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INVITED PAPER a Iconography in Bradshaw b rock art: breaking the circularity Clin Exp Optom 2011; 94: 5: 403–417 DOI:10.1111/j.1444-0938.2011.00648.x Jack Pettigrew FRS School of Biomedical Sciences and Queensland Brain Institute, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia E-mail: [email protected] Background: Interpreting the symbols found in the rock art of an extinct culture is hampered by the fact that such symbols are culturally determined. How does one break the circularity inherent in the fact that the knowledge of both the symbols and the culture comes from the same source? In this study, the circularity is broken for the Bradshaw rock art of the Kimberley by seeking anchors from outside the culture. Methods: Bradshaw rock art in the Kimberley region of Australia and Sandawe rock art in the Kolo region of Eastern Tanzania were surveyed in six visits on foot, by vehicle, by helicopter and from published or shared images, as well as from the published and online images of Khoisan rock art. Results: Uniquely shared images between Bradshaw and Sandawe art, such as the ‘mush- room head’ symbol of psilocybin use, link the two cultures and indicate that they were shamanistic. Therefore, many mysterious features in the art can be understood in terms of trance visualisations. A number of other features uniquely link Bradshaw and Sandawe cultures, such as a special affinity for small mammals. There are also many references to baobabs in early Bradshaw art but not later. This can be explained in the context of the Toba super-volcano, the likely human transport of baobabs to the Kimberley and the extraordinary utility of the baobab. Conclusion: Many more mysterious symbols in Bradshaw rock art might await interpre- tation using the approaches adopted here. Submitted: 12 May 2011 Revised: 6 June 2011 Accepted for publication: 10 June 2011 Key words: baobab, Bradshaw rock art, mushroom head, Sandawe, Toba megavolcano, trance visualisations a. This paper is based on a presentation at the Southern Regional Conference of Optometrists Association Australia in Melbourne, 16 May 2011, at which the author was presented with the H Barry Collin Research Medal. In the origi- nal presentation there were several examples of more physical research in vision, as befits study by an optometrist, that were used as a prelude to the substance of this paper, in which more abstract visual inferences are needed to inter- pret ancient rock art. b. There are several alternative, indigenous names for this art, such as Gwion Gwion, Jingo Jinga, Going Going et cetera). At first sight, these might be considered preferable to the non-indigenous, although internationally well established, ‘Bradshaw’ but there are several reasons for continuing to use the latter. The key reason for avoiding the recently proposed terms is that they have the implication of conti- nuity between Bradshaw and indigenous cul- tures, an open question for which Walsh was attacked, but one requiring much more research at present, despite the fact that conti- nuity is commonly assumed. The key issue in this discussion is preservation of cultural heri- tage but it is often forgotten that this cuts both ways, to apply both to the extinct Bradshaw culture as well as to indigenous Aboriginal culture, whether or not there might have been a discontinuity between them. There are plenty of voices speaking up on behalf of indigenous Kimberley cultures. If the extinct Bradshaw culture was discontinuous, who will reveal this and speak up on its behalf, using science to make the reconstruction, instead of assuming a continuous scenario and so running the risk of losing many of the important details of the minority culture as it is submerged? CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OPTOMETRY © 2011 The Author Clinical and Experimental Optometry 94.5 September 2011 Clinical and Experimental Optometry © 2011 Optometrists Association Australia 403
Transcript
Page 1: CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL OPTOMETRY Circularity.pdf · African rock art in the Khoisan tradition. Exact parallels between the icons of Brad-shaw and Sandawe rock art show that the

cxo_648 403..417

INVITED PAPERa

Iconography in Bradshawb rock art: breaking the circularity

Clin Exp Optom 2011; 94: 5: 403–417 DOI:10.1111/j.1444-0938.2011.00648.x

Jack Pettigrew FRSSchool of Biomedical Sciences andQueensland Brain Institute, University ofQueensland, Brisbane, AustraliaE-mail: [email protected]

Background: Interpreting the symbols found in the rock art of an extinct culture ishampered by the fact that such symbols are culturally determined. How does one breakthe circularity inherent in the fact that the knowledge of both the symbols and the culturecomes from the same source? In this study, the circularity is broken for the Bradshaw rockart of the Kimberley by seeking anchors from outside the culture.Methods: Bradshaw rock art in the Kimberley region of Australia and Sandawe rock artin the Kolo region of Eastern Tanzania were surveyed in six visits on foot, by vehicle, byhelicopter and from published or shared images, as well as from the published andonline images of Khoisan rock art.Results: Uniquely shared images between Bradshaw and Sandawe art, such as the ‘mush-room head’ symbol of psilocybin use, link the two cultures and indicate that they wereshamanistic. Therefore, many mysterious features in the art can be understood in termsof trance visualisations. A number of other features uniquely link Bradshaw and Sandawecultures, such as a special affinity for small mammals. There are also many references tobaobabs in early Bradshaw art but not later. This can be explained in the context of theToba super-volcano, the likely human transport of baobabs to the Kimberley and theextraordinary utility of the baobab.Conclusion: Many more mysterious symbols in Bradshaw rock art might await interpre-tation using the approaches adopted here.

