Rock Art Research

Replication of natural rock formations in rock art or body decoration by Australian Aboriginal rock artists is described in this paper, with a particular focus on the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory. There the Wardaman people have provided explanations for the rationale and function of both rock paintings and petroglyphs, such as circles and abraded grooves. Attention is also drawn to the only ethnographic evidence yet found in Australia for the production of cupules, where rock dust arising from pounding a rock surface is believed to be the life essence of the Totemic Being metamorphosed into that formation. Thus in this case cupules were not the desired end result but merely an incidental by-product of an increase ceremony.