WINTER 2018 NEWSLETTER

“Australian Rock Art links into a culture that is ongoing and represents one of the longest cultural traditions on the planet. It is amazing to be

able to contribute to a research project of this stature” DR HELEN GREEN

“Helen is a A ‘career scientist of exceptional the focus. It too is funded by KFA a quick trip to Melbourne to worthy merit, 29 year old Dr Helen ($400k over four years) and the investigate the opportunities for recipient of Green is the recipient of a major Australian Research Council also postgraduate research in Australia. 5-year Research Fellowship. re-committed to the innovative Both knew of the University of the KFA project with an additional $880k Melbourne’s School of Earth A new Fellowship in Rock Art Fellowship. to be spent over four years. Sciences, which has a reputation Dating has been awarded to the She’s such an for innovative research and Kimberley Foundation Australia Helen will work closely with teaching in the geological, climate exciting who has bestowed it on Dr Helen the Traditional Land Owners, and weather sciences. They met scientist for Green, a post-doctoral scientist the Balanggarra Aboriginal with Professor Janet Hergt, a at The University of Melbourne Corporation and the Rock Art KFA geochemist and then Head of and a member of the Rock Art Dating team at The University supporters to School of Earth Sciences and Jon Dating research team. KFA Director of Melbourne, led by Prof Andrew Woodhead who cemented their follow.” Professor Andy Gleadow has Gleadow, as well as colleagues desire to continue their research MARIA MYERS AC, described Dr Green as ‘a career including ARC Laureate Prof Jon in Australia. KFA CHAIRMAN scientist of exceptional merit and Woodhead and Prof Janet Hergt an emerging research leader.’ as well as Dr John Hellstrom, Science is part of the Green family Dr John Moreau and others. DNA. Helen’s father, Tim Green, The $740,000 Kimberley now a research and development Foundation Australia Fellowship Born and bred in Manchester, Director with Commonwealth in Rock Art Dating is funded Helen has had a life-long interest Serum Laboratories, Parkville, $600k by The Ian Potter in Australia. Her great-grandmother inspired Helen to pursue a career Foundation and $140k by KFA. was a ten-pound pom, arriving in science. When Helen graduated Helen will examine mineral in South Australia in 1961. With from school, where she studied coatings that have developed over her great-grandparents, uncles biology, geography, chemistry and time on rock art surfaces in the and first cousins living in Adelaide, physics, she was certain her Kimberley, and identify which Helen, her two sisters and parents career would involve science, but coatings might be dated using regularly travelled to Australia also wanted to work outdoors. the uranium series dating method. during her teenage years. It was Little did she expect that her The study will contribute to a always on the horizon that her Geology degree at the University multi-disciplinary project family would join the Green clan of Durham in north east England, investigating the history of human in Australia. would lead her to fieldwork in origins in Australia and indigenous In 2008, she and her partner, now the remote landscape of the cultures in the Kimberley. Known fiancé, Matthew Felgate, who also Kimberley in north western Images (L-R): as the Rock Art Dating project #2, trained as a geochemist, opted Australia, and that she would be Gwion Gwion it commenced its 2nd phase last NW Kimberley to complete their independent contributing to a multidisciplinary month following a successful mapping projects in New Zealand. research project investigating the Dr Helen Green 3-year funded research period Drysdale River On the way home the pair made story of Australia’s first people. National Park where technical firepower was Photo: Andy Gleadow With each subsequent visit Helen has fine-tuned the processes both on site and back in the laboratory, and also developed an eye for the mineral accretions that might yield the best results. Working in a team of three, an archaeologist, indigenous representative/ traditional owner and a scientist, the sites are carefully recorded and documented. Each sample taken is recorded with meticulous care into the project database with a detailed set of photos and information regarding the motifs. In the first three years of the project, Helen, new to Rock Art, and the history and culture of Aboriginal Australia, established a rapport and trust with project partners, in particular with Dunkeld Pastoral’s Cecilia Myers Images (L-R): Dr Helen Green In July 2009, just two days after regions, but in the Kimberley and the Balanggarra Aboriginal Drysdale River graduating from the University the landscape is dominated by Corporation’s Ian Waina. The National Park Photo: Andy Gleadow of Durham with a (first class) sandstone. threesome travel to the sites Bachelor of Science (Geology) together, each playing a Dr Helen Green Helen’s first expedition to the honours degree, Helen and her fundamental and important role at University Kimberley in 2015 was her first of Melbourne’s family left for Australia. At this in identifying, recording and experience of camping and the science lab point in her career Helen was retrieving specimens. Over the Photo: Cas Bennetto Australian outback. Accompanied most interested in the study of next five years the slow and by a cook and other support staff, Helen Green with past climates (paleoclimates), and painstaking work of collecting Cecilia Myers, the scientists pitch their own tents Drysdale River what better place for fieldwork and analysing data collected and help to prepare the camp site. National Park than in the caves of Southern from field trips will bring new Photo: Cas Bennetto The expeditions are demanding, Australia. For anyone who has cultural knowledge. As part of with each day beginning early visited the caves at Naracoorte, this research Helen will continue with the scientists, investigators a world heritage site, you will be to develop and adapt dating and indigenous partners travelling familiar with its spectacular array techniques for mineral coatings long distances to reach remote of stalagmites, stalactites, straws, on rock art styles found in the sites with the assistance of a and flowstones. For her PhD, Kimberley. helicopter. Helen relished the Helen used the uranium-thorium challenges. In one blog post she As Andy Gleadow has observed dating technique to measure the described her work: ‘What is exciting about this phase With up to 20 age of the cave rocks, collectively of the project is the new uranium known as speleothems, to better My research focuses on sites and 100 series dating method will not just understand past climates. She has characterising and dating the to 150 assist in bracketing the ages of also worked on samples from mineral accretions or ‘crusts’ rock art in the Kimberley, but also samples caves in Dominic Republic and we see fringing the rock art rock art more widely around the collected each South Africa. panels, varying in colour and world where limestones do not field trip, the texture from site to site. It was the application of chemistry exist.’ Uranium series dating works on accurate to develop a scientific dating the principle that the element KFA acknowledges Ann Carew recording of method for the speleothems Uranium, deposited within who spoke to Helen Green for this that led her into her involvement data is these crusts as they formed, story; and the generous support of with the Australian Rock Art essential. decays to the element Thorium The Ian Potter Foundation for the Dating Project. As a post-doctoral over a known amount of time. KFA Fellowship in Rock Art Dating. research fellow, Helen spent three Using a mass spectrometer we years developing, in partnership can measure the amount of with Andrew Gleadow, an Thorium accumulated in the innovative way to marry the samples we collect and use dating techniques explored in this to calculate the age of the caves with a new methodology mineral deposit. Occasionally, for the rock shelters in the these crusts are found under Kimberley. As Helen has observed and/or over pigment allowing the dating technique was tried us to provide maximum and and tested in calcium carbonate minimum bracketing ages for formations found in limestone the associated paintings. Unlocking the past environments of the Kimberley For the past several years the Foundation has sponsored an environmental change project including an understanding of the Australian monsoon. Emily Field, a PhD student at the University of Queensland, shares with us the research she has undertaken and the progress made on samples taken from springs in the region in 2005 and 2015.

