‘Like broad arrows’: A history of encounters with Central Australian rock art
‘Like broad arrows’: A history of encounters with Central Australian rock art Book Section
Histories of Australian Rock Art Research
- Author(s): Ross, J, Smith, MA
- Secondary Author(s): Taçon, PSC, May, SK, Frederick, UK, McDonald, J
- Published: 2022
Abstract: Research on rock art in Central Australia1 has moved from a basic record of its presence (1870–1890), where it was mostly approached as an ethnographic curiosity, to more nuanced understandings of the sociocultural contexts underpinning production of rock art that emerged from anthropological research between 1890 and 1940. It was not until 1965, with pioneering research by Bob Edwards, that rock art moved to centre stage of archaeological studies and became the focus of dedicated research. Specialised rock art research in Central Australia involving rock paintings, engravings and post-European contact graphics increased after 1990 with a range of studies that approached rock art as a historical record of cultural geography, looking at changing style, structure and composition of the art and its likely age. Despite this proliferation of studies, detailed regional surveys of rock art in Central Australia did not begin until 1988.