Making a Scene: An Analysis of Rock Art Panels from the Northwest Kimberley and Central Desert, Australia

Abstract

Many rock art studies in Australia and indeed, worldwide, have focused on the content of art assemblages: the individual motifs that together make up an engraved or painted assemblage. While earlier research frequently focused on quantitative analysis, which placed signifi cance on numerically dominant motifs (e.g., Edwards 1966; Franklin 1991; Vinnicombe 1976), research over the past four decades has expanded to incorporate contextual analyses (e.g., Bradley 2000; David and Chant 1995; Ross 1997). Stylistic changes across space and through time have been evaluated against the social and environmental contexts in which rock art was produced in order to provide explanations for the form and content of assemblages. Rather than considering art as an "object," art is seen as a "practice" (Conkey 1990: 5-17) intentionally created by individuals as a visual expression of aspects of their society. Despite these developments, the content of the assemblage remains central. Identifi cation and analysis of the relationship between motifs is likely to broaden our understandings of rock art assemblages and inform us about the ways in which past societies viewed their world.