Across much of tropical Australia success, a team of researchers accumulate sediment at roughly the monsoonal climate affects from the University of Queensland the same time – during the sediments which we might (UQ) and University of Wollongong deglacial around 14,500 years typically use to investigate (UoW) took samples from a ago. This suggested that we were past environmental change. number of springs across the seeing a response to a regional “It seems to Monsoonal rains might scour Kimberley in the 2015 dry season. scale change in climate at this away the sediment, and time” Emily says. Obtaining reliable dates for the have been the wind may remove it during sediments is essential. “We would With the help of Dr Jon Tyler particularly dry periods. Fossils within the normally expect older dates at the from the University of Adelaide, sediments can also get affected wet across bottom of the spring sediments. statistical techniques showed that by this seasonality as they can the region As the sediment gets shallower there were indeed synchronous become weathered. However, the dates become younger, changes at the three springs in between as Emily explains, “in some representing the process of the geochemistry and non-pollen 11,000–7500 locations across the Kimberley, deposition through time” palynomorphs (ecological springs containing deep peaty years before Emily says. microfossils which are preserved sediment deposits have been present alongside pollen but which are found which provide an exciting Unfortunately the initial derived from other sources such but the avenue for palaeoenvironmental radiocarbon dates didn’t follow as algae and fungi). “This showed monsoon research.” this pattern and a series of us that these indicators were then challenges frustrated the talented In 2005 Dr Andy Hammond and responding to regional scale and committed researcher. appeared the late Grahame Walsh collected changes, and that the springs A team of researchers from UQ, to weaken sediments from a number of sites, were recording climatic changes UoW, James Cook University, the including Black Springs, which across northwest Australia. after 7,500 University of Freiburg and ANSTO were donated to the University years.” were called in to assist. They “What we now know from the of Queensland. Initial analysis found that the application of palaeoenvironmental records EMILY FIELD showed that these springs standard radiocarbon dating developed from the three springs contained fossils and information methods to the springs was is that monsoonal precipitation for palaeoenvironmental research, problematic due to groundwater increased in the deglacial from including pollen and dust. As a Image: fluctuations and biological around 14,500 years and remained result, a record of environmental Emily Field taking processes such as root growth relatively high until about 7,500 water quality change thought to be up to 15,000 down through the sediments. years ago. We see a short return measurements in the years long could be developed Kimberley to increased rainfall at about 4,200 Photo: Sam Marx from Black Springs. Based on this “We needed to isolate carbon years ago.” from the sediments created at the time of past burning events” This coincides with the global explains Emily. The team found ‘4.2 ka event’ which was one of that a relatively new radiocarbon the most severe climatic events pre-treatment technique, called of the last 12,000 years. “It’s hydrogen pyrolysis (HyPy) allowed intriguing that we’re picking this that process to take place and up in the northwest,” says Emily. removed most other contaminants. The records also show that the Emily finally obtained a logical monsoon weakened 2,600 years sequence of radiocarbon dates for ago, with a period of particularly the springs using this technique. low rainfall between 2,000 and 1,000 years, before becoming Next, the team worked out whether more active again in the last the past environmental changes millennium. seen at Black Springs reflected broader scale climatic change “What we hope now is that across the Kimberley, or whether our records of environmental they were a response to local change can be useful to all the spring dynamics. “We analysed other researchers working in three springs spread across a the Kimberley and that our distance of 100km, and looked at work will go on to help others the microfossils and geochemistry interpret their records” of their sediments. Interestingly, Emily says. each of the springs started to Images (L-R): Assoc. Prof Bruno David – Kimberley Highest Visions project, Drysdale River academic National Park Photo: Mark Jones honour Prof Jean-Jacques Delannoy – Kimberley bestowed on Visions project, Drysdale River KFA researcher National Park Photo: Pauline Heaney New discoveries show that the for best doctoral (Below Right): Image from the Aboriginal ancestors created their thesis Hall of the Bulls, Lascaux, France own architectural places Dr Ben Gunn is the recipient Photo: Cas Bennetto of a medal for best doctoral There is an aspect of Kimberley rock art that is easily overlooked: how