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2022

Antiquity

Art in the bark: Indigenous carved boab trees (Adansonia gregorii) in north-west Australia

Sue O’Connor, Jane Balme, Ursula Frederick, Brenda Garstone, Rhys Bedford, Jodie Bedford, Anne Rivers, Angeline Bedford and Darrell Lewis.

Australian Archaeology

Fibre technologies in Indigenous Australia: Evidence from archaeological excavations in the Kimberley region

Jane Balme, Sue O’Connor, Tim Ryan Maloney, Kim Akerman, Ben Keaney, and India Ella Dikes-Hall.

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Superpositions and superimpositions in rock art studies: Reading the rock
face at Pundawar Manbur, Kimberley, northwest Australia

Robert G. GunnBruno David, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Benjamin Smith, Augustine Unghangho, Ian Waina, Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Leigh Douglas, Cecilia Myers, Pauline Heaney, Sven Ouzman, Peter Veth, Sam Harper.

2021

Geoarchaeology

Micro-stromatolitic laminations and the origins of engraved, oxalate‐rich accretions from Australian rock art shelters

Helen Green, Andrew Gleadow, Damien Finch, Cecilia Myers, Jenna McGovern.

Science Advances

Dating correlated microlayers in oxalate accretions from rock art shelters: New archives of paleoenvironments and human activity

Helen Green, Andrew Gleadow, Vladimir A. Levchenko, Damien Finch, Cecilia Myers, Jenna McGovern, Pauline Heaney, Robyn Pickering.

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Identifying humans and nonhuman animals in the rock art from north-eastern Kimberley, Australia

Ana Paula Motta, Peter M. Veth, Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation.

Journal of Social Archaeology

Metal burial: Understanding caching behaviour and contact material culture in Australia’s NE Kimberley

Sam Harper, Ian Waina, Ambrose Chalarimeri, Sven Ouzman, Martin Porr, Pauline Heaney, Peter Veth, Kim Akerman, Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation.

Nature Human Behaviour

Ages for Australia’s oldest rock paintings

Damien Finch, Andrew Gleadow, Janet Hergt, Pauline Heaney, Helen Green, Cecilia Myers, Peter Veth, Sam Harper, Sven Ouzman and Vladimir A. Levchenko.

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

Investigating the Anthropic Construction of Rock Art Sites Through Archaeomorphology: the Case of Borologa, Kimberley, Australia. 

Delannoy, J. J., David, B., Genuite, K., Gunn, R., Finch, D., Ouzman, S., Green, H., Peter Veth, P., Harper, S. & Skelly, R. J. (2020).

2020

Science Advances

12,000-Year-old Aboriginal rock art from the Kimberley region, Western Australia 

Damien Finch, Andrew Gleadow, Janet Hergt, Vladimir A. Levchenko, Pauline Heaney, Peter Veth, Sam Harper, Sven Ouzman, Cecilia Myers5, Helen Green, February 2020.

C Smith, (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology

Kimberley Rock Art

Sam Harper, Peter Veth, Sven Ouzman, January 2020.

2019

Australian Archaeology

‘Kimberley Stout figures’: a new rock art style for Kimberley rock art, North-Western Australia

Robert Gunn, Bruno David, Leigh Douglas, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Sam Harper, Pauline Heaney, Sven Ouzman & Peter Veth, November 2019

Australian Archaeology

Minjiwarra: archaeological evidence of human occupation of Australia’s northern Kimberley by 50,000 BP

Peter Veth, Kane Ditchfield, Mark Bateman, Sven Ouzman, Marine Benoit, Ana Paula Motta, Darrell Lewis, Sam Harper & Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, August 2019

Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 

Settling the West: 50,000 years in a changing land

Joe Dortch, Jane Balme, Jo McDonald, Kate Morse, Sue O’Connor, Peter Veth, July 2019

Australian Archaeology

Dating painting events through by-products of ochre processing: Borologa 1 Rockshelter, Kimberley, Australia

