The identification of extinct megafauna in rock art using geometric morphometrics: A Genyornis newtoni painting in Arnhem Land, northern Australia?

2017 ◽  
Vol 87 ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rommy Cobden ◽  
Chris Clarkson ◽  
Gilbert J. Price ◽  
Bruno David ◽  
Jean-Michel Geneste ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Geometric Morphometrics ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Arnhem Land

Themes in the prehistory of tropical Australia

Antiquity ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (265) ◽  
pp. 747-768 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Morwood ◽  
D. R. Hobbs
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Distinctive Pattern ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Local Sequence ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Tropical Australia

The wetter tropical zones of northern Australia are linked by their monsoonal climates. Their archaeology shows its own distinctive pattern as well, and rock-art is an important source of evidence and insight. This study focusses on a part of Queensland, setting this local sequence alongside Arnhem Land (reported by the paper of Taçon & Brockwell) and in the northern pattern as a whole.

Bodies Revealed

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Rock Art ◽  
Early Research ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The World ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Contemporary Artists

This chapter examines X-ray art in western Arnhem Land in northern Australia, considering how relatively contemporary artists used it to enrich the meaning of their work. After discussing early research on the meanings of X-ray and developing interpretations of art of the ancestors, the chapter explores the use of X-ray representation in rock art in western Arnhem Land, then analyzes the use of art in ceremony, focusing on Mardayin and Lorrkon, as well as the production of bark paintings made for sale through commercial outlets. It shows that understanding X-ray imagery helps to create intellectual connections between many areas of experience of the world. The chapter looks at the first creators, Yingarna and Ngalyod the rainbow serpents, and their role in promoting creative uses of X-ray infill and concludes that art helps initiates understand the powers of Djang not only as corporeal entities but also in more metaphysical terms.

Memorialization and the Stencilled Rock Art of Mirarr Country, Northern Australia

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Hayward ◽  
Iain G. Johnston ◽  
Sally K. May ◽  
Paul S.C. Taçon
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Arnhem Land

This paper addresses the motivations for producing the rare object stencils found in the rock art of western Arnhem Land. We present evidence for 84 stencils recorded as part of the Mirarr Gunwarddebim project in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Ranging from boomerangs to dilly bags, armlets and spearthrowers, this assemblage suggests something other than a common or ongoing culture practice of stencilling objects used in everyday life. Instead, we suggest that these stencils represent an entirely different function in rock art through a process of memorialization that was rare, opportunistic and highly selective.

The Use of Harris Matrices in Rock Art Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Harris ◽  
Robert G. Gunn
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

The Harris Matrix was developed in the 1970s to correctly interpret the sequence of data derived from archaeological excavations. When layers of pigment are applied over surfaces to make rock art, they also form sequences through time. Understanding motif superimpositions is a key to understanding sequential changes in rock art repertoires. The use of the Harris Matrix in rock art research was first proposed by Chippindale and Taçon in the 1990s and was used to derive a firm sequence for western Arnhem Land rock art in northern Australia. Their work was amplified in subsequent larger projects in South Africa that clearly demonstrated the potential of the Harris Matrix in rock art studies. Despite these successes, the Harris Matrix has been little employed elsewhere; this chapter is a timely re-evaluation of the method and its underlying principles.

Ecological thresholds and the status of fire-sensitive vegetation in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia: implications for management

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Edwards ◽  
Jeremy Russell-Smith
Keyword(s):  
National Parks ◽  
Fire History ◽  
Fire Management ◽  
Fire Regime ◽  
Vegetation Types ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Ecological Thresholds ◽  
Arnhem Land ◽  
The Status

The paper examines the application of the ecological thresholds concept to fire management issues concerning fire-sensitive vegetation types associated with the remote, biodiversity-rich, sandstone Arnhem Plateau, in western Arnhem Land, monsoonal northern Australia. In the absence of detailed assessments of fire regime impacts on component biota such as exist for adjoining Nitmiluk and World Heritage Kakadu National Parks, the paper builds on validated 16-year fire history and vegetation structural mapping products derived principally from Landsat-scale imagery, to apply critical ecological thresholds criteria as defined by fire regime parameters for assessing the status of fire-sensitive habitat and species elements. Assembled data indicate that the 24 000 km2 study region today experiences fire regimes characterised generally by high annual frequencies (mean = 36.6%) of large (>10 km2) fires that occur mostly in the late dry season under severe fire-weather conditions. Collectively, such conditions substantially exceed defined ecological thresholds for significant proportions of fire-sensitive indicator rain forest and heath vegetation types, and the long-lived obligate seeder conifer tree species, Callitris intratropica. Thresholds criteria are recognised as an effective tool for informing ecological fire management in a variety of geographic settings.

45,610–52,160 years of site and landscape occupation at Nawarla Gabarnmang, Arnhem Land plateau (northern Australia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 215 ◽  
pp. 64-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno David ◽  
Jean-Jacques Delannoy ◽  
Jerome Mialanes ◽  
Christopher Clarkson ◽  
Fiona Petchey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Northern Australia ◽  
Arnhem Land

Ndjebbana Talking Books

2007 ◽  
pp. 197-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Auld
Keyword(s):  
Indigenous Australians ◽  
Northern Australia ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Indigenous Australian ◽  
Arnhem Land

Members of the Kunibídji community are the traditional landowners of the land and seas around Maningrida, a community in Arnhem Land in Northern Australia. With very few exceptions, Ndjébbana is only spoken by the 150 Kunibídji community members of Maningrida, although Maningrida is also home to indigenous Australians who speak other languages. Ndjébbana is the preferred language of communication between members of the Kunibídji community. Ndjébbana is a minority indigenous Australian language.

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