Gwion Gwion rock paintings

[4] A 2020 study estimates that most of the anthropomorphic figures were created 12,000 years ago, based on analysis of painted-over wasps' nests.

[12] Many of the ancient rock paintings maintain vivid colours because they have been colonised by bacteria and fungi, such as the black fungus, Chaetothyriales.

[13] Based on stylistic characteristics, Walsh categorised two individual styles of Gwion paintings, which he named "Tassel" and "Sash" for dominant clothing features.

[16] While gender is rarely portrayed in the paintings, limb, arm and shoulder muscles are often well defined in addition to stomach paunches.

[21] Furthermore, the figures are ornamented with a diversity of objects such as belts, headdresses, bags and tassels, while other material culture is sometimes depicted, such as boomerangs and wands.

The methods have included accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating (AMS) and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL).

Much smaller and less detailed than the 2008 find, it may depict a thylacine, however, the comparative size and morphology indicates a Thylacoleo is more likely, a position supported by palaeontologists and archaeologists who have examined the image.

Neuroscientist Jack Pettigrew has proposed dating the art by using DNA sequencing extracted from colonies of microorganisms which have replaced the pigment in some paintings.

[32] Australian rock art researcher David Welch notes that these words are probably different regional accents of Kujon, the name of the bird found in the creation story originally heard by Schultz in 1938.

These stories often relate to spirits who created dances which are still performed today and feature similar apparel found in the paintings, such as headdresses, boomerangs and string.

[34] Rock art in the Kimberley region was first recorded by colonial explorer and future South Australian governor, George Grey as early as 1838.

While searching for suitable pastoral land in the then remote Roe River area in 1891, pastoralist Joseph Bradshaw documented an unusual type of rock art on a sandstone escarpment.

In a subsequent address to the Victorian branch of the Royal Geographical Society, he commented on the fine detail, the colours, such as brown, yellow and pale blue, and he compared it aesthetically to that of Ancient Egypt.

[38] American archaeologist Daniel Sutherland Davidson briefly commented on the figures while undertaking a survey of Australian rock art that he would publish in 1936.

[41] With the growth of anthropological interest in Peninsula region, research in the coastal area brought with it an awareness of Aboriginal art and culture.

When pressed, the expedition's Aboriginal guide explained their creation:[40] "Long ago Kujon a black bird, painted on the rocks.

After around 10,000 years of stable climatic conditions, temperatures began cooling and winds became stronger, leading to the beginning of an ice-age.

Australia was connected to New Guinea, and the Kimberley was separated from southeast Asia (Wallacea) by a strait approximately 90 kilometres (56 mi) wide.

[46] Southeast of the Kimberley, from the Gulf of Carpentaria to northern Tasmania the land, including the western and southern margins of the now exposed continental shelves, was covered by extreme deserts and sand dunes.

While some tree cover remained in the southeast of Australia, the vegetation of the wetter coastal areas in this region was semi-arid savannah.

[2] The implications of his interpretations generated considerable criticism beginning in the mid-1990s due to its continuing potential to undermine native title claims in the Kimberley.

He suggested that the art may be the product of an ethnic group who had likely arrived in Australia from Indonesia, only to be displaced by the ancestors of present-day Aboriginal people.

Pettigrew suggests that the Gwion Gwion paintings depict people with 'peppercorn curls' and small stature that characterise San groups; he speculates that African people travelled, shortly after the Toba eruption some 70,000 years ago, by reed boat across the Indian Ocean, provisioning themselves with the fruit of the baobab tree.

[51] Aboriginal people also criticised Grahame Walsh, arguing that he failed to hear their explanations of the significance that the paintings had in their culture.

[58] In many cases, Tassel and Sash figures appear to be involved in either dancing, ecstatic behaviour, or both which, according to a study by Michaelson et al., may represent shamanistic rituals or creation ceremonies.

[citation needed] Michaelson et al. cited studies by A. P. Elkin in which he argued that Aboriginal and Tibetan shamanism have markedly close similarities.

He also noted that the worldwide pattern of shamanism suggests a common heritage that radiated outward from North Africa about 50,000 years ago; it may have originated as a woman's role which over time has been taken over by men.

George Chaloupka, an expert on Indigenous Australian rock art, puts it bluntly, "Shamaniacs rule the world at present...It's just another orthodoxy basking in its five minutes of sunshine."