‘Kimberley Stout figures’: a new rock art style for Kimberley rock art, North-Western Australia

Abstract

The rock art of Western Australia's Kimberley region has been the subject of special attention by archaeologists and rock art enthusiasts since George Grey's publication of the first illustration of it (Grey 1841). Since then, researchers have tried to date and classify the Kimberley's many rock art styles. To date, eight widespread and highly recognisable styles have been identified, but many motif types in a range of styles remain undescribed and lie outside the formally recognised art styles. While undertaking archaeological work at Borologa, a highly decorated rock shelter in the Balanggarra lands of the northeast Kimberley, we documented a distinctive set of anthropomorphic figures that stood out for their characteristic formal and decorative attributes. Here termed 'Kimberley Stout figures', we propose this as a distinct motif type undertaken in a hitherto undescribed style within the Kimberley rock art corpus, describing its attributes in depth and discussing its positioning within the Kimberley rock art sequence.

Determining the origin and changing shape of landscape‐scale rock formations with three‐dimensional modelling: The Borologa rock shelters, Kimberley region, Australia

“…The large boulders we now see strewn across the slope have been in position for tens of thousands of years, and probably since before the first arrival of people in the Kimberley region. It is in this relatively stable topographic setting that the first settlers came to occupy the rock shelters and the overall landscape (e.g., David et al, 2019), flaked rock walls as stone quarries (e.g., Moore et al, 2020), actively hollowed out alcoves and overhangs (e.g., Delannoy, David, Genuite, et al, 2020), and painted on and marked their rock surfaces (e.g., Finch et al, 2020; Gunn et al, 2019).…”

“…Three of these rock shelter sites, Borologa 1–3, measure 15.5 m long × 12.2 m wide × 6.5 m high; 7.7 × 7.2 × 5.7 m and 14.5 × 10.0 × 6.7 m, respectively. Borologa 1 and 3 have been archaeologically excavated (David et al, 2019; Gunn et al, 2019). Although buried archaeological evidence under their overhangs spans more than 3000 years (bedrock was not reached due to massive roof fall at c. 1.2 m depth), there is also above‐ground and below‐ground evidence in the form of artificially flaked, moved and stacked stone slabs that are primary evidence of people hollowing out alcoves, building walls and creating “site furniture” as far back as c. 9300 cal BP or more (for details, see David et al, 2019; Delannoy, David, Genuite, et al, 2020).…”

Maliwawa figures—a previously undescribed Arnhem Land rock art style

“…New styles that were not recognised by previous chronologies are being defined (e.g. Gunn et al 2019) and known styles are slowly being better assigned an age (e.g. Finch et al 2020;.…”

Histories of rock art research in Western Australia’s Kimberley, 1838–2000

“…We conclude our discussion around 2000 albeit with reference to current research topics and discourses (e.g. Akerman 2015aAkerman , 2016David et al 2019;Finch et al 2020;Gunn et al 2019;Harper et al 2020;O'Connor et al 2013;Ross and Travers 2013;Travers and Ross 2016;Veth et al 2018Veth et al , 2019.…”

“…This is especially true for research before 2000, which left the broader Kimberley rock art repertoire unexplored (cf. Gunn et al 2019 for new 'styles'). By suggesting a transformation of earlier styles to later ones, Crawford (1977) became one of the first scholars to advocate for continuity between Gwion Gwion and Wandjina rock art styles.…”