Submitted: 12 May 2011Revised: 6 June 2011Accepted for publication: 10 June 2011

Key words: baobab, Bradshaw rock art, mushroom head, Sandawe, Toba megavolcano, trance visualisations

a. This paper is based on a presentation at theSouthern Regional Conference of OptometristsAssociation Australia in Melbourne, 16 May2011, at which the author was presented withthe H Barry Collin Research Medal. In the origi-nal presentation there were several examples ofmore physical research in vision, as befits studyby an optometrist, that were used as a preludeto the substance of this paper, in which moreabstract visual inferences are needed to inter-pret ancient rock art.b. There are several alternative, indigenousnames for this art, such as Gwion Gwion, Jingo

Jinga, Going Going et cetera). At first sight,these might be considered preferable to thenon-indigenous, although internationally wellestablished, ‘Bradshaw’ but there are severalreasons for continuing to use the latter. The keyreason for avoiding the recently proposedterms is that they have the implication of conti-nuity between Bradshaw and indigenous cul-tures, an open question for which Walsh wasattacked, but one requiring much moreresearch at present, despite the fact that conti-nuity is commonly assumed. The key issue inthis discussion is preservation of cultural heri-

tage but it is often forgotten that this cuts bothways, to apply both to the extinct Bradshawculture as well as to indigenous Aboriginalculture, whether or not there might have beena discontinuity between them. There are plentyof voices speaking up on behalf of indigenousKimberley cultures. If the extinct Bradshawculture was discontinuous, who will reveal thisand speak up on its behalf, using science tomake the reconstruction, instead of assuming acontinuous scenario and so running the risk oflosing many of the important details of theminority culture as it is submerged?

C L I N I C A L A N D E X P E R I M E N T A L

OPTOMETRY

© 2011 The Author Clinical and Experimental Optometry 94.5 September 2011

Clinical and Experimental Optometry © 2011 Optometrists Association Australia 403

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Bradshaw rock art is narrowly confined toKimberley sandstone in North West (NW)Australia1. The first Western description,with a remarkably accurate drawing of alarge mural, was by the Melbourne land-owner, Joseph Bradshaw, who was search-ing for his pastoral lease in the Kimberleyin 1891 and after whom this rock art isinternationally known. It is thought thatthere are around 100,000 Bradshaw artsites, all confined to the Kimberley andthe subject of much study and debate. Theage and originators of the art are obscurebut a Pleistocene origin is very likely,based on three independent measuresthat include thermoluminescence studiesof wasp nests overlying the art (17,000to 30,000 years),2,3 depicted megafauna,which have been extinct for 46,500 years4,5

and the age of boabs that appear to havebeen brought from Africa to Australia bythis culture (less than 100,000 years).6

The much more recent Holocene agegiven by radiocarbon studies of the art(3,000 years)7 is completely out of linewith the three others, probably becausethe paint of Bradshaw art has beenreplaced by a living layer of fungi and bac-teria, the continuous replenishment ofwhich would not show the expecteddecline of radiocarbon levels that nor-mally occurs at death.8 That the biofilmoccupies the exact boundaries of the artalso helps to explain how Bradshaw paint-ings, exposed to the weather, could lookso recent despite great age, if contours arekept fresh by continuous in situ replace-ment of the pigmented microorganisms.

The greatest exponent of Bradshaw artwas the late Grahame Walsh, who amassedover one million images of the art during30 years of visits to the rugged Kimberleyand recorded them in extraordinarybooks.1,9 I never met him, despite theinspiration that he has provided for thiswork, but my expertise in unusual humanbrains10 has allowed me to identify him asa savant with extraordinary visual powersof attention and memory that had presum-ably resulted, as with many other savants,from the two brain injuries he sustainedearly and later in life.

In an appalling display of academic bul-lying, Australian anthropologists used a

widely circulated open letter to attack thisautodidact, who knew orders of magni-tude more than they did collectively aboutthe subject in hand (based on a facsimileof the letter from five authors on page 440of Walsh1). The main bone of contentionwas Walsh’s heretical suggestion that theremight have been more than one early waveof human migration to the Australian con-tinent,9 but the assailants were also criticalof his suggestion that there might beunderlying meaning in the abundantsymbols of Bradshaw art. In contrast to thefirst disagreement, where Walsh’s superiorknowledge probably put him on the righttrack—only more science can tell—thesecond disagreement was not on suchsolid ground for Walsh because of a diffi-cult circularity. The problem with Walsh’sthesis of iconography in Bradshaw art isthat icons are culturally determined andcannot be understood in isolation fromtheir culture, yet all we have as evidence ofthe extinct Bradshaw culture is the rockart, the icons of which we are trying tounderstand. Therefore, progress requiresthat this circularity be broken in some way.

In the present study, evidence is soughtfrom outside the Bradshaw culture in aneffort to constrain interpretation of itsicons by means of external references,such as the study of another, extantculture with overlapping iconography, theexponents of which can therefore act aswitnesses to the symbols that can be foundin their rock art. This is found to be truefor the Sandawe culture, one of the threesurviving click-language speaking rem-nants of the San peoples who were oncewidespread in Africa and now occupy iso-lated areas in the South (Khoisan), NorthWest Tanzania (Hadza) and East Tanzania(Sandawe). The Sandawe use some iconsthat are also found unmistakably in Brad-shaw art but are not known for otherAfrican rock art in the Khoisan tradition.Exact parallels between the icons of Brad-shaw and Sandawe rock art show that thetwo cultures shared many shamanist fea-tures, of which the use of hallucinogenicmushrooms is a key. An identical, specificicon in both cultures is interpreted byliving Sandawe as indicating use of hallu-cinogenic mushrooms. The discovery of

the chemical means for a trance thenestablishes, inter alia, that trance visualisa-tion is an important component of therock art in both cultures. Using this spe-cific icon as a foundation that requires nocircular inference from within Bradshawart, one can interpret a wider range ofBradshaw symbols in the light of Lewis-Williams’ thesis11 about the diverse formsof trance visualisations experienced anddepicted by shamans.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE I:SHAMANISTIC ICONS IN BRADSHAWAND SANDAWE CULTURES

‘Mushroom head’ depiction isshared by both Sandawe andBradshaw rock artThe use of trance is widespread among allthe branches of the San (such as Khoisan,Hadzabe and Sandawe, as well as theSaharan tribes responsible for similar rockart that were also likely to have been San)and this was probably true when the Sanwere more widespread over Africa and theBradshaw culture was alive. Chemicalinducement of trance with ‘magic’ mush-rooms (Psilocybe spp.) seems to have beenconfined to the Sandawe in Africa (andperhaps also to Saharan tribes, whohave specifically depicted the mushroomitself).12 Psilocybe mushrooms might havebeen used as a rapid technique of tranceinduction to help shield the older, morefrail shamans from the physical rigours ofthe usual method of inducement involvingmany hours or days of chanting andstamping. The ‘mushroom head’ depic-tion is striking and unmistakeable and isfound in both the Bradshaw and Sandawe(from the Kolo panels, near Kondo inTanzania) rock art12 but not in theKhoisan or Hadzabe rock art. Sandaweshaman witnesses testify that this depiction(Figure 1) represents the feeling that onecan experience while in a psilocybin-induced trance.13 Since the icon is identi-cal in both Sandawe culture and theextinct Bradshaw culture, we can infer thatpsilocybin-induced trances were a featureof both cultures and that trance might beevident in the rock art. In fact, ‘mushroom

Iconography in Bradshaw rock art Pettigrew

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head’ depictions are not uncommon inBradshaw art, while associated trance visu-alisations are even more widespread, asdescribed below.

Confirmation of the inference about‘mushroom head’ comes from depictionsof ‘mojo bags’ in Bradshaw art. These aresmall drawstring bags on a short leash,

which means they can be worn from theshoulder but are hidden in the armpit. Inthe Sandawe culture they contain the sha-mans’ repository of hallucinogenic herbsand mushrooms. Mojo bags are quitecommon in Bradshaw depictions wherethey are unmistakeable in axillary positionand size when compared with a larger,lower ‘dilly bag’ on the same figures(Figure 2). Shared icons in Bradshaw andSandawe rock art are consonant withother less-specific shared features of thetwo cultures, such as a special relationwith small mammals (well documentedin Sandawe lore and evident as smallmarsupials on Bradshaw headdresses), useof nets for hunting, and close-croppedcurly hair observed on Bradshaw figuresin rare cases (L Scott-Virtue, personalcommunication).

Pervasive influence of trancevisualisations in BradshawdepictionsOn the basis of the evidence of ‘mush-room head’ and ‘mojo bag’, if one acceptsthe possibility that the Bradshaw culturewas shamanistic and used hallucinogenictrance visualisations in its depictions,many of these latter can now bedeciphered.

David Lewis-Williams11 made a majorcontribution to this line of study, concen-trating on Khoisan rock art, and set outthe following general topics that covermost images from hallucinogenic trance.Since the first listed depictions of geo-metrical patterns are derived from entopicexperiences that are common to allhuman brains and can be elicited by avariety of means, it is not surprising to findthem in a variety of cultures. Their pres-ence nevertheless indicates a culture thatwas familiar with the practice of trancevisualisation. The other examples canhave a cultural overlay, which can berevealing or obscuring of the culturelike the eland transformation famouslyexplained by Lewis-Williams11 and thebaobab transformations described forthe first time here. These depend on theexternal constraints, as argued here for‘mushroom head’, which seems to havebeen restricted in its distribution to link

Figure 1. ‘Mushroom head’ depiction shared by Sandawe (A) and Bradshaw (B) cultures.Extant Sandawe shamans testify that this depiction represents the subjective experienceof a trance under the influence of magic mushrooms (Psilocybe spp.). We can validlyassume that these identical icons have the same meaning in the Bradshaw culture, eventhough it is extinct, without extant human witnesses.

Figure 2. Tassel Bradshaw figures from the Kimberley East Coast, showing two kinds ofdrawstring bags, (A) a smaller one in an axillary location that may aid its concealment andsecurity (‘mojo bag’), and (B) a larger, lower, hand-held bag of more conventional sizeand location (‘dilly bag’). An axillary pouch like this, also called a mojo bag in parts ofAfrica, is used by Sandawe shamans to carry Psilocybe mushrooms and other herbalparaphernalia in the same way that the axillary bag is used in these Bradshaw depictions.Also illustrated here is an example of the common occurrence of a small mammal in closeapposition to a human figure (C). The long, pointed ears and paler tail are diagnostic ofthe extinct, lesser bilby, Macrotis leucura, (D).

Iconography in Bradshaw rock art Pettigrew

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Clinical and Experimental Optometry © 2011 Optometrists Association Australia 405

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Sandawe and Bradshaw cultures morestrongly than other trance visualisations.

There are numerous depictions basedon trance visualisations, namely:1. seeing bright geometric patterns (grids

of dots, spirals, concentrics)2. floating or flying (‘astral travel’)3. transformations, from one thing into

another (for example, body part totree, dendrianthropes, hind limbattenuation)

4. transformations into animal forms(therianthropes)

5. micropsia/macropsia (‘little people’;giants)

6. polyopsia (repeated objects in a line)7. passage through a tunnel8. ability to see mercurially, although

vividly (altered perception of time).Examples of most of these trance phe-

nomena can be found among Bradshawdepictions, with the exception of clearexamples of tunnel passage, completedarkness and altered time perception, all

of which are difficult to depict. The lastmight be replaced by an alternativesymbol that we cannot decipher atpresent.

Some of these trance visualisations areexamined:

GEOMETRICAL PATTERNSGeometrical patterns are not unusual inBradshaw art. Some bear a striking resem-blance to similar patterns in Sandawe rockart, such as the concentric-headed figuresshown in Figure 3, which are also called‘onion skin’ figures.

