Browsing by Author "Ouzman, S"

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    12,000-Year-old Aboriginal rock art from the Kimberley region, Western Australia
    (American Association for Advancement of Science, 2020-02-05) Finch, D; Gleadow, AJM; Hergt, J; Levchenko, VA; Heaney, P; Veth, P; Harper, S; Ouzman, S; Myers, C; Green, H
    The Kimberley region in Western Australia hosts one of the world’s most substantial bodies of indigenous rock art thought to extend in a series of stylistic or iconographic phases from the present day back into the Pleistocene. As with other rock art worldwide, the older styles have proven notoriously difficult to date quantitatively, requiring new scientific approaches. Here, we present the radiocarbon ages of 24 mud wasp nests that were either over or under pigment from 21 anthropomorphic motifs of the Gwion style (previously referred to as “Bradshaws”) from the middle of the relative stylistic sequence. We demonstrate that while one date suggests a minimum age of c. 17 ka for one motif, most of the dates support a hypothesis that these Gwion paintings were produced in a relatively narrow period around 12,000 years ago. © 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science.
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    Determining the origin and changing shape of landscape-scale rock formations with three-dimensional modelling: the Borologa rock shelters, Kimberley region, Australia
    (Wiley, 2021-05-02) Genuite, K; Delannoy, JJ; David, B; Unghango, A; Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation; Cazes, G; Fulop, R; Fink, D; Codilean, AT; Ouzman, S; Veth, P; Harper, S; Green, H; Finch, D; Urwin, C
    Archaeologists often wonder how and when rock shelters formed, yet their origins and antiquity are almost never systematically investigated. Here we present a new method to determine how and when individual boulders and rock shelters came to lie in their present landscape settings. We do so through 3D laser (LiDAR) mapping, illustrating the method by example of the Borologa Aboriginal site complex in the Kimberley region of northwestern Australia. Through a combination of geomorphological study and high-resolution 3D modelling, individual blocks of rock are refitted and repositioned t680their originating cliff-line. Preliminary cosmogenic nuclide ages on exposed vertical cliff faces and associated detached boulders above the Borologa archaeological sites signal very slow detachment rates for the mass movements of large blocks down the Drysdale Valley slopes, suggesting relative landscape stability over hundreds of thousands of years (predating the arrival of people). These findings offer hitherto unknown details of the pace of regional landscape evolution and move us toward a better understanding of patterns of human occupation in a context of relatively stable rock outcrops both within the sites and across the region. © 1999-2021 John Wiley & Sons, Inc