Rock Art and Social Identity: A Comparison of Holocene Graphic Systems in Arid and Fertile Environments

Dampier Archipelago petroglyphs: archaeology, scientific values and National Heritage Listing

“…The Archipelago demonstrates significantly more diversity than any of the Pilbara-upland art provinces and includes examples of the smaller provinces with additional unique forms. As well as demonstrating diachronic change, this diversity indicates that this area operated as a major aggregation locale (Conkey 1980;McDonald and Veth 2006) for people in the Pilbara, particularly throughout the Holocene. Essential to the Dampier Archipelago style province are the following anthropomorphic schemata:…”

“…Aggregation phases were important for ritual production and facilitated the exchange of language, material items and marriage partners (Gibbs and Veth 2002). The 'aggregation locale' concept (Conkey 1980) is optimal for describing art sites/provinces where groups from many disparate social groupings coalesce (McDonald and Veth 2006). Rock art produced during aggregation phases can be predicted to have high degrees of stylistic variability (Wiessner 1989(Wiessner , 1990.…”

“…vast distances: e.g. between Dampier Archipelago and the Calvert Ranges (McDonald 2005, McDonald & Veth 2006. Ongoing research suggests that further investigation of Pilbara language areas and social connections may elucidate the nature of these stylistic connections (McDonald & Veth 2007).…”

“…This form is also found in the Cooya Pooya style(Wright 1968) but is taken to its logical extreme on the Archipelago;• Paired humans in coitus joined by schematised genitalia; and • Humans in coitus, sharing a single central body line.These purposeful groupings of humans in various social arrangements are suggestive of intense and structured social interaction across the Archipelago at different periods of time. This, added to the high levels of stylistic variability, indicates aggregation behaviour(McDonald and Veth 2006). 61 Examples of some of the characteristic types of grouped anthropomorphs.…”

The first archaeological evidence for death by spearing in Australia

“…The radiocarbon estimate on the human bone provides an unusually precise date for use of the associated backed microliths as violent weapons -during a cultural period when small backed artefacts were most abundant in the local archaeological record (Hiscock 2003;Hiscock & Attenbrow 2005) and when rock art was being used in the region as a mechanism to demonstrate territoriality as broad scale social cohesion (McDonald 1998(McDonald , 1999McDonald & Veth 2006). The higher sea-levels with resultant diminishing land mass may have increased demographic pressures along the coastline resulting in this individual's demise during a period of social change and increasing cultural proscription.…”