ASTRAL TRAVELHallucinogen-induced sense of travel is astriking feature of the trance experiencethat attracts recreational use, particularlyfor the out-of-body (astral) componentthat usually accompanies it. The manyexamples of horizontally positionedfigures in Bradshaw art are likely to repre-sent this visualisation. A large number of

such flying/swimming figures are alsofound together in the famous Saharan,‘Cave of Swimmers’, rock art discovered atGelf Kebir by Almasy14 and popularisedin Ondaatje’s novel, The English Patient.Almasy thought that the figures repre-sented actual swimming but this is unlikelyto be the case for the horizontal Bradshawfigures, which are inappropriately dressedfor swimming, with complex costumes,several accoutrements, large headdressesand elaborate hairstyles. The Saharan rockart figures are unclothed, so it is not soeasy to reject a true swimming role forthem on the basis of an attire that is toocomplex, as we have done for the horizon-tal Bradshaw figures, but they do have veryunusual postures, such as legs bent at theknees, that seem more fitting to trancevisualisations than to real swimming.

The ‘grid of dots’ depiction is alsocommon in Bradshaw art and twoexamples (Figures 4 and 5) are shownto the left of human figures that alsoshow signs of trance visualisation, suchas therianthropes (kangaroos) and micro-psial figures. There is a strong associa-tion between such a grid and deathin some cultures (A Weiler, personalcommunication).

TRANSFORMATIONSOne of the most compelling effects of ahallucinogen is the blurring of objectboundaries that takes place, so that, forexample, one’s hand lying on the tablebecomes continuous with the table. Theexpansive feeling that results can lead tothe perception of a connection to thecosmos and God, hence the modern, pref-erable term for these chemicals, namely,‘entheogen’ (evoking God).14 One conse-quence of this expansion of consciousnessis that transformation visualisations arepossible, with hybrid depictions betweenanimals and humans (therianthropes) andbetween trees and humans (dendrian-thropes). In some cases, it might bedifficult to distinguish between such trans-formations and mere dress decoration butkangaroo heads with long arms leave noother interpretation (Figure 4), as does thetransformation of a human limb into abaobab branch illustrated later. This latter

Figure 3. Concentric (‘onion skin’) depiction of head, in figures from both Sandawe (A)and Bradshaw (B) rock art are examples of geometric trance visualisation.

Iconography in Bradshaw rock art Pettigrew

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depiction is a striking transformation thathas not, as far as is known, been put forwardbefore and has an important implicationfor the thesis that baobabs played a saviourrole for ancestors (detailed below). Lewis-Williams’ insight11 that transformationplays such an important role in Khoisanrock art removed many of its most mys-terious elements, like the depiction of ahuman figure with hooves on its legs lyingnext to an eland. No doubt it will aidfurther interpretation of Bradshaw art,now that we know that trance visualisationand transformation play a role there too.

MICROPSIA/MACROPSIA‘Little people’ alongside larger humanfigures have always been a talking point ofdiscussions about Bradshaw art (Figure 6).While a minority of observers attributegiantism to the larger figure (for example,Bednarik15), the more usual attribution isthe reverse, with the tiny, more simplydrawn, more dynamic figures thought tobe the miniature versions, while thefigures with the usual apparel and ac-coutrements considered to be normal,unmodified size. The polarity matters littlein this context, because both micropsiaand macropsia can occur on differentoccasions in a hallucinogenic trance. Asecond set of figures with a dramaticallydifferent size usually occurs alongsideother hallmarks of trance visualisation,such as therianthropes and geometricalpatterns (Figures 3 and 4).

Those with a penchant for the improb-able might propose the alternativeexplanation that ‘mushroom head’ hasappeared independently in two widelyseparated cultures. Apart from the strikingsimilarity between the icons, there areseveral reasons that argue against theirconvergent evolution in this way. The iconseems to be unique to the Sandawe amongall the other San tribes in Western Tanza-nia (Hadzabe) and Southern Africa(Khoisan) that also practise various formsof shamanistic trance visualisation. Thereis no evidence that these related groupshave discovered the use of psilocybin orhave used the ‘mushroom head’ icon.Instead, they used prolonged chantingand stamping to attain the trance state,

Figure 4. Figure in the horizontal ‘swimming-floating’ posture that may represent travelin a trance rather than real swimming because of the inappropriateness for swimming ofelaborate dress, accoutrements and headdress (A). The hairstyle is also elaborate (B) andmay originally have represented decoration with coloured beads by ochre that has nowfaded to leave the dotted appearance. It is usual to find further exemplars of trancevisualisation in a panel, once the first is found. In this case there is the bodily distortionof the feet and legs (‘hindlimb attenuation’) (C), micropsia (‘little people’ running) (D)and the geometric grid of black dots (E). Note the difference between the hallucinogenicdots (E) and the linear arrangement of dots that follow the contours of what was probablyan outline of coloured ochre in the hair (B). The latter (B) can be mistaken for theformer (E), with an invalid rejection of the Lewis-Williams thesis.

Figure 5. Further examples of trance visualisations in a cluster: (A) the entopic phenom-enon of a geometrical grid of dots; (B) therianthropes (half human/half kangaroo); (C)micropsia (a dwarfed figure with headdress and batons).

Iconography in Bradshaw rock art Pettigrew

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the features of which are shared betweenmania and chemical hallucination be-cause they all share the same fundamentalhuman neural apparatus. Therefore, par-allel, separate evolution of psilocybin usewith the same icon in rock art in Australia,far from Africa, seems less likely than adirect link between the Sandawe and Brad-shaw cultures.