thesis completed in the Faculty the sites themselves have been created as architectural places often of Arts at Monash University. richly endowed with stone furnishings, evidence of how people The Mollie Holman Doctoral arranged their living spaces, and the areas they painted. Medal is named after the late In a rich site complex along the Drysdale River, a team of archaeologists, Emeritus Professor Mollie To date the geomorphologists, cartographers and rock art specialists from the Holman AO in honour of her project has Kimberley Visions project have combined their efforts to study not only significant contribution to the art, but also how and when the sites were shaped by people to create science and education. recorded 583 new spaces and rock surfaces for painting. sites and This medal acknowledges and Recently, Professor Jean-Jacques Delannoy and Kim Genuite (Université rewards Ben Gunn for both the amassed a Savoie Mont Blanc, France) undertook detailed geomorphological and quality of his thesis and the database of three-dimensional (3-D) laser mapping of Wanjina Rock and nearby art quality of his research. It is 44,000 photos sites; Dr Robert ‘Ben’ Gunn (Monash University) and Leigh Douglas recorded one of the highest academic in addition the rock art and performed digital enhancements to better visualise the honours the University bestows images, while Associate Professor Bruno David and Dr Robert Skelly, also and marks the recipient as a to 583 GIS of Monash, directed two archaeological excavations. Each aspect of the researcher of the highest order. work was closely supervised by Balanggarra representatives who advised and FileMaker KFA is the fortunate beneficiary the researchers on cultural matters. The results are being cross-correlated records. of the method developed in for a richer understanding of the art in its landscape setting. Ben’s award-winning thesis. The findings significantly change how we view rock art sites in the Ben is currently in the Kimberley Kimberley. The team discovered that rock layers were thickly carved out to apply the method in a pilot of the sandstone massifs by Aboriginal ancestors, one layer at a time, study Clarifying Kimberley rock to create cavernous recesses into the rock. In many cases the newly art sequences: presenting hollowed-out recesses created fresh rock surfaces that were subsequently the evidence. decorated with rock art. The team also discovered large blocks of rock (one The aim of the pilot project is weighing more than 500kg) moved by the ancestors to carefully reconfigure to systematically document, the sites and their landscape so as to create a separate wall to demarcate publish and make available a large cavity under the Wanjina Rock quartzite stack. The art was shaped to research teams the patterns Kimberley by a broader and crucial reworking of its landscape context. Visions: rock art of superimposition for dynamics Kimberley Visions researchers are gaining unprecedented insight into how Kimberley rock art based of northern Aboriginal ancestors engaged with the materiality of the rock art sites on image enhancement and Australia themselves, slowly, painstakingly uncovering the long cultural history of Harris Matrices at 3-4 key sites; is a major the region. and by doing so, demonstrate scientific push to the value of the methods used connect different Fieldwork in 2018 will involve a combination of rock art survey work and in the analysis of current art periods and excavation. The research team will again include world leading French questions about existing map Australia’s geomorphologist Prof Jean-Jacques Delannoy. Delannoy is a director of the style-sequences. earliest human research laboratory EDYTEM (Environment, Dynamic and Mountain Areas). footfall across He led the scientific committee which advised the French government on This evidence will allow all the northern the famous Chauvet-Pont d’Arc facsimile. researchers to assess for landscape. It themselves sequence trends in focuses on the Renowned archaeologist, Prof Jean-Michel Geneste is also attached to the Kimberley rock art record. emergence of the Kimberley Visions project. Both Frenchmen have previously worked rock art styles in with Bruno David on the rock art cave at Nawarla Gabarnmang (Northern northern Australia Territory). Geneste was the general curator of heritage and director and how the art of the Centre National de la Préhistoire, the only laboratory in France bodies we describe devoted exclusively to the scientific study of rock art sites. Formerly the as Kimberley and conservation director and then research director of the cave of Lascaux, Arnhem Land came to exist he has been attached to the archaeological study of ornate caves for through time. more than two decades. He directs the multidisciplinary study program Led by Chief of the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave which brings together some fifty Investigator Prof researchers from different countries. Jean-Michel Geneste will visit Peter Veth. Australia in October. Visit the KFA website for details. Q&A WITH PROFESSOR PETER VETH

