A team of archaeologists has uncovered ancient rock paintings showing that South-East Asian ships were visiting Australia well before European settlement.
The paintings, found in Arnhem Land by a team of archaeologists from the Australian National University and Griffith University, are the oldest known contact rock art in Australia, dating back to the mid-1600s.
Working with a local traditional owner in the Wellington Range, the research team found a rock shelter containing almost 1200 individual paintings and beeswax figures.
ANU archaeologist Sally May said the process had been unfolding over the past two years.
The discovery was part of the government-funded Picturing Change project, which highlights the importance of contact rock art as some of the only contemporary indigenous accounts of cross-cultural encounters in the past 500 years.
''When we refer to contact, what we're talking about is contact between Aboriginal groups in Australia and overseas counterparts, whoever that may be,'' Dr May said.
''In this case, we've taken it back to the mid-1600s, and some of the earliest evidence of contact. Chances are contacts been going on for a lot longer than that, but this is the first tangible evidence that we've got of this contact with South-East Asia.''
She said it was possible to pinpoint the vessel in the painting as coming from South-East Asia because of the design of the boat.
''It's a classic South-East Asian fishing vessel, most commonly associated with Macassans who were coming to north Australia, usually collecting sea slugs from the water and trading it back across.''
Dr May said that although there had always been speculation about contact in Australia with South-East Asian fishing boats long before European settlement, the team didn't expect the art to date back as far as the 17th century.
For more, pick up a copy of today's Canberra Times
Source: The Canberra Times
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