Australian scientists have discovered and documented some of the world’s most stunning and important indigenous rock art in the most remote areas of northern Australia.
They are known to the archaeological world as the Maliwawa images, a collection of prehistoric rock art paintings made by Australia’s ancient inhabitants, and they open a rare window on what life was like in one of the harshest and most demanding places on earth more than 7000 years ago.
The images are located on the walls of caves and rock outcrops in remote areas of Arnhem Land in Australia’s far north, including an area known as Namunidjbuk and another known as Awunbarna, also known as Mount Borradaile, which is a well-known site sacred to Australia’s native Aborigines. Many sites are difficult to access and, as such, are remarkably well preserved considering their extreme age and the harsh environment in northern Australia.
Stunning prehistoric rock art found in northern Australia
Almost 600 previously unknown examples of these Maliwawa images have been documented by a team of scientists from Australia’s Griffith University, led by Professor Paul Taçon, a research fellow at Griffith and the chair of the university’s Rock Art Research team.
They range in age from 6000 years to 9400 years old and come from almost 90 different sites across the remote Wellington Ranges in northern Australia.
The Bilby Rock
Stunningly crafted, these intriguing images range in size from 50 centimetres tall to life-size and depict naturalistic human figures as well as a wide range of animals including three rarely seen images of bilbies – small marsupial land animals with tails and snouts – and the sea-dwelling dugong.
Crafted in various shades of red ochre with stroke-infill, or outline forms with a few red strokes as infill, they are shown with few belongings or cultural objects other than various forms of headdress.
Professor Taçon says the rock art provides a window to the past and shows us what people were doing at this time in pre-history.
“They’re a missing link between the well-known early-style Dynamic Figures, about 12,000 years of age, and X-ray figures made in the past 4000 years,” he says.
“Maliwawas are depicted as solitary figures and as part of group scenes showing various activities and some may have a ceremonial context. Human figures are frequently depicted with animals, especially macropods, and these animal-human relationships appear to be central to the artists’ message.”
However, he says, the Maliwawa Figures and scenes are not simple depictions of everyday life.
“The artists are clearly communicating aspects of their cultural beliefs, with an emphasis on important animals and interactions between humans and other humans or animals,” he says.
Indeed, Prof. Taçon says, animals are much more common in the Maliwawa images than in other forms of Australian rock art. For example, while human figures represent about 90 per cent of other rock art forms, the human figures in Maliwawa forms constitute only 42 per cent with the rest being animals or other macropods.
Professor Taçon says that in some images animals almost appeared to be participating in or watching some human activity, which may demote that they are part of what the indigenous population of Australia call their Dreamtime culture and creation beliefs, at the centre of which is a deep connection to both the land and the creatures that inhabit it.
“This occurrence, and the frequency and variability of headdresses, suggests a ritual context for some of the production of Maliwawa rock art.”
Dr Sally K. May from Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit said the discovery of what appear to be depictions of ‘bilbies’ at an Awunbarna site was surprising.
“Bilbies are associated with arid and semi-arid environments far to the south and Arnhem Land has not been within their range in historic times,” she said.
“Two of these animals are back-to-back and almost identical in size. The third bilby-like depiction appears to have been made at a different time, and perhaps by a different artist, as it is larger, has a longer snout, has more line infill, and is in a lighter shade of red.
“There is also the possibility that the depictions are of Agile Wallabies, Northern Nailtail Wallabies or Short-eared Rock-wallabies, all widespread across Kakadu-Arnhem Land today, but all of these species have much shorter ears and snouts than the bilbies and the creatures depicted at Awunbarna.”
The researchers also recorded the oldest know depiction of a dugong. “The solitary dugong painting also seems out of place,” Dr May said.
“Today it is located about 15 kilometres south of the Arafura Sea but 6000-9400 years ago the coast would have been further north. It indicates a Maliwawa artist visited the coast, but the lack of other saltwater fauna may suggest this was not a frequent occurrence.”
At some sites, there are two large macropods – a scientific name for kangaroos, wallabies, tree-kangaroos, wallaroos, and pademelons – shown back-to-back with a small space between them. There are also, Professor Taçon says, some back-to-back human figures and the back-to-back ‘bilbies’.
There are, however, many questions yet to be answered. “The Maliwawa back-to-back figures are the oldest known for western Arnhem Land and it appears this painting convention began with the Maliwawa style. It continues to the present with bark paintings and paintings on paper. But was the Maliwawa rock art sporadic and made during a short time or did it continue over a long period of time?”