1 jan 30000 ano antes da era comum - (30,000 BCE???) - Petroglyphs Murujuga Burrup Peninsula Western Australia

Descrição:

Quote from Cork Uni (link below) -

Situated in the Pilbara area of Western Australia next to the Dampier Archipelago, the Burrup Peninsula - also known as "Murujuga" meaning "hip bone sticking out" in the Ngayarda language of the peninsula's Jaburara people - is home to one of the largest collections of Aboriginal rock art in the world. Together with Ubirr rock art in the Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land, Murujuga is a major centre of Aboriginal petroglyphs in Australia and a world-famous site of prehistoric art dating back to the Upper Paleolithic era. The prehistoric rock engravings of Murujuga feature a wide variety of subjects and motifs, including depictions of extinct megafauna such as the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine), and human figures in everyday as well as ceremonial activities. The area also contains a range of aboriginal megalithic art, involving standing stones like the European megaliths (menhirs), as well as circular stone arrangements. In addition to this huge collection of rock art, spread across some 2,300 sites throughout the Burrup Peninsula and the surrounding islands of the Dampier Archipelago, there are numerous middens, artifact scatters, and other caches of aboriginal items.

Unfortunately, archeologists can't date rock engravings directly. Unlike cave painting which involves the use of colour pigments and other organic matter - much of which can be dated - engravings leave no organic residue. Furthermore, unlike dateable archeological layers that accumulate within the confines of an underground cave, there is little in the immediate environment of an open-air petroglyph that can be used to indirectly date the work of art itself. The rocks themselves can be dated, in fact recent cosmic radiation tests on engraved rocks at Murujuga indicate an age of 40,000 BCE or older. (But note also that the Pilbara region contains some of the world's most ancient surface rocks, including granites that are at least three billion years old.) However, the age of an engraved rock cannot tell us when the engraving was made. Even where lumps of red ochre pigment have been discovered and dated, it is not possible to be certain that they were used in the creation of pictographs or paintings. This is because both body painting and face painting appears to have been a widespread tradition of aboriginal culture during the Upper Paleolithic.

Adicionado na linha do tempo:

Data:

Imagens: