16 September 2009

Some more rock art photos

These are a small selection of the rock paintings at Ubirr in the North of Kakadu National Park.

There is a whole wall that appears to be the menu for a huge feast. This is where hunters would record exceptional success; a stone age photo gallery of the big ones that did not get away. You can enlarge the image by clicking on it. Most of these are fish, mainly barramundi, which are excellent eating. The one on the right with the square head is (I think) a catfish.



These paintings are less important than the Dreamtime images credited to supernatural beings and may be painted over by members of the right clan. There are several layers of drawings here, though I found it hard to see that.



A barramundi in an unusual, probably older, style that does not show the internal organs.




A classroom blackboard. Thise scene depicts a battle between two clans. The story was that a girl from one clan was hungry and ate some barramundi, contrary to the laws that restricted foods based on a variety of criteria that we find strange, such as age, sex, clan, skin name, etc. Another clan discovered the crime and punished the girl. However, the girl's own clan thought that she had been punished too severely and felt obliged to fight the 2nd clan. Several men were killed in the conflict. The moral of this tale is the importance of obeying the laws.
If you look carefully you can see two women painted in another colour. They are there for another story in which they both ended up turning into crocodiles.

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