Rock Art Dating in Australia and Beyond: What Does It Tell Us?
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CLOTTES J. (dir.) 2012. — L’art pléistocène dans le monde / Pleistocene art of the world / Arte pleistoceno en el mundo Actes du Congrès IFRAO, Tarascon-sur-Ariège, septembre 2010 – Symposium « Datation et taphonomie de l’art pléistocène » Rock art dating in Australia and beyond: what does it tell us? Paul S.C. TAÇONa and Michelle C. LANGLEYb Abstract One of the biggest challenges in rock art research is accurate and reliable dating. A related issue is that of interpretation –what do the numbers obtained really mean? In this paper we briefly review the results of rock art dating programs in Australia with those undertaken in other parts of the world. We identify a number of common problems arising from the results as well as patterning related to taphonomy and cultural difference. We also observe some common trends, both in terms of temporal and spatial rock art change and in terms of how dating results are (mis)interpreted. We conclude that rock art dating is still in its infancy so that we should be very cautious about results, how they are interpreted and how they are used to support theoretical models. A particular question that focuses discussion is whether there is a case for Pleistocene figurative art outside Europe and, if not, why it developed to such a great extent elsewhere during the Holocene. Résumé – Que nous apprennent les datations de l’art rupestre australien et d’ailleurs ? La recherche en art rupestre pose le défi majeur de proposer une datation précise et fiable. En cela, l’interprétation des données obtenues est une importante question : que signifient réellement les chiffres obtenus ? Au cours de cette présentation, nous examinerons brièvement les résultats du programme de datation de l’art rupestre mené en Australie, ainsi que les travaux entrepris dans d’autres parties du monde. Nous identifierons un certain nombre de problèmes communs découlant des résultats, ainsi que les disparités liées à la taphonomie et aux différences culturelles. Nous avons néanmoins observé quelques points de convergence, en termes de mutations spatiales et temporelles de l’art rupestre, et également en termes d’interprétations (erronées) des résultats de datation. Nous en conclurons donc que la datation en art rupestre en est toujours à ses débuts, d’où l’intérêt d’être prudent face aux résultats, dans la manière dont ils sont interprétés puis utilisés pour soutenir des modèles théoriques. Une des questions qui attirent l’attention est de savoir s’il y a un cas d’étude pour l’art figuratif du Pléistocène en dehors de l’Europe et, sinon, pourquoi cet art a-t-il pu se développer autant pendant l’Holocène ? Introduction: the challenge of directly dating rock art How old is it and what does it mean? These are two of the most commonly asked questions of rock art research but in many ways they are related; knowing how old something is tells us about an aspect of its meaning. For instance, it can inform us about the probable group of people that produced the rock art. But assigning age and meaning to rock art is both highly challenging and controversial, with the literature littered with speculation, miscalculation and misinterpretation (e.g. see reviews by a Griffith University, Australia. b The University of Queensland, Australia. Symposium Datation et taphonomie 1130 Bednarik 1995, 2002; Pettit & Pike 2007). In recent decades archaeological (e.g. Taçon & Chippindale 1998) and broader scientific (e.g. Bednarik 2001b) approaches to rock art research have been advocated, especially for rock art dating. A variety of dating techniques have been employed and a mix of results obtained. Many rock art dating attempts have been trumpeted as accurate and reliable only to later be found to be inaccurate, unreliable or both. Even what some consider the most robust results have been challenged, especially if they produced exceptional dates (e.g. Bednarik 2002; Clottes 1998; Dorn 1996a, 1996b; Pettitt et al. 2009). There are also acceptable dates, especially if confirmed by multiple methods (e.g. see Chippindale & Taçon 1998 for an Australian example) or taken for rock art made of beeswax (Nelson 2000; Taçon et al. 2004). Recently these have been used in new ways to shed light on meaning or to explore what, if any, patterns emerge from the dating dataset (e.g. Langley & Taçon 2010). In this paper, we review the results of 696 global rock art dating attempts, commencing first with those undertaken within Australia as it is here that more rock art dating has occurred than elsewhere. From this analysis we discuss common trends, challenges and problems with the use of results for both developing specific chronologies and comparing chronologies from different regions. We