"New" Rock Art Site Discovered Tweet

If you thought the finding of the horse cave art at Lascaux, France was amazing, this article will blow you away. 1500 rock art images from 60 to 15,000 years old. I barely know where to begin. But it is turning the idea that the Aborigines lived in complete isolation for thousands of years on it's head, which I think is a good thing. I always thought that idea was a load of nonsense given how close we are to Indonesia and New Zealand.


There's no pictures of the "new" artwork along with this article, but nevertheless, this is astonishing.

HIDDEN in Arnhem Land's remote Wellington Ranges is a maze of tortured sandstone and an enormous overhang concealing one of the world's most important rock art panels. The Djulirri rock shelter's 1500 stunning paintings are a record of all that makes people marvellous and terrifying, a spectacular narrative spanning almost the entire past of ancient and modern humanity in the area, the indigenous equivalent of Manning Clark's six-volume history of Australia.Some of its motifs are more than 15,000 years old, while others tell of the interaction with different races — with Macassan sailor traders from Sulawesi, in what is now the Indonesian archipelago, to missionaries, to a World War II-era ship and an early biplane, a rifle, a car and bicycle. With its depictions of technological change, violence, culture clashes and burgeoning ideas from the outside world, it may well be the longest continuously updated historical record on the planet.
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On Djulirri's walls are ancient anatomical depictions of a kangaroo and an emu. A closer look reveals a faded rainbow serpent, a likely contemporary of Egypt's pyramids. Visitors' eyes are quickly drawn to a fleet of ships painted with astonishing grace and detail. One is a caricature of a ship and its crew and looks like it might have come straight from the pages of Dr Seuss. But it is revealing because it includes interior detail of the hull that could only have been obtained by an Aboriginal aboard.


Horseshoes are depicted hanging from the inside of another hull, raising the intriguing question of whether Aborigines helped crew these boats.


There are boxing scenes and missionaries, including a priest with a clerical collar, sea captains, a crocodile many metres long, a long boat with a harpooned whale, even writing in beeswax. Near the end of the shelter is a poignant Amen.


Disturbingly, many images portray terrible conflict between Aborigines. Guse says the fact that many depict spearings is perhaps indicative of the cultural change that followed the arrival of missionaries.


There is no doubt Djulirri is at the centre of art illustrating contact with the outside world.

A stunning trip through time | theage.com.au

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