Prof Peter Veth, a leading expert in Indigenous archaeology was appointed as the inaugural Kimberley Foundation Ian Potter Chair in Rock Art at The University of Western Australia in November 2012. Since taking up the position in 2013 he has contributed significantly to research, teaching and public outreach initiatives. He has established collaborative partnerships between industry, Aboriginal communities and academia including securing major ARC Linkage projects. In this Q&A Peter reflects on the challenges and achievements in archaeology and rock art over the 5-year period.

How and when did you first dating techniques being used 10,000 years ago); get interested in Archaeology? such as OSL (Optically Stimulate d) Modelling shows that the Luminescence and the Uranium- I was fascinated by the study extended banks of the series dating ) will likely push of cultures as a child. I originally Kimberley coastline, which back the known time of studied archaeology and were exposed during lower occupation in the Kimberley to anthropology with the sea levels, could be seen from greater than 50,000 years ago. foundational scholars Ronald parts of West Timor and Roti and Catherine Berndt. My passion Other significant challenges are and boated to; for archaeology was fuelled as how to meaningfully link social, e) Ornamental and ceremonial a student doing remote fieldwork symbolic and subsistence objects such as the ground with researchers during the behaviours with Quaternary nose peg and shell beads date late 1970s and 1980s in the records of changes in climate, from 46,000 to 30,000 years Kimberley, Pilbara and Western environment and landscape; and ago; and Desert including a year with the documenting lifeways through African rock art specialist Patricia deep time to the present. f) The evidence for continuity of Vinnicombe on the rock art of the groups persisting through the Since you’ve been in the Chair, Burrup (Murujuga). I completed aridity of the Last Glacial period what strikes you as the most my Honours project there in is growing. remarkable advances in 1982 and my PhD in 1990 on the knowledge? Can you yet explain the archaeology of the Martu peoples radically different types of art of the Canning Stock Route. These a) The oldest dates from North- found in the Kimberley, the trajectories have now led back west Australia are now in the Pilbara and Arnhem Land? to a focus on the Kimberley and 50,000 year range at the sites the privilege of working on one of Carpenter’s Gap and Riwi These areas have people who of the greatest rock art estates. (in the Devonian reefs), have exercised different ways Parnkupirti (at Lake Gregory) of marking country, expressing What do you see as the big and Minjiwarra on the their world views and signaling challenges to be tackled in Drysdale River; identity. In rock art these may the next few years? be identified as Style Provinces. b) The oldest edge-ground axe Dating art both on and off the technology in the world There are regional differences also rocks represents a major task over has been documented to with engravings on dark volcanic the next decade. A big challenge 49–46,000 years ago; rocks in the Pilbara in contrast to is systematically mapping rock pigments applied to the Image: art at the larger regional level c) The ongoing dating of earlier Prof Peter Veth & sandstones of the north-west. to understand how style phases rock art style phases, including Ian Waina, Kimberley and Arnhem Land Archaelogical are both shared and differentiated Naturalistic and Gwion figures, people share the same ‘Tropical’ dig Kimberley through time as part of the now plausibly extends into Visions project language family and some art Photo: Mark Jones identity making. A range of the Pleistocene era (older than forms; Pilbara people belong to and opportunities which see World Heritage meetings in a different language family and diverse groups working together Africa, Scandinavia, USA and have cultural connections to the for shared interests like land Europe and throughout Australia. desert. All three areas show management, research outputs, The Chair established by KFA, significant changes in the styles education, tourism, conservation, The Ian Potter Foundation, INPEX of art production through time. and indigenous capacity building. and the University enables us The combination of all of these is Early styles of engraving in the to promote a widespread promoting a greater appreciation Pilbara include very complex understanding of our past which of Kimberley Rock Art at regional, intaglio designs of humans, will in turn help shape Australia’s national and international levels. animals and mythological beings. future. A Kimberley rock art research hub These appear very different to has been created at UWA that is later figures. Conventions and building alliances nationally and styles change through the internationally. Research training millennia where art has preserved is significant with four PhD and and this is a common pattern Honours candidates currently from all three Style Provinces. working on Kimberley topics. How has the Kimberley Over the last five years I have Foundation Ian Potter Chair had the opportunity to make provided new platforms to presentations to the public promote studies of rock art through films, television and and engage with the public news media reports and to large Images (Right): and the Academy? Prof Peter Veth, public festivals such as Woodford. King River Road public The research, promotional and I’ve worked with a wide range rock art site Photo: Sven Ouzman advocacy work I am able to of people based at universities, undertake in the role of Chair is museums and Aboriginal Prof Peter Veth at a fundraising lunch held considerable. The ARC Linkage communities and been invited in Perth, May 2018 projects which have been seed to make presentations at Image (Below): funded and supported by KFA hunter-gatherer and rock art Prof Bert Roberts - are yielding mutually beneficial conferences in Glasgow, Mendoza, Drysdale River National Park collaborations, partnerships Taos, Vienna and Salzburg and Photo: Cas Bennetto