This seems to be reinforced by anumber of other parallels between the two

cultures. Sandawe have the unusual ‘pep-percorn curls’ and small stature that char-acterise the San groups and this also seemsto apply to the Bradshaw people, as can bededuced on those rare occasions whenhair is depicted in Bradshaw art and fromthe use of familiar objects such as scales toestimate stature from paintings. Theseestimates, using the size of the boab podand the lesser bilby as a scale, give a shortstature of around five feet for the human

models used for human figures that wereunambiguously paired with one of thescales in Bradshaw art. Estimates from Sanand Sandawe art using the shoulderheight of adjacent cattle also give valuesaround five feet, in contrast to measure-ments of Bantus and Australian Aborigi-nes’ height, which are closer to six feet.16

Sandawe also had an unusual feature oftheir folk tales that involved identifyingwith small mammals, the characters ofwhich are believed to have imbued theSandawe with great resourcefulness andcunning. These character traits stand incontrast to traits imbued from the Africanfauna by other tribes, such as the Masaicharacter of pride that can be linked tolions. Small animal traits of deviousnessand resourcefulness seem to have givenconsiderable difficulty to German con-querors of the Sandawe.17 We do not haveany direct evidence of the folk tales of theBradshaw culture but a striking feature oftheir depictions, so far unexplained, is thefrequent depiction of small marsupials indirect association with human figures,either suspended ritually in the air nearbyor walking on the headdress of a humanfigure (for example, Figure 2). This is con-trary to Bednarik who has apparently seenthese depictions, many of them in thepublic record.15 These depictions of smallmammals can often be identified with thelesser bilby, Macrotis leucura, which isextinct, but the measurements and fea-tures of which are nevertheless wellknown, namely, long pointed ears anduniform pale tail in contrast to the black–white partition of the greater bilby’s tail.The striking and unusual predeliction forsmall mammals in both cultures seemsunlikely to be a coincidence. Sandawe alsoworshipped the praying mantis, for whichthere is a whole class of less-than-veridicaldepictions in Bradshaw art, also otherwiseunexplained, but possibly anothercommon feature to add to the growing listof parallels between the cultures.

Awkward corollaryAccepting a direct connection betweenthe two cultures has an apparentlyawkward corollary, namely, that they hadsomehow bridged the gap between them

Figure 6. Micropsia in a figure with a loop (of unknown significance), adjacent to apartially-obscured larger figure with boomerangs and waist pouch. Note that someobservers reverse this size polarity, attributing abnormal larger size (giantism) to thelarger figure (macropsia). Both perceptual directions are possible in trance, so thisdifference of opinion is of little consequence here. The simplified outline and dress ofthe small figure is more in keeping with micropsia, since accoutrements on the largerfigure are like those on normal figures in panels, where there is no micropsia/macropsia.

Iconography in Bradshaw rock art Pettigrew

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across the Indian Ocean. Apart from theobvious geographic fact that the Sandawewould have had ready access to their eastcoast and thereby to an Indian Oceanpathway to Australia, there does not seemto be any suggestion, at first sight, that thismight have been possible. There is pres-ently no evidence that the Sandawe hadseafaring expertise, although the very longhistory of sea faring from the nearby portof Kilwa in Eastern Tanzania hints that aco-operative venture so long ago mighthave been possible between Sandawe andcoastal tribes, given that the Sandawemight have had enough baobab seed totrade with starving tribes that lackedaccess to these trees. Against the lack ofevidence of boat use by the Sandawe,there are depictions in Bradshaw art oflarge seafaring boats, probably of fibreconstruction based upon the horizontalstriations in the depicted hull. A boat inone such depiction had a three-metreprow and 29 passengers and crew (MMyers, personal communication).

An ancient African–Australianvoyage?Many commentators have considered itludicrous to suggest that a Palaeolithicculture, without navigational skills or geo-graphic knowledge of other continents,could have found their way by sea to Aus-tralia from Africa. This is understandablespeculation in the negative sense but ittends to be countered by irrefutable factsthat point in the opposite direction. As inany great mystery to solve, we need moti-vation, means and opportunity.

MOTIVATIONThe Toba event, the largest mega-eruption in the previous two millionyears, occurred around 74,000 years agoin Sumatra. Its ash cloud and sulphatecloud had devastating consequences forhumans, which are described in moredetail below. The timing of this super-volcano eruption was appropriate forthese early human migrations and its mag-nitude meant that the sun was completelyblocked by the sulphate cloud for anumbers of years, impacting savagely onhunter gatherers.

MEANSThe depictions of boats in Bradshaw rockart suggest that they were large, oceangoing and constructed of bundles of reeds(Figure 7).

OPPORTUNITYIn February, opportunity arises when theprevailing Indian Ocean easterlies reversedirection to give way to vigorous westerliesthat are capable of driving even sluggishraft-like reed boats to the Kimberley infeasible time,18 with judicious paddlingand canoe sails (no depicted boats havemasts, but one cannot rule out small, per-sonal canoe sails, which are still used byislanders in the north east Indian Ocean).

MAGICBecause the present thesis concerns theshamanistic rituals of both the Sandaweand Bradshaw peoples, it is highly likelythat shamans would have been urged todeal with the catastrophic darkness post-Toba. For San people like the Sandawe,who had great sensitivity and knowledge ofthe sun, moon and stars, years of darknesswould have had a devastating impact ontheir psyche, putting aside the horrors ofthe famine. Magical practice, ‘to bring thesun back’, would no doubt have takenadvantage of the Sandawe’s known profi-ciency with the heavens and perhaps haveled to a seafaring expedition in a sunrisedirection towards the known usual sourceof the sun, and therefore coincidentally toNW Australia.

NAVIGATIONIn the month of February, the sun is stillaround eight degrees south of the equatorin the southern hemisphere, so a bearingfor sunrise from the Tanzanian coast,from a latitude of say, 9 degrees south,would head unknowing voyagers directlyto the Kimberley in NW Australia (at 17degrees south).

