In 2008, we began two related research projects that focus on recent Australian rock art, made after the arrival of Asians and Europeans, in part of northwest Arnhem Land's Wellington Range. This area has extensive and diverse rock art, including many examples of paintings that reflect contact between local Aboriginal people and visitors to their shores. At some sites figures made of beeswax are found superimposed under and over paintings, thus providing a means of obtaining minimum and maximum ages for pigment art. We report on the results of an initial radiocarbon beeswax dating programme at the Djulirri site complex. Results include the earliest age for a depiction of a Southeast Asian watercraft in Australian rock art, which is also Australia's earliest contact period rock art depiction discovered so far. Based on the probability distribution of the calibrated ages, it is 99.7% probable this image dates to before AD 1664 and likely is much older. The significance of this result is discussed in relation to early contact history, as revealed by historic documents and archaeological excavation. Other important results suggest a close encounter between local Aboriginal people and Europeans occurred in the 1700s, before British exploration and settlement in the Arnhem Land region.

This study uses strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr), oxygen (δ 18 O) and carbon (δ 13 C) isotope analysis of archaeological tooth enamel samples to investigate the origins of human remains from two sites in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory: a coastal Macassan site and an Indigenous rockshelter complex. The study aims to resolve whether two individuals from the Macassan site originate from outside Arnhem Land and, if so, whether their place of origin can be determined. Strontium results confirm the Macassan and Indigenous samples represent two distinct populations. The Indigenous values match the local Arnhem Land geologic strontium signatures, while the Macassan values are outside the local range and more likely to match Indonesian geological signatures. Carbon isotope results are more equivocal, but tend to support the presence of two populations by revealing slightly different dietary backgrounds for each group. Oxygen isotope data introduce more complexity; their geographic signal may be confounded by cultural behaviour. Radiocarbon dating suggests the Macassan Anuru Bay A site is a relatively early contact site.This study shows that even with a small sample set there is potential to discern past human mobility and origin using stable isotope analysis.

In this paper, a previously undescribed rock art style consisting of large human figures and animals with stroke-line infill is introduced. These depictions have been named Maliwawa Figures. They are primarily found in northwest Arnhem Land and to date have been recorded at 87 sites from Awunbarna (Mount Borradaile area) to the Namunidjbuk clan state of the Wellington Range. There are solitary figures and others arranged in compositions or scenes. We describe the features of this style, its distribution, subject matter and probable age. The results of a detailed analysis of all sites are discussed and a new, refined Arnhem Land rock art chronology is presented. It is concluded that Maliwawa Figures are most likely to date between 6,000 to 9,400 years of age and to be contemporaneous with Northern Running Figures and Yam Figures found at sites to the south.

The discovery of rare bird stencils from a unique Australian rock art complex is reported, the species they most closely resemble is discussed and their significance in terms of world rock art and climate change is highlighted.

No abstract

The contact period rock art of northern Australia provides unprecedented insights into Aboriginal cross-cultural experiences during the last few hundred years. Northwest Arnhem Land, Australia, has an extensive rock art assemblage and a complicated history of interactions between Aboriginal communities and island South East Asians (Macassans), colonists, explorers, missionaries, buffalo shooters, and more. This contact period rock art offers a unique opportunity to explore a variety of questions relating to cross-cultural interactions and artistic responses to new people, objects and ideas. In this paper we argue that a dichotomy exists in the number of European and south-east Asian themed rock art motifs. We suggest that there is an underlying theme in the proliferation of European related imagery relating to threats to Indigenous sovereignty. Our findings suggest that rock art illustrates the Aboriginal community's responses to both groups and their experience of the existential threat posed by European intruders. The apparent lack of rock art relating to south-east Asian interactions, although perplexing, may in fact provide circumstantial evidence for a very different type of interaction between some northern Australian and southeast Asian communities.

The Wellington Range region, in far Northern Australia, provides a remarkable record of cultural encounter. Cathedral-sized rock art galleries include contact imagery referencing Macassan and European visitors while lithic artefact assemblages echo social mobility between Indigenous groups occurring from at least the mid Holocene period. In this paper, we continue the trajectory of archaeological research in this region by examining community entanglement over the longue durée, focusing on the Mayarnjarn rock-shelter complex. Specifically, and following advice from traditional custodians, the authors complement archaeological excavation results with reflections on interactions between Traditional Mawng speaking Owners and archaeologists occurring during the 2016 and 2018 field seasons. This paper provides a cultural chronology built around both OSL and radiocarbon dates, a first for the region, indicating site activities dating from the terminal Pleistocene. An increase in exotic artefacts and presence of paintings belonging to a pan-Arnhem land rock art tradition suggests widening social networks during the Holocene. Insight into the nuanced nature of interactions, also the role of animate objects as relationship referents, emerge through ethnography and experience as the field season unfolds.