Correspondence on "Erosion rates and weathering history of rock surfaces associated with Aboriginal rock art engravings (petroglyphs) on Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia, from cosmogenic nuclide measurements" by Brad Pillans and Keith Fifield. Quaternary Science Reviews 69: 98-106

In Volume 69 of Quaternary Science Reviews, Pillans and Fifield made unfounded claims about the probable age of Aboriginal engravings located on the Burrup Peninsula and the adjacent Dampier Archipelago of Western Australia. An inference drawn by the authors from their10Be cosmogenic nuclide measurements is that "petroglyphs up to around 10 mm deep the maximum observed depth of petroglyphs on Burrup Peninsula could survive for up to 60,000 years”; concluding that their results support the view that“the oldest art could be up to 30,000 years old and potentially older”(Pillans and Fifield, 2013: 105). We dispute this conclusion on the grounds of sampling, analysis, weathering, and other issuesand present facts and alternative arguments that cast serious doubts about the purported antiquity of the petroglyphs