Rock Art Research

In 2013 Robert G. Bednarik assessed a century of claims that certain Australian rock art motifs represent extinct megafaunal species, and concluded that none could be substantiated. He believes that recent claims of megafauna in the rock art have been ‘used in underpinning questionable rock art chronologies. This includes … three northern Australian regions where megafaunal “identifications” have propped up rock art attributions to the Pleistocene’. This paper builds upon Bednarik’s work, focussing particularly on claims that megafauna species are or may be depicted in the rock paintings of Arnhem Land and the Kimberley. The various problems and assumptions involved in making such claims and the methodologies used by various researchers in their identifications are examined in detail, and the appropriateness of an existing methodological approach is reaffirmed.