Distinguished Professor Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts joins KFA Science Advisory Council Prof Richard ‘Bert’ Roberts is an Australian Research Council (ARC) Australian Laureate Fellow, Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH) and Director of the Centre for Archaeological Science at the University of Wollongong. He has been appointed to the KFA’s Science Advisory Council (SAC) as an ex officio member representing the CABAH Centre of Excellence of which he is CEO. The Kimberley Foundation Australia is an Associate Organisation in CABAH. The Foundation’s SAC is made up of a diverse group of eminent scientists from tertiary institutions across Australia who guide and shape KFA’s long term research program. Prof Roberts will deliver the 2018 KFA annual public lecture on Tue 13 November at UWA, Perth and in subsequent cities in 2019. Bert was trained in the Earth Sciences and is interested in past interactions between hunter-gatherers and their environments in Africa, Asia and Australia. Much of his career has been spent investigating turning points in human evolution and dispersal, publishing across the fields of geochronology, palaeoecology, archaeological science and human evolution. Bert leads a team dedicated to archaeological dating and to reconstructing the timing, causes and ecological consequences of human migrations around the planet, and the interactions between archaic and modern humans.

DINNER KFA 20TH KFA ANNIVERSARY ANNIVERSARY

The new Kimberley Foundation Minderoo Chair in Archaeological Science at the University of Melbourne was announced at KFA’s 20th anniversary dinner hosted by Westpac on 26 October in Melbourne.

