Rock Art Research

Several research developments of recent years imply the possibility that knowledge about the original meaning, significance and production of rock art may be available from various parts of the world besides Australia. It has been well known since the 19th century that ethnographically accessible interpretation of rock art is often obtainable from Australian Aboriginal Elders. Here I present possibilities, in some cases credibly demonstrated, that such knowledge may have survived among traditional societies in various continents. Of particular relevance are such recent findings from Saudi Arabia. Another new development in the ethnography of rock art is the realisation of the possibility of accessing the motivation and cognitive world of rock art producers through the presence of accompanying rock inscriptions making direct reference to the rock art. Where these can be deciphered, they can become messages illuminating the world the rock artists existed in. Such messages are up to a few millennia old and they are as valuable to science as the accounts of living consultants. They provide a new form of access to the ethnographic interpretation of rock art not defined before.