Recent Study Identifies a New Holocene Aboriginal Rock Art Style New study identified Linear Naturalistic Figures as a distinct rock art style that marked a return to animal motifs

Description

Art historians can tell you a lot about a painting by looking at its style, motifs, colors, and pigments. After analyzing all of that, even if they do not know the artist, they can usually pin down the era or decade in which a piece of art was made.

However, this is a very simplistic view, as art is different depending on the culture that made it, the socio-economic and natural contexts at the time of its production, and, of course, when it was made. Naturalistic images are not exclusive to any one century, nor are certain motifs only ever found at one place and one time.

This is true for all art, including rock art. However, while most paintings made on canvas can be much more easily traced to a time and place of origin, rock art is often more nuanced. It is usually much older, and you usually have to play a game of highly broken telephone to find out the who, where, when, why, and what of it all.

Recently, Dr. Ana Paula Motta, her colleagues, and the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation have identified a distinctive rock art style in Australia’s northeastern Kimberley…

What makes this style different? Why has it not been identified as different before? And why did it come about in the first place?