Journal
JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE
Volume 40, Issue 1, Pages 3-10Publisher
ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.08.019
Keywords
Pictographs; Rock art dating; Australia; Archaeology of symbolism
Funding
- Australian Research Council for QEII Fellowship [DP0877782, LP110200927]
- Australian Research Council [LP110200927, DP0877782] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
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Australia contains some of the world's richest and apparently longest traditions of rock pictographs. Dating this art, however, has been problematic, with few 'direct' and reliable dates of Pleistocene or early Holocene age having been obtained from visible, representational imagery. This paper critically reviews the evidence for the antiquity of pigment rock art in Australia by examining the various dating techniques employed. The accurate and reliable dating of rock art worldwide is crucial to understanding the evolution of modern human symbolism and whether cognitive modernism came about after, rather than with, the first signs of full biological modernism; understanding the pitfalls and devising proper methods are crucial prerequisites. Towards these ends, this paper reviews the results and techniques that have been employed to date the apparently earliest known pictographs in Australia. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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