Rock Art Research

No comprehensive archaeological descriptions of individual rock art site complexes from western Arnhem Land have been published to date. Here the spatial patterns of seven small rock art site complexes in the Jawoyn Lands of the Arnhem Land Plateau, Northern Territory (Australia) are examined; these all contained a main rock art shelter with a disproportionately high number of motifs, surrounded by a suite of smaller satellite shelters, each with lower motif numbers than the main shelter. The number of motifs in a shelter was found to be unrelated to its interior volume and the notable rock art styles described by previous researchers for the region were found to account for a very small proportion of the overall repertoire. In contrast to the apparent situation in adjacent rock art provinces of Arnhem Land, yellow pigment constitutes a significant proportion of the older ‘Mimi’ rock art in the Jawoyn Lands (c. 16%). The more recent white-based images account for around 25% of the rock art recorded, and occur in notably fewer shelters (41%) than do the earlier rock art styles.