TY - JOUR
T1 - History Disappearing
T2 - The Rapid Loss of Australian Contact Period Rock Art
AU - Taçon, Paul S.C.
AU - May, Sally K.
AU - Wesley, Daryl
AU - Jalandoni, Andrea
AU - Tsang, Roxanne
AU - Mangiru, Kenneth
PY - 2021/1
Y1 - 2021/1
N2 - In Australia, recent climate change has resulted in prolonged droughts, massive devastating bushfires, extreme flooding, and more frequent and intense cyclones, all of which affect archaeological and historic heritage. In this paper, we report on new research on rock art at a site called Djarrng in western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Djarrng was heavily impacted by Tropical Cyclone Monica in 2006. We have visited the site sporadically since 1992, most recently in September 2019. We also have photographs taken in 1979 and accessed others taken in 1965 and so are in a position to document change to rock art panels over a 54 year period. We discuss not only change at the site as a result of the cyclone but also more general changes to rock art imagery at Arnhem Land sites in the past two hundred years, as well as lessons learnt from natural disasters that could be important for future rock art conservation.
AB - In Australia, recent climate change has resulted in prolonged droughts, massive devastating bushfires, extreme flooding, and more frequent and intense cyclones, all of which affect archaeological and historic heritage. In this paper, we report on new research on rock art at a site called Djarrng in western Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia. Djarrng was heavily impacted by Tropical Cyclone Monica in 2006. We have visited the site sporadically since 1992, most recently in September 2019. We also have photographs taken in 1979 and accessed others taken in 1965 and so are in a position to document change to rock art panels over a 54 year period. We discuss not only change at the site as a result of the cyclone but also more general changes to rock art imagery at Arnhem Land sites in the past two hundred years, as well as lessons learnt from natural disasters that could be important for future rock art conservation.
KW - Arnhem Land
KW - climate change
KW - cyclone
KW - Djarrng site
KW - Northern Territory
KW - rock art conservation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85099821612&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://purl.org/au-research/grants/ARC/FL160100123
U2 - 10.1080/00934690.2020.1869470
DO - 10.1080/00934690.2020.1869470
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85099821612
SN - 0093-4690
VL - 46
SP - 119
EP - 131
JO - Journal of Field Archaeology
JF - Journal of Field Archaeology
IS - 2
ER -