Food would not have been a problemno matter how long the voyage turned outto be, because the Sandawe lived in theheart of one of the most abundant baobabforests on the continent at that time,before the evolution of the moderncoastal species. The convenient natural

packaging of baobab pods is very longlasting (years if stored away from thedamp) and provides seeds that are sustain-ing for an adult at 300 gram per day (halfa pod). Fresh water would have been moreof a problem for many reasons. It would bedifficult to predict in advance how muchto take. Storage on board would probablybe a problem in a Palaeolithic culturewithout suitable large containers. Finally,the weight of water might seriously burdenthe boat (one would need roughly one’sown weight in water for every fortnight oftravel under present conditions on theequator, although this would have beenless in the overcast, cool, ice-age condi-tions that probably prevailed post-Toba).Fortunately, the voyagers might not haveneeded to carry much fresh water becauserain was plentiful in the ice age conditionsthat prevailed 70,000 years ago. Thisseems perverse, because it is well knownthat the continents were drier during theice age but apparently there was some sortof global equilibrium so that reduced con-tinental rainfall was balanced by increasedrainfall over the oceans, particularly overthe more eastern Indian Ocean, whichwould have made up the latter part of sucha voyage.

ICE AGE WESTERLIES?It might be argued that the Pilot Chart-derived18 equatorial westerlies, making awest-east voyage more favourable, are notindisputable facts, because they apply topresent-day weather conditions and not tothose that prevailed during the last glacialage when the proposed voyage would havetaken place. This is a valid objection,because both simulations and indirectmeasures of temperature and other cli-matic conditions show how different thelast glacial age was, with mean equatorialtemperatures up to 10°C cooler, depend-ing on location and altered monsoonalwind patterns in the Indian Ocean. Fortu-itously for the present proposal, the iceage simulations19 show that February west-erlies on the African coast and along theIndian Ocean equator were enhanced,reaching wind velocities double what theyattain today. At the predicted Pleistocenewind speeds of 10 to 25 knots, even a slug-

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gish raft-like fibre boat might approachfour knots, particularly if it had a wind-catching profile, with a prow three to fourmetres high and a 1.5 metre beam likethat depicted in the Bradshaw rock art. Atfour knots, the 6,000-mile journey fromEast Africa to NW Australia would takeapproximately two months, which shouldhave been attainable if there was sufficientrain to provide fresh water. The chances ofreaching Australian landfall would obvi-ously be increased if there were multipleboats, something it is impossible toestimate.

EXTERNAL REFERENCE II: IMPACTOF A MAJOR CATASTROPHE

It is a tenuous exercise to attempt toreconstruct the possible impact on anancient culture of a catastrophe, such as asuper-volcano eruption. In contrast, thiswould clearly be an external influence thathelps remove the circularity of inferencesabout the meaning of cultural icons. Inthe present case, references to boabs inBradshaw art are recognised for the firsttime as a direct result of considering thesetrees in the broader context of the Tobaevent. These references are not rare inTassel Bradshaw art but might not havebeen recognised in the absence of the con-textual cues that have been provided byconsidering the possible impacts of thiswell-defined, if remote, external event.

Toba catastrophePhysical science gives us a precise date andmagnitude for the Toba super-volcano19

but there is presently no known icon thatmight enable the direct recognition of thisevent in rock art. Instead, we must resortto indirect inferences.

The Toba eruption, 74,000 years ago,puts the discussion in the right time framefor the first human migrations to Australiafrom Africa, particularly if we allow for theextra delays and disruption to migrationproduced by the widespread aftermath ofthe volcano itself (Figure 8). At the time ofthe eruption, Africa was populated byStone Age hunter-gatherers, probablyancestors of the San peoples, well beforeherdsmen appeared. Toba’s gigantic ash

Figure 7. Depictions of boats in Bradshaw rock art: (A) Small boat; the high prow mightbe ceremonial, or perhaps reflect use in open ocean. (B) A drawing by Grahame Walsh ofa large boat depiction that was partly obscured by flow-stone overlay and did not photo-graph well. The posterior end of the depiction was sufficiently free of the overlay thathorizontal striations could be discerned, possibly indicating a fibre construction (á laHeyerdahl). Twenty occupants can be counted in the boat, which has a high prow thatsuggests ocean-going capability.

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cloud spread west from its origin inSumatra, atypical for a volcanic plumebecause its huge mass, so close to theequator, was subject to Coriolis forces.20

Plumes below this mass threshold aresubject to stratospheric winds rather thanCoriolis forces, which tend to disperseand drive such smaller volcanic eruptionsroughly eastwards. Therefore, the ashcloud was right in the migratory path ofhumans from Africa to the Indies, withsignificant ash coverage in NorthernAfrica, the Middle East and India. InIndia, the ash covered the sub-continent,where it was at least three metres thick.Dating studies of human stone tools foundabove and below the ash layer have shownthat the layer immediately below the ashhas an age of 74,000 years, as expected,but the tools resting just above the ashwere only 55,000 years old, indicating that

it took 19,000 years before the area wasrecolonised after the eruption.21 The ear-liest evidence of human habitation foundso far in Australia is 60,000 years old,22 verymuch in keeping with a migration thatstarted close to the time of the Toba eventbut was somewhat delayed by post-Tobadisruptions. This delay might have been10 or more millennia as the migrantspassed through the Indies, just as recolo-nisation was delayed until after vegetationand game returned to ash-covered India.Because the size of the Toba ejecta isknown from the size of its crater inSumatra, an estimate can be made of theamount of sulphur released from theejecta to yield the likely magnitude andduration of the sulphate cloud. Differentstudies give somewhat different resultsaccording to the size of the modelled sul-phate particles, which settle faster when

larger, but all agree that the sun wouldhave been completely blacked out foryears by the sulphate cloud.23,24 Someargue that Toba must have caused massextinction of humans, on the basis of thereduced genetic variance now seen in thedescendants of the migrants who leftAfrica compared with those who stayedbehind.25 Others are sceptical that therewere any major effects of Toba on thehuman population.26 In response to thesceptics, it is difficult to argue that years ofcomplete darkness would have had noeffect on hunter-gatherer bands, whosegame and plant food were dependenton photosynthesis. Of course, the co-operativeness and ingenuity of humanswould have lessened Toba’s impact. Alsoimportant would have been local mitigat-ing factors, such as the baobab forests, inwhich the Sandawe lived and which pro-vided the protein-lipid-rich seeds fromtheir fruit, which could be kept for yearsand perhaps enabled defeat of the post-Toba famine. Seafood harvested withoutnatural light might also have saved somebands from the famine, although we donot know whether the marine food chainwould have survived years of darknessunscathed. Therefore, Toba’s effectswould have been highly idiosyncraticand dependent on local conditions, but itseems reasonable to expect some evidenceof its negative impact on hunter-gatherers,even when they escaped the worst climaticeffects because they lived south of the ashcloud and north of the bitter cold.

