Kimberley rock art dated with mud-wasp nests
Arte rupestre de Kimberley datado con nidos de avispa
- Date
- c. 17 000-11 000 años · confidence medium
- Place
- Kimberley, Western Australia, Australia
- Credited to
- Aboriginal peoples of the Kimberley (Gwion and naturalistic styles)
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What it is
Ochre paintings of slender human figures (Gwion Gwion) and naturalistic animals, which in 2020 were dated by radiocarbon of mud-wasp nests lying over or under them: about 12,000 years for the Gwion and up to c. 17,000 for the naturalistic animals. It is one of the best direct chronologies for Australian rock art.
Even older Aboriginal rock art exists elsewhere (e.g. Nawarla Gabarnmang in Arnhem Land). The claim, made by some, that the Gwion were painted by a people other than the ancestors of today's Aboriginal groups lacks scientific support.
What it led to
- direct chronology of a painting tradition more than 15,000 years old
- a wasp-nest dating method applicable to other panels
- recognition of successive styles in Aboriginal rock art