my imagination was searching for. Thus, it is with great pleasure and even more enthusiasm that I am writing this Foreword to a revised and thoroughly up-dated monograph based on that initial dissertation research.At the time of the 1994 dissertation, the anthropological and archaeological study of 'rock art' was really emerging into new trends and new prominence. Surely Australia was one of the leaders in the training of students and in the research that contextualized the images and 'art', thanks to such scholars as Andrée Rosenfeld, Robert Layton, and John Clegg among others. By this time, the work of David Lewis-Williams and colleagues in southern Africa had set off numerous studies world-wide into the relationship between the production of rock art images and altered states of consciousness and the role of shamans in image-making practices. But this was not the direction or focus of rock art studies in Australia, and McDonald's original work would not be tempted either. Rather, she carried out an extensive project of contextualizing the rock art in question, and in two different ways. First, she wanted to give us an understanding of the rock art in its archaeological contexts-sheltered or open, dates and chronologies, site types and, in general, what the archaeology c...

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Section: Sydney Art In the General Scheme Of Australian Rock Artmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A stencil, in itself, may not be an art form (aesthetically speaking) -but this form often contributes significantly to pigment art assemblages in this and other regions in Australia (e.g. Ross 2003). In other parts of the world, the technique is also used to create highly aesthetic figurative motifs (e.g.…”

Section: Stencilsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dreamtime Superhighway (TA27) : Sydney Basin Rock Art and Prehistoric Information Exchange

McDonald¹

2008

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“…Las prácticas rituales son "prescriptivas" porque conforman un modo especial de comunicación a partir de contenidos altamente formalizados que, aunque puedan estar discutidos, poseen mucha fuerza y admiten poca variación a lo largo del tiempo. A pesar de que el tiempo ritual es más conservador que el tiempo real, esto no niega el cambio ni el dinamismo de los significados, que se refieren a los aspectos "performativos" de los rituales (Bradley, 1991;Carden, 2013;Ross & Davidson, 2006;Whitley, 2010). Los sectores con arte rupestre de la cueva se definieron de izquierda a derecha sobre la base de discontinuidades en la presencia de motivos (más de cuatro metros sin pinturas) y de cambios marcados en la orientación del soporte rocoso.…”

Section: Aspectos Teórico-metodológicosunclassified

Pinturas rupestres en un espacio funerario: El caso del sitio Cueva Galpón (Noreste de Patagonia)

Carden

Prates

2015

Magallania

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RESUMENEn este trabajo se presentan los primeros resultados del estudio del arte rupestre del sitio Cueva Galpón (noreste de la Patagonia, Argentina). Las evidencias arqueológicas halladas en la cueva están representadas por dos entierros humanos y pinturas rupestres rojas, negras y blancas. El análisis está orientado a evaluar la variabilidad interna del arte, plantear una secuencia de producción y discutir su contexto arqueológico. Los dos primeros objetivos se abordan mediante la caracterización formal de los motivos, el análisis de las superposiciones y la evaluación del estado de preservación. La contextualización se resuelve en las escalas intrasitio e intersitio, en la primera se evalúa el grado de relación entre las pinturas y los eventos mortuorios, y en la segunda se analizan las similitudes y diferencias con el arte rupestre de la región para discutir sus implicancias estilísticas, tecnológicas y cronológicas. Los resultados sugieren un piso cronológico de ca. 3.000 años para la ejecución de los motivos (lo cual coincide con las fechas obtenidas en uno de los entierros humanos) y un uso diacrónico de la cueva tanto para la producción de imágenes como para las inhumaciones. Se propone una probable interdependencia entre ambas prácticas y se discute el carácter inusual de esta asociación en el contexto arqueológico regional del Holoceno tardío.PALABRAS CLAVE: pinturas rupestres, Norpatagonia, prácticas mortuorias, Holoceno tardío ROCK PAINTINGS IN A FUNERARY SPACE: THE CASE OF CUEVA GALPÓN (NORDEASTERN PATAGONIA) ABSTRACT This paper introduces the first results from the study of the rock art evidence from Cueva Galpón (northeast Patagonia, Argentina). The archaeological evidence found in the cave is represented by two human burials and red, black and white rock paintings. It is intended to evaluate the internal variability of the rock art, to propose a production sequence and to discuss its archaeological context. The first two

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“…The motifs tend to form two groups (Table 1): • Paintings and drawings: Geometric elements and simple designs • Sprays and prints Hands, objects and spray areas This is a common division in pictogrammic art (e.g., the "art" and "associated art traditions" divisions of Ross 2003) where "freeform" images (where the shape of the object is determined by the artist's mental image) are distinct from preform" images (where the shape of the image is derived from an actual object or by the technique itself)(see below).…”

Section: Matiftypesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mulka's Cave Aboriginal rock art site: its context and content

Gunn¹

2006

Rec West Aust Mus

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-The Mulka's Cave Aboriginal site, within "The Humps" Nature Reserve near Hyden, Western Australia, was recorded in detail prior to an overall tourist-orientated development of the Reserve. The site features 452 motifs, an extremely high number for the region where most sites have fewer than 30 motifs. The artwork is dominated by 275 handstencils, with 40 sprayed areas, 23 handprints, 23 paintings, 3 drawings and a single object stencil produced with a wide range of colours. The high diversity of art attributes is unusual in a region where the rock art is dominated by red handstencils. The site appears to have been of considerable importance to the Noongar people in the past and remains significant to them today. Its significance to the broader Western Australian community is evidenced by the high number of tourists it currently receives.

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Rock Art and Ritual: An Archaeological Analysis of Rock Art in Arid Central Australia

Cited by 58 publications

References 38 publications

Dreamtime Superhighway (TA27) : Sydney Basin Rock Art and Prehistoric Information Exchange

Dreamtime Superhighway (TA27) : Sydney Basin Rock Art and Prehistoric Information Exchange

Pinturas rupestres en un espacio funerario: El caso del sitio Cueva Galpón (Noreste de Patagonia)

Mulka's Cave Aboriginal rock art site: its context and content

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