The baobab tree: a Stone Ageshopping mallThe Australian baobab tree, or boab,Adansonia gregorii, is an unmistakablemember of the genus, the other membersof which are all located far away in Africaand Madagascar. How did it make the6,000 mile journey? A popular hypothesisexplains this in terms of continental driftbut Australia and Africa have not beenclose for 100 million years, while thegenetics show that the African and Austra-lian baobabs are almost identical, havingseparated less than 100,000 years ago.27 Anexact figure is currently being soughtusing the very large database necessary to

Atte

nuat

ion

(log

10)

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Years post eruption

Toba sulphate cloud

Starlight

Dark night

Moonlight

Day

Figure 8. Reconstruction of the catastrophic sulphate cloudof the Toba megavolcano, replotted from Robock et al.,23 whocalculated the volume of ejecta from the Toba crater lake,which is still extant, and the amount of sulphur from repre-sentative rock in other volcanic eruptions. The darkness wasworldwide but may have been less than shown in some loca-tions, such as the poles. Most hunting would have beenseverely impacted by this level of darkness, but foraging forseafood and for baobab fruit could have continued with torch-light. This spike of five years of total darkness is known tohave been magnified to tens of thousands of years in India,where metres of ash added further disruption to the darkness.

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study plant genes, which are notoriously‘slow’ compared with mammal genes. Thetiming of the African–Australian baobabseparation is compatible with the timingof human migration out of Africa, which isalso uncertain, but likewise is less than100,000 years.

The geographic distribution of boabs isalmost exactly the same as the distributionof Bradshaw paintings, if we make allow-ances for apparently recent eastwardextensions on the Victoria River and forthe ‘holes’ in the distribution of thisextremely frost-sensitive tree on the Kim-

berley plateau where there are both Brad-shaws and occasional frosts.1,28 This is avery narrow distribution compared withthe much larger stretch of the NW Austra-lian coastline, where boabs could readilygrow. For this reason, it would seem veryunlikely that baobab pods floating in fromAfrica would choose this narrow piece ofcoastline, in this narrow time frame(baobabs had been around for more thana million years), when this was also thetime and place of the Bradshaw culture.We know that boabs were an importantpart of the Bradshaw culture because

Mushroom head iconMojo armpit drawstring bagAffinity with small mammalsPraying mantis worshipBaobab references in rock artAlso in other San peoples‘Peppercorn’ curly hairSmall statureExquisite delineation of fauna in art

Table 1. Unusual Sandawe–Bradshawparallels

Type of reference to baobab Number of exemplars Source

Boab frieze >100 Baobab site, DRNPLeafless tree plus fruit (dry season boab)Leafless tree and fruit ~80 Baobab site, DRNPRoughly drawn naked tree with fruit ~80 Baobab site, DRNPFruit on leafy tree (wet season boab)Boab leaves fruit 5 Bichrome rock, DRNPLeaves and fruit 9 Bichrome rock, DRNPSuspended ‘ceremonial’ fruitDouble decoration 2 Plates 21, 48 Walsh1

Single decoration 1 Plate 47 Walsh1

Single decoration 1 Walsh1

No decoration 1 Boab Bay, Faraway BayNo decoration 5 Bradshaw Alley, DRNPStriated halo 1 Walsh1

Fusion-transformation of limb to podPod from hand 12 Plates 12, 17, 26 Walsh;1 Boab BayPod from foot 2 Plate 20 Walsh1

Boab garland 2 Bradshaw Alley, DRNPTree headdresses and dendrianthropesBranching tree headdress 5 Boab Bay, Faraway BayParallel fibre headdress 3 Lost City; Plate 11 of Walsh1

Tassel pom pom headdress 4 DRNP, Theda, Plates 27, 32, 36, 371

Total boab references ~300Total paintings examined 104Total paintings with boab references 54Total Tassel Bradshaws with boab references 49Total Sash Bradshaws with boab references 0

DRNP: Drysdale River National Park

Table 2. References to baobabs in Bradshaw rock art

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there are frequent, reverential or ritual,references to boabs in their art (asdetailed and illustrated below). There aredepictions of the tree itself, either heavilyladen with fruit (‘dry season’ aspect) orwith leaves and fewer fruit (‘wet season’).More frequent are depictions of the podor nut, which is an important food source,both because its pulp and seeds are nutri-tious but because they are very longlasting, keeping for years if kept dry.Underlining the significance of boab podsto the culture are depictions of transfor-mations that are likely to have been theresult of a hallucinogenic trance, wherethe forelimb of a human figure has beentransformed into a leafy boab branchbearing a pod. Lewis-Williams11 has shownhow this kind of transformation is morelikely to involve a highly significant objectin the culture, such as the eland, a largeantelope, which was the single mostimportant food source for the San. Thetransformation can be regarded as reveal-ing what was on the mind of the shaman at

the time. The boab-arm transformationsuggests that shamans, with the role ofadvising and guiding the culture, hadplaced boabs in a place of importance.

