Historic meets Prehistoric 2: continuing our look at early discoveries and interpretations of rock art.

The first recording (above) of Australian rock paintings, a watercolour sketch of the original painting (shown beneath) by William Westall during Matthew Flinders' visit to Chasm Island in 1803. National Library of Australia.

In George Chaloupka's publication 'JOURNEY IN TIME: The World's Longest Continuing Art Tradition - The 50,000-Year Story of the Australian Aboriginal Rock Art of Arnhem Land' he observes that for a great number of years the Australian Aboriginies, like the Ice Age hunters of other lands, were denied the authorship of their painted images and frequently not credited with due artistic skill.

'The existence of Aboriginal rock art was known to Europeans two centuries ago. In the first months of the English settlement at Port Jackson in 1788, Governor Arthur Phillip organised and led a short expedition to assess the nature of the land surrounding Sydney's now famous harbour. During the course of this expedition his party found vast rock pavements covered with engravings of land animals, fish, human beings and some of their implements. The first European discovery of rock paintings occurred 15 years later in the Northern Territory, on the 14th of January 1803, when, while surveying the shores and islands of the Gulf of Carpentaria, British navigator and explorer Matthew Flinders landed on Chasm Island. There, he found a number of rock shelters with painted and stencilled motifs. He asked the ship's artist, William Westall, to record some of these images. Westall executed two watercolour sketches depicting subjects from two individual sites. They were the first documented recordings of Australian rock paintings. In describing the location and the rock paintings in his journal, Flinders created the first site report:'

In the deep sides of the chasms were deep holes or caverns undermining the cliffs; upon the walls of which I found rude drawings, made with charcoal and something like red paint upon the white ground of the rock. These drawings represented porpoises, turtle, kanguroos , and a human hand; and Mr. Westall, who went afterwards to see them, found the representation of a kanguroo , with a file of thirty-two persons following after it. The third person of the band was twice the height of the others, and held in his hand something resembling the whaddie, or wooden sword of the natives of Port Jackson; and was probably intended to represent a chief. They could not, as with us, indicate superiority by clothing or ornament, since they wore none of any kind; and therefore, with the addition of a weapon, similar to the ancients, they seem to have made superiority of person the principal emblem of superior power, of which, indeed, power is usually a consequence in the very early stages of society.

Chaloupka visited the site himself in 1988, at which time he accurately recorded and, with the help of his Aboriginal companions, interpreted the cave painting. Clearly, the early observations were inaccurate and politically incorrect, and Chaloupka goes on to describe this artistic scene that reflected a culture he estimates to be 50,000 years old.

The Bradshaw Foundation will be releasing a new section on the rock art of Arnhem Land later this year.

Visit the Australian Rock Art Archive:

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/bradshaws/index.php