FIRST RELIABLE DATES FOR ENGRAVED ART FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DESERTS REPORTED ON IN SOUTHERN DESERTS CONFERENCE IN AFRICA

peter.veth@anu.edu.au

At the 3rd Southern Deserts Conference, Kalahari 2008 (16 -19th September) Dr June Ross and Professor Mike Smith presented a paper entitled "Dating in the Desert: Towards a chronology of prehistoric rock art in the central Australian arid zone". As noted in their abstract one of the greatest challenges facing archaeologists analysing an assemblage of prehistoric rock art is chronology...they assess multiple lines of evidence to reconstruct the chronology of prehistoric rock art in central Australia: including geological changes in substrate, superimposition of motifs and techniques, relative patination, subjects depicted and associations between art panels and dated archaeological deposits. C14 dating of calcium oxalate crusts covering engravings usually attributed to the oldest stylistic phase in the region produced mid-Holocene dates (c. 5,000 BP). These are younger than expected and may bring into question the antiquity and nature of what was previously thought to be a pan-Australian rock art style.