Bruno David, Jean-Jacques Delannoy, Fiona Petchey, Robert Gunn, Jillian Huntley, Peter Veth, Kim Genuite, Robert J. Skelly, Jerome Mialanes, Sam Harper, Sven Ouzman, Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation, Pauline Heaney, Vanessa Wong, May 2019

Quaternary Geochronology

New developments in the radiocarbon dating of mud wasp nests

Damien Finch, Andrew Gleadow, Janet Hergt, Vladimir Levchenko, David Fink, March 2019

Cambridge Archaeological Journal

From Top Down Under: New Insights into the Social Significance of Superimpositions in the Rock Art of Northern Kimberley,  Australia

Ana Paula Motta, February 2019

2018

Archaeology in Oceania

Long-term occupation on the edge of the desert: Riwi Cave in the southern Kimberley, Western Australia

Jane Balme, Sue O’Connor, Tim Maloney, Dorcas Vannieuwenhuyse, Ken Aplin, India Ella Dilkes-Hall, 2018.

Quaternary Science Reviews

Carpenters Gap 1: A 47,000 year old record of indigenous adaption and innovation

Tim Maloney, Sue O’Connor, Rachel Wood, Ken Aplin, Jane Balme, 2108.

Australian Archaeology

The curious case of Proteaceae: macrobotanical investigations at Mount Behn rockshelter, Bunuba country, Western Australia

Rose Whitau, India Ella Dilkes-Hall, Dorcas Vannieuwenhuyse, Sue O’Connor, Jane Balme 2018.

2017

Journal of Archaeological Science: Data in Brief, 14: 813-835.
Characterisation of mineral deposition systems associated with rock art in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia
Green, H., Gleadow, A., Finch, D, (2017)

Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 14: 340-352.
Mineral Deposition Systems at Rock Art Sites, Kimberley, Australia-Field Observations
Green, H., Gleadow, A., Finch, D., Hergt, J and Ouzman, S, (2017)

Not Just for Show: The archaeology of beads, beadwork and personal ornaments. Oxford: Oxbow books. 

Traditions and change in scaphopod shell beads in northern Australia from the Pleistocene to the recent past. In D. Bar-Yosef, A. Choyke and C. Bonsall (eds)

Balme, J. and S. O’Connor , 2017

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

Home Is Where the Hearth Is: Anthracological and Microstratigraphic Analyses of Pleistocene and Holocene Combustion Features, Riwi Cave (Kimberley, Western Australia).

Rose Whitau, Dorcas Vannieuwenhuyse Emilie Dotte-Sarout, Jane Balme, Sue O’Connor 2017.

Journal of Vegetation Science

Forgotten impacts of European land-use on riparian and savanna vegetation in northwest Australia.

Simon E. ConnorLarissa SchneiderJessica TreziseSusan RuleRussell L. Barrett, Atun ZawadzkiSimon G. Haberle.

The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art. 

“Plants Before Animals? Aboriginal rock art as evidence of ecoscaping in Australia’s Kimberley”

Ouzman, S., Veth, P., Myers, C., Heaney, P. and K. Kenneally 2017 in David, B. and I. J. McNiven (eds). Oxford Handbooks Online doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190607357.013.31

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

Home Is Where the Hearth Is: Anthracological and Microstratigraphic Analyses of Pleistocene and Holocene Combustion Features, Riwi Cave (Kimberley, Western Australia)

Rose Whitau, Dorcas Vannieuwenhuyse and Emilie Dotte-Sarou, Volume 24, Number 4, Dec 2017.

Quaternary Geochronology

Untangling geochronological complexity in organic spring deposits using multiple dating methods 

Emily Fielda, Sam Marx, Jordahna Haig, Jan-Hendrik Maye, Geraldine Jacobsen, Atun Zawadzki, David Child, Henk Heijnis, Michael Hotchkis, Hamish McGowan and Patrick Moss. Volume 43, February 2018, pp 50-71.

