Arnhem Land Maliwawa rock art openswindow to past30 September 2020

Large male Maliwawa human figures from anAwunbarnasite. The largest male is 1.15 meters wide by 1.95meters high. Credit: P. Tac¸on

zStunning Arnhem Land rock art images includingthree rare depictions of bilbies and a dugong havebeen described by researchers in a new paper in Australian Archaeology this week.

Led by Professor Paul Taçon, Australian ResearchCouncil Laureate Fellow and Griffith UniversityChair in Rock Art Research, the team documented

572 previously unknown images ranging in age from6000 to 9400 years from 87 sites from 2008 to2018.

Named Maliwawa Figures, they are found innorthwest Arnhem Land and recorded at sites fromAwunbarna (Mount Borradaile area) to theNamunidjbuk clan estate of the Wellington Range.

The Maliwawa images include large (over 50cmhigh, sometimes life-size) naturalistic humans andmacropods with animals more often depicted thanhuman figures. Painted in various shades of redwith stroke-infill or outline forms with a few redstrokes as infill, they are shown with little materialculture other than various forms of headdresses.

Professor Taçon said the rock art provided awindow into the past and showed us what peoplewere doing at this time. "They're a missing linkbetween the well-known early-style DynamicFigures, about 12,000 years of age, and X-rayfigures made in the past 4000 years."

"Maliwawas are depicted as solitary figures and aspart of group scenes showing various activities andsome may have a ceremonial context. Humanfigures are frequently depicted with animals,especially macropods, and these animal-humanrelationships appear to be central to the artists'message," he said.

He also said the Maliwawa Figures and sceneswere not just simple depictions of everyday life.

"The artists are clearly communicating aspects oftheir cultural beliefs, with an emphasis on importantanimals and interactions between humans andother humans or animals.

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Indeterminate Maliwawa human with lines suggestiveofhair all over its body, Awunbarna Credit: P. Tac¸on

"Indeed, animals are much more common than inthe Dynamic Figure style rock art in terms ofpercentage of subject matter, as 89% of DynamicFigures are human, whereas only about 42% ofMaliwawa Figures are human."

Professor Taçon said in some images animalsalmost appeared to be participating in or watchingsome human activity.

"This occurrence, and the frequency and variabilityof headdresses, suggests a ritual context for someof the production of Maliwawa rock art.

Co-author Dr. Sally K. May from Griffith University's

Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit said thediscovery of what appear to be depictions of'bilbies' at an Awunbarna site was surprising.

"Bilbies are associated with arid and semi-aridenvironments far to the south and Arnhem Landhas not been within their range in historic times,''she said.

"Two of these animals are back-to-back and almostidentical in size. The third bilby-like depictionappears to have been made at a different time, andperhaps by a different artist, as it is larger, has alonger snout, has more line infill, and is in a lightershade of red.

"There is also the possibility that the depictions areof Agile Wallabies, Northern Nailtail Wallabies orShort-eared Rock-wallabies, all widespread acrossKakadu-Arnhem Land today, but all of thesespecies have much shorter ears and snouts thanextant bilbies and the creatures depicted atAwunbarna."

The researchers also recorded the oldest knowdepiction of a dugong.

Maliwawa macropod over 3MFC hand stencil,Namunidjbuk. Credit: P. Tac¸on

"The solitary dugong painting also seems out ofplace,'' Dr. May said.

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"Today it is located about 15 kilometers south of theArafura Sea but 6000-9400 years ago the coastwould have been further north. It indicates aMaliwawa artist visited the coast but the lack ofother saltwater fauna may suggest this was not afrequent occurrence."

At some sites there are two large macropodsshown back-to-back with a small space betweenthem. There are also some back-to-back humanfigures and the back-to-back 'bilbies'.

"The Maliwawa back-to-back figures are the oldestknown for western Arnhem Land and it appears thispainting convention began with the Maliwawa style.It continues to the present with bark paintings andpaintings on paper,'' Professor Taçon said.

"But was the Maliwawa rock art sporadic and madeduring a short time period or did it continue over along period of time?

He said they could not rule out the possibility thatMaliwawa rock paintings were produced by a smallnumber of artists. It is even possible only a coupleartists made most of the paintings, with oneresponsible for the more outline forms with minimalinfill and another creating much of the fuller stroke-line infill examples.

"At the same time, much art produced after theMaliwawa style demonstrates a remarkableconsistency in the manner of depiction and asignificant increase in the standardization of somesubject matter such as X-ray fish.

"So, perhaps what we are observing is increasingstandardization in the manner of depiction after theperiod in which Dynamic Figures were made. Thishas implications for rock art research everywhere inwhich a style or manner of depiction is suggestedto have been made over hundreds of years ormillennia."

More information: Australian Archaeology, DOI:10.1080/03122417.2020.18183

Provided by Taylor & Francis

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APA citation: Arnhem Land Maliwawa rock art opens window to past (2020, September 30) retrieved 7September 2021 from https://phys.org/news/2020-09-arnhem-maliwawa-art-window.html

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