then analyse the results in order to test the hypothesis that naturalistic figurative rock art arose in Europe in the Pleistocene and that it subsequently spread elsewhere during the Holocene. Of course, in any attempt to date rock art it is important to know exactly what it is one is dating and how that relates to the rock art design of interest. Consequently, we have not included results from associated dating of archaeological deposits and have rejected as unreliable and inaccurate cation-ratio dates (see Dorn 1996a, 1996b), so-called blood residue dates (e.g. contrast Loy et al. 1990 and Nelson 1993) and others where contamination is obvious. We also have not included microerosion results as, although the technique is promising, “the accuracy of the method is probably poor” (Bednarik 2002: 1120). Furthermore, it is important to point out that this is a preliminary analysis that, although comprehensive and representative, does not include every dating result in the dataset. Furthermore, many new results were announced at the 2010 IFRAO conference and are in press, as are others from various parts of the world. Indeed, the direct dating of rock art is increasing at a rapid pace so that databases need to be continually updated. What we provide here is a snapshot as of late 2010. 1. Direct dating in Australia At the time of writing 432 direct dates for rock art found in 92 sites located in all environmental regions of Australia had been obtained by a range of research groups (see Langley & Taçon 2010 including online table with dating details). The first direct absolute rock art date in Australia was reported in 1987 (Watchman 1987), though absolute dates associated with rock art (those from charcoal etc. dated from adjacent archaeological deposits) had been reported since 1968 (Polach 1968). Most dates (92.21%) have been obtained since 1990. The majority of determinations were taken for rock art sites in northern regions of Australia (Kakadu, Arnhem Land, The Kimberley, Cape York, Keep River; Fig. 1), with very little rock art dated in the south (particularly Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT). Beeswax figures (Fig. 2) make up the bulk of dated rock art in the Northern CD-1130 TAÇON P.S.C. & LANGLEY M.C., Rock art dating in Australia and beyond: what does it tell us?1131 Territory and northern Western Australia, while paintings and engravings contribute most of the data for the remaining regions of Australia. Fig. 1. Alan Watchman and Sven Ouzman sampling oxalate crust over red painting of a macropod, Keep River region 2000. (Photo P.S.C. Taçon.) CD-1131 Symposium Datation et taphonomie 1132 Fig. 2. Patrick Lamilami and Paul S.C. Taçon sampling beeswax design for dating, Wellington Range, Arnhem Land, 2009. For various reasons, including the large number of beeswax dates, most results are Holocene and less than 5,000 years of age, with a large percentage consisting of dates younger than 500 years BP (48.3%). In the dataset, 37 (8.5%) of the determinations placed the tested art within the Pleistocene but most very early dates have been rejected or are considered controversial. Of all the direct dates for rock art taken in Australia 14C/AMS was used for 96.7% (n=418) of the art and OSL for only 3.2% (OSL n=4). CD-1132 TAÇON P.S.C. & LANGLEY M.C., Rock art dating in Australia and beyond: what does it tell us?1133 Beeswax figures are the most commonly dated medium in Australia (47.9%), with paintings (24.7%) and engravings (13.1%) together accounting for a similar amount of the dataset as that provided for beeswax figures alone. Drawings are the next best dated medium (8.5%), with cupules (3.9%) and finger flutings (0.9%) contributing only small amounts each. Painting sites, consisting of rock shelters, are the most common landscape location identified for dating in Australia (41.3%). While the oldest evidence for painting in Australia dates to between 33600±500 (ANUA 7626) and 42,800±1850 (OZD 161) for a small slab of painted roof fall from Carpenter’s Gap 1, Western Australia (O’Connor and Fankhauser 2001), the earliest dated figurative art dates to between 23,800±2400, 17,500±1800 at a “Bradshaw” site in the Kimberley, Western Australia (Roberts et al. 1997) and 29,700±500 (OZA 390), 28,100±400 (OZA 391) and 16,100±130 (OZA 395) at Walkunder Arch Cave, Queensland (Campbell 2000; Campbell et al. 1996; David 2002; David et al. 1994). The majority of sites where figurative art has been dated have recorded art dating to between modern determinations and 6,000 years BP. These large gaps in our record of rock art in Australia, and particularly figurative art, has consequently left holes in our understanding of the use of rock art throughout Australia’s artistic past, especially in terms of the nature and timing of its production before 6,000 years ago.