Anniversary Dinner Photos: Emma Byrnes. Images (L-R): Andrew Forrest, Maria Myers, Nicola Forrest, Allan Myers. Table at KFA 20th Anniversary dinner. John Barlow, Charles Goode. Anita & Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, Cas Bennetto. Karen Inge, George Janko, Deidre Willmott. Fiona O’Donoghue, Andy Gleadow, Naomi Cleaver. Claire Armstrong, Laurie Brereton, John Sharpe. Andrew Forrest, Maria Myers. Ashley Stewart, Brenda Shanahan, Nolan Hunter, David Hodge. Deidre Willmott Brenda Shanahan John Mullen LovellSam AM Wal KingAO Nolan Hunter Prof. Andrew Gleadow Rona Charles Bruce Cameron Julian Burt BradleySusan (Deputy Chairman) Laurie Brereton (Chairman) MyersMaria AC DIRECTORS KFA Dr JimRoss AM Hon HenricNicholas QC Christina Kennedy John Calvert-Jones AM DIRECTORS EMERITUS KFA Cas Bennetto KFA over $2are tax deductible. the rock artisrecognised for itsworld-wide significance andprotected accordingly. amounts All Aboriginal communities to uncover Australia’s earliest settlement history. SupportKFA andensure scientists from thefields of archaeology, geology, palynology and related areas who work with Your supportallows usto fundscientific research intheKimberley. We supportabroad range of YOUR SUPPORT

CEO

Donate today: kimberleyfoundation.org.au Sponsors: Monash University James Cook University La Trobe University ANSTO Researchers from thefollowing Institutions anduniversities are working on KFA-sponsored research: greater than110,000 years ago. Cross-hatched with red andyellow colourants andthese date to • Asite inSESpainyieldedperforated marineshells in archaeological circles. of themisresponsible for theartisbeingdebated livedhomo sapiens inpresent day Spain.Which – atimewhenboth homoneanderthalensis and first works of rock artdated to 65,000 years ago cave paintings found inSpainthought to bethe • InFeb 2018research was publishedrelating to Indonesia. Europe andby at least 40,000 years agoin from between 65,000 to 40,000 years agoin We now know that peopleproduced rock art and adorningthemselves. as creating makingpersonalornaments rock art, were engagedinartistic andsymbolic practices such yielding theearliest dates suggests thosepeople Evidence for useof ochres from someof thesites comes from theKimberley andArnhemLand. now dates from 50to 65,000 years agoand The earliest occupation from northernAustralia of what we now know: the assistance of Prof Peter Veth, isasummary artistic expression. Thefollowing compiled with about globalhumanoccupation andassociated great advances madeonwhat was previously known been publishedinthelast few years reporting the A numberof studies from around theworld have What we know The mapabove shows thedistribution of ten projects fundedby theKimberley Foundation over thepast ten years.

University of Manchester (UK) University of Freiberg (Germany) University of Central Queensland University of Auckland(NZ)

www.kimberleyfoundation.org.au [email protected] Tel: 0396533780 Po Box 85Elsternwick Vic3185 Level Vic3000 4, Melbourne 71Collins St, ABN 12084464648 KIMBERLEY FOUNDATION AUSTRALIA LTD complexities of theFirst Australians. of theadvanced cognitive abilities andtechnological one of themost dramatic andearly demonstrations symbolic andorganisational behaviours represents Deliberate sea crossings by peoplewithadvanced art Style Provinces may date from thistime. Regional ‘culture groups’, economies androck throughout Australia by 30–25,000 years ago. developed regionally distinct populations North West by at least 50,000 years agoand 100–200 individualsarrived intheKimberley/ simulations indicate populations of upto level andvoyaging modelling success New genetic studies, palaeogeography, sea 20–10,000(between years c. old). now coming infrom theterminal Pleistocene at 40,000 years old.Otherdates for early artare with ochre, isfrom Carpenter’s GapintheKimberley rockshelter andwhichhasbeensprayed deposit, oldest pigmented slabplaquerecovered fro m a from theNawarla Gabarnmangsite intheNT. The 26–28,000 years motif onaplaque old.Itisasmall The oldest ‘rock art’motif inAustralia isabout probability that early rock artwas produced there. 50,000 to 30,000 years ago–sothere isevery and ArnhemLandnow dated to between artefactsand shell recovered from theKimberley There are ochres, styled axes andfashioned bone oldest engravings found. 500,000 yearsc. ago–argued to beoneof the wasclam shell recovered from Java anddates to University of Savoie (France) University of Queensland University of New SouthWales University of Melbourne

University of Wollongong University of Western Australia University of Tarapacá (Chile)

Ian Potter Foundation the supportof The KFA acknowledges

Images courtesy Kimberley Foundation Australia. Designed by Michelle Galea.