Quaternary International

A late Quaternary record of monsoon variability in the northwest Kimberley, Australia

Emily Field, Hamish A. McGowan, Patrick T. Moss, Samuel K. Marx.  Feb 2017

Quaternary International

Plants before farming: The deep history of plant-use and representation in the rock art of Australia’s Kimberley region.

Peter Veth, Cecilia Myers, Pauline Heaney, Sven Ouzman Feb 2017

2016

Quarternary International

Plants before farming: The deep history of plant-use and representation in the rock art of Australia’s Kimberley region

Veth, P., Myers, C., Heaney, P. and S. Ouzman 2016

Australian Archaeology

World’s earliest ground-edge axe production coincides with human colonization of Australia

Hiscock, P., S. O’Connor, J. Balme and T. Maloney; 2016

2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

Transient coupling relationships of the Holocene Australian monsoon

F.H. McRobie, T. Stemler, K.-H. Wyrwoll May 2015

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Extreme rainfall activity in the Australian tropics reflects changes in the El Nino/Southern Oscillation over the last two millennia.

Rhawn Denniston, Gabriele Villarini, Angelique Gonzales, Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, Victor Polyak, Caroline Ummenhofer, Matthew Lachinet, Alan Wanamaker, William Humphreys, David Woods and John Cugley March 2015

2014

Australian Archaeology Journal

Aboriginal landscape burning and its impact on the summer monsoon of northern Australia.

Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll and Michael Notaro December 2014.

Australian Archaeology

Occupation at Carpenters Gap 3, Windjana Gorge, Kimberley, WA.

Sue O’Connor, Tim Maloney, Dorcas Vannieuwenhuse, Jane Balme and Rachel Wood June 2014

Australian Archaeology Journal

The first Australian Synchrotron powder diffraction analysis of pigment froma Wandjina motif in the Kimberley, Western Australia

Jillian Huntley,Helen Brand, Maxime Aubert and Michael J. Morwood June 2014

2013

Archaeology in Oceania

Book review of A Companion to Rock Art

edited by Jo McDonald and Peter Veth Wiley Blackwell, 2013

Achaeometry

One colour, (at least) two Minerals: A study of Mulberry rock art pigment and a Mulberry pigment ‘quarry’ from the Kimberley, Northern Australia

J Huntley, M. Aubert, J Ross, HEA Brand and MJ Morwood, 2013

Quaternary Science Review

A Stalagmite record of Holocene IndonesianeAustralian summermonsoon variability from the Australian tropics

Rhawn F. Denniston a, Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, Victor J. Polyak, Josephine R. Brown,Yemane Asmerom, Alan D. Wanamaker Jr., Zachary LaPointe, Rebecca Ellerbroek, Michael Barthelmes a, Daniel Cleary a, John Cugley, David Woods, William F. Humphreys, August 2013

Quaternary Science Review

North Atlantic forcing of millennial-scale Indo-Australian monsoon dynamics during the Last Glacial period

Rhawn F. Denniston, Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, Yemane Asmeromc, Victor J. Polyak,William F. Humphreys, John Cugley, David Woods, Zachary LaPointe, Julian Peota, Elizabeth Greaves, June 2013

Antiquity 87

Marking resistance? Change and continuity in the recent rock art of the southern Kimberley Australia.

Sue O’Connor, Jane Balme, Jane Fyfe, June Oscar, Mona Oscar, June Davis, Helen Malo, Rosemary Nugget & Dorothy Surprise, 2013

2012

Australasian Science

A Burning Question

Karl-Heinz Wywroll (UWA), Michael Notaro & Guangshan Chen,July/August

Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012)

A review of rock art dating in the Kimberley, WA

Maxime Aubert (Uni of Wollongong)

Quaternary Science Reviews

Orbital time-scale circulation controls of the Australian summer monsoon: a possible role for mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere forcing?

Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, Jennifer M.Hopwood, Guangshan Chen

2011

Books

Cave Art

Bruno David has published a book on cave art.  Deep underground, hidden from view, some of humanity’s earliest artistic endeavors have lain buried for thousands of years.  Read the full  review by Meg Conkey, Professor Emerita, University of California, Berkeley

Published by Thames & Hudson World of Art

Photographs From The Frontier Kimberley 1910-1911

Taken by the first Swedish scientific expedition to Australia
From prints held by the National Museum of Ethnography, Stockholm.
Organised and annotated by Kim Akerman

Published by Hesperian Press 2017

Wanjina: Notes on Some Iconic Ancestral Beings of the Northern Kimberley

Kim Akerman has written an essay crystallising his thoughts relating to Wanjinas that have accumulated over the past forty years. The Kimberley Foundation Australia congratulates Kim for his scholarship. Read the review by Nicolas Rothwell in The Australian.

Wanjinas are cosmological Beings represented in the rock art of the central and northern Kimberley region of Western Australia. Evidence suggests that Wanjina rock paintings were made at least as far back as 4000 years ago and continue to be made and renewed today.

Images of Wanjina Beings are usually characterised by halo-like headdresses and mouthless faces with large round eyes, fringed with eyelashes, set either side of an ovate nose. Most Wanjina images found as rock art are depicted without a mouth, although on some more recent works on bark, boards, or canvas the mouth and teeth are indicated.

This essay provides details on the appearance, nature and powers of Wanjina. It also presents information on their mythology. A series of appendices is included with a range of ethnographic, mythic and related information.

Kim Akerman acknowledges the debt he owes in the writing of this essay and the opportunities he has had to work with and alongside Mowanjum Worrorra Elders of the 1960s and in the 1970s and 1980s the Ngarinyin and Wunambal senior men and women.

Stockists:

VIC NGV Store – Federation Square
NSW Abbeys Bookshop – 131 York Street, Sydney
WA Serendipity Books West Leederville, State Library Bookshop, Boffin’s Bookshop, Lane Bookshop Claremont – Perth; Short Street Gallery – Broome
TAS Artmob and the Hobart Bookshop

Direct with Hesperian Press

Kimberley Rock Art

Australia has some of the best and oldest rock art in the world, but much of it is difficult to access in rugged wilderness terrain.

Now some of this art is available to all in a series of high quality books that are proudly printed in Australia. A three-volume series on the prolific rock art of the Kimberley has been published by Mike Donaldson, a geologist and bushwalker who has been documenting rock art sites for more than 30 years.
The Kimberley Rock Art 3-Volume set is available online at  Wildrocks Publications.

A Companion to Rock Art

A Companion to Rock Art offers an unparalleled overview of a field that has evolved significantly within the last two decades. A range of interpretive frameworks within which petroglyph and pictograph art forms can be understood is examined in detail. This exciting field of enquiry continues to engage both researchers and the general public, with the search for elusive meanings in the images. Whether they were produced for the exchange of information; for secular or sacred purposes, for signalling alliance networks and identity; or as legacies of origin narratives are just some of the challenging questions that confront the modern archaeologist. This Companion is an authoritative guide for researchers, instructors, and students in anthropology, archaeology, religious studies and prehistoric art.

Edited by Jo McDonald and Peter Veth. Published by Wiley-Blackwell

Kimberley History: People, Exploration and Development

Western Australia’s Kimberley region embraces one of the world’s last great wilderness areas. The region has a fascinating indigenous and early European history. Archaeological evidence indicates that Aboriginal occupation of the Kimberley began between 53,000 and 60,000 years ago. Known European exploration of the Kimberley coastline commenced in 1644 and land based exploration in 1837.

Containing 15 papers by different authors, this lavish illustrated book is the proceedings of the Kimberley Society Kimberley History Seminar held at the University of Western Australia in 2010.

Kimberley History: People, Exploration and Development is available online at the Kimberley Society.

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