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Articles on Rock art

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An impressionistic pencil crayon copy of rock paintings produced by the Frobenius expedition to southern Africa. © Iziko Museums of South Africa

Leo Frobenius made African rock art famous, but is tainted by racism and a lack of understanding

David M. Witelson, University of the Witwatersrand; David Lewis-Williams, University of the Witwatersrand; Paul den Hoed, University of the Witwatersrand, and Sam Challis, University of the Witwatersrand

The German ethnographer viewed rock art with a problematic Western gaze, instead of trying to understand the artists’ beliefs.
Chiribiquete National Natural Park and the Serranía de la Lindosa buffer zone feature many flat-topped mountains known as Tepuyes. Unesco

In a Colombian national park, pictographs and pristine nature point the way toward a more hopeful future

Laura Paloma Leguizamón, Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia (ICANH)

Local communities and national authorities are working to develop sustainable tourism in Colombia’s Chiribiquete National Natural Park, a Unesco World Heritage Site since 2018.
Indigenous Rangers pointing to damaged rock art. Left to right: William Campbell, Meryl Gurruwiwi, Aron Thorn, Marcus Lacey, Djorri Gurruwiwi. Jarrad Kowlessar/courtesy of Gumurr Marthakal Indigenous Rangers

From crumbling rock art to exposed ancestral remains, climate change is ravaging our precious Indigenous heritage

Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Flinders University; Enid Tom, Indigenous Knowledge; Marcus Lacey, Indigenous Knowledge, and Shawnee Gorringe, Indigenous Knowledge

Cyclones, floods and other climate change-linked events are threatening Indigenous heritage tens of thousands of years old. Unless we act, they’ll be gone for good.
Josie Maralngurra touching her hand stencil made when she was around 12. In the background are three white barramundi fish figures with red line-work also created by her father Djimongurr. Photograph by Fiona McKeague, copyright Parks Australia

Friday essay: ‘this is our library’ – how to read the amazing archive of First Nations stories written on rock

Laura Rademaker, Australian National University; Gabriel Maralngurra; Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia; Kenneth Mangiru, Indigenous Knowledge; Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University, and Sally K. May, University of Adelaide

Australia’s stunning galleries of rock art are vast repositories of knowledge that can teach us much.
Adventurer Francis Birtles in his car with a man identified as Indigenous artist Nayombolmi. National Library of Australia

Aboriginal art on a car? How an Indigenous artist and an adventurer met in the 1930 wet season in Kakadu

Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia; Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University, and Sally K. May, Griffith University

One was a celebrity adventurer, the other was a skilled Indigenous artist who painted everything in sight. A new look at old photographs confirms their meeting.
Painting of a raider on horseback (bottom right) with a musket and domestic stock. A ‘rain-animal’ (top right) was likely summoned to wash away the raiders’ tracks. Courtesy of Sam Challis and Brent Sinclair-Thomson

South Africa’s bandit slaves and the rock art of resistance

Sam Challis, University of the Witwatersrand and Brent Sinclair-Thomson, University of the Witwatersrand

Runaway slaves joined indigenous Khoe-San people and raided colonial farms. The rock art they left in their hideouts tells a fascinating story.
Rock paintings from the main gallery at Djulirri in Namunidjbuk clan estate, showing traditional Aboriginal motifs as well as European boats, airplanes, and more. Photo by Sally K May.

Threat or trading partner? Sailing vessels in northwestern Arnhem Land rock art reveal different attitudes to visitors

Sally K. May, Griffith University; Daryl Wesley, Flinders University; Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia, and Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University

Pictures of boats and ships in rock art at the northwestern tip of Australia show the European incursions from the 1800s — but also the much earlier and lesser known sea trade with southeast Asia.
This Warty Pig is part of a panel dated to more than 45,500 years in age. Basran Burhan/Griffith University

How climate change is erasing the world’s oldest rock art

Jillian Huntley, Griffith University; Adam Brumm, Griffith University; Adhi Oktaviana, Griffith University; Basran Burhan, Griffith University, and Maxime Aubert, Griffith University

The ancient cave paintings have only begun to tell us about the lives of the earliest people who lived in Australasia. The art is disappearing just as we are beginning to understand its significance.
December 1972: Billy Miargu, with his daughter Linda on his arm, and his wife Daphnie Baljur. In the background, the newly painted kangaroo. Photograph by George Chaloupka, now in Parks Australia's Archive at Bowali.

‘Our dad’s painting is hiding, in secret place’: how Aboriginal rock art can live on even when gone

Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia and Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University

How does rock art matter? New research finds it can act as a kind of intergenerational media –even when no longer visible to the eye.
Detail of the ceiling paintings of the San people in the Drakensberg, South Africa. Courtesy © Stephen Townley Bassett

An ancient San rock art mural in South Africa reveals new meaning

David M. Witelson, University of the Witwatersrand; David Lewis-Williams, University of the Witwatersrand; David Pearce, University of the Witwatersrand, and Sam Challis, University of the Witwatersrand

The team from Wits University returned to a well-known ceiling panel in the Maloti-Drakensberg mountains, armed with new knowledge about the beliefs of the San people who made the paintings.
This hunting scene, painted 44,000 years ago, is the oldest known work of representational art in the world. Ratno Sardi

Indonesian cave paintings show the dawn of imaginative art and human spiritual belief

Adam Brumm, Griffith University; Adhi Oktaviana, Griffith University, and Maxime Aubert, Griffith University

A recent cave art discovery in remote Indonesia is changing our understanding of the beginnings of art and the emergence of religious-like thinking in the early human story.

Related Topics

  1. African rock art
  2. Archaeology
  3. Archeology
  4. Arnhem Land
  5. Cave art
  6. Indigenous art
  7. Indigenous culture
  8. Indigenous history
  9. San
  10. UNESCO World Heritage sites

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