Baobabs have extraordinary utility. Thelist of uses that I keep continues to grow,having reached 39 so far. Apart from thevariety of foods available from the edibleleaves, from pulp around the seeds andfrom the seeds themselves, which are highin fat and protein, baobabs yield a variety ofdrugs, including an antidote for the arrowpoison used by the San, in addition toglue, dye, fibre, oil, soap, starter/curdler,shelter, containers, bee hives, et cetera.The pod’s longevity should also be noted,yielding unspoiled seed after a year on thetree and further years in storage, a keyproperty that would enable survival in theyears of darkness of the post-Toba famine.Many of these uses have been lost with theadvent of ‘corner stores’ all over Africa butit is not too much of an exaggeration to callthe baobab the ‘Stone Age shopping mall’.It would certainly have been chosen to take

on a long voyage like the one that I amsuggesting for the likely Sandawe ancestorsof the Bradshaw culture.

In this way, another example presentsitself for the task of breaking the circular-ity inherent in studies of an extinctculture, where the only available informa-tion is rock art. Baobab trees are instantlyrecognisable in both Australian andAfrican environments. They also occur inrock art in both places. I am not aware ofany examples of transformations of thehuman body into baobabs in Sandawerock art (or any other San art), like thoseI have described in Bradshaw rock art, butit is also true that references to baobabs inBradshaw art, including the transforma-tions, are limited to early Tassel forms andare not seen at all in later art (from Sashforms onwards; Table 1). My interpreta-tion of these differences hinges on therelative importance of baobabs at differenttimes and in different cultures. If therewere abundant sources of other food, theshamans might not have had the baobab‘on their minds’ so much. Alternatively, inthe post-Toba famine, with the reductionof foods that were directly or indirectlydependent upon photosynthesis, the lon-gevity of the baobab tree and its pod mighthave played a crucial role in human sur-vival through the years of darkness. Thismight have engendered a reverential orritual attitude to this tree. After arrival inNW Australia during the Pleistocene,when there was an enormous fertile floodplain, which is now inundated, that wasmany times the area of the present Kim-berley itself, the life-saving role played bythe baobab in the post-Toba famine andthe voyage might over thousands ofyears have been gradually balanced inthe shamans’ minds by the abundantresources of the new environment.

The collected examples of baobab ref-erences in Bradshaw art are set out inTable 2.

BAOBAB FRIEZEBaobab fruit (pods or nuts) are easy torecognise in depictions as slightly asym-metrical, variable in shape, often acumi-nate at one end and ovoidal (Figure 9).The only other natural object in the Kim-

Figure 9. Baobab frieze. A repetitive pattern of baobab pods and branches that was partof a much larger panel, now deteriorated, onto which was later painted the baobab treesshown in Figures 10A and 10B.

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berley that is even vaguely similar is theemu egg, the ovoid of which has a differ-ent, fatter, more symmetrical and muchless variable outline without an acuminateend.

An unusual depiction of baobab fruitforms a repeated pattern (Figure 8), withattached branches, that covers, or at leastonce covered before deterioration, a largearea of the same rock wall on which areoverpainted exquisite baobab trees loadedwith pods (Figure 10). The term ‘frieze’seems appropriate to describe this large,regular decorative panel, in keeping with

the extensive decorative panels that adornancient Greek structures, rather than ‘tap-estry’ or ‘mosaic’, which might also applyto repetitive artistic creations.

BAOBAB TREESDepictions of four different baobab treescan be recognised in Bradshaw art by thecharacteristic fruit. Two are depicted inthe ‘dry season’ phase (Figure 10) whenthere are no leaves and abundant fruit.Two further trees are depicted in the ‘wetseason’ phase when leaves are abundantand most fruit has fallen.

SANDAWE FIGURATIVE BAOBABDEPICTION AND PARALLEL FIBREHEADDRESSAlthough such depictions do not featurein the publications that detail Sandawerock art,29 my personal examination of theKolo site revealed unmistakable baobabs,in keeping with the importance of the treefor this culture and its prevalence inthat area (Figures 11 and 12). Adjacent tothe baobab depiction was a figure witha parallel-fibre headdress. These arecommon throughout the Kolo site andtend to be discounted on any specific basisbecause many tribes, like the Masai, mightadopt a similar hairstyle. In this case, aparticular point can be made because of adeep similarity between the depiction ofthe baobab and the depiction of thenearby parallel-fibre headdress. The simi-larity arises because the baobab is depicteda little figuratively, with parallel branchesthat are curved to follow the curved crownof the tree (Figure 11a). Because thenearest painted image to the baobab is ahuman figure with a parallel-fibre head-dress, and because the parallel fibres aresimilar in both cases, it is hard to avoid theconclusion that the artist intended thecomparison.

Similar parallel-fibre headdresses occurin Bradshaw art (Figure 12). It seems rea-sonable to assume these also represent areference to the baobab.

CEREMONIAL BAOBABSWalsh1 recognised that these depictionswere united by the same object at theircore, despite the variations in the decora-tions and the uniform reverentially sus-pended treatment of each. He called themCeremonial Oval Objects, in which the ovalresembles a boab pod (nut or fruit) morethan any other natural object, includingthe fatter, less variable outline of an emuegg (Figure 11). Walsh did not venture anyopinion about their identity, which isobvious to me because of the many strandsof the boab’s wider context that might rec-ommend the approach taken here.

Tree headdresses anddendrianthropesHeaddresses are ubiquitous in depictionsfrom the Tassel and Sash styles. Some of

Figure 10. (A) and (B). Two depictions of baobab trees, side by side on the same rockwall. They were painted on top of the repetitive pattern of baobab fruit depicted inFigure 9 (the baobab frieze). Both of these trees depict ‘dry season’ conditions, when theleaves have been shed to reveal a maximal number of pods. The shape of the pods isdiagnostic. (C). A ‘wet season’ baobab showing the digitate (4 to 5 leaflets) leaves thatcharacterise this species and the small number of pods, which mostly would have beenshed around the time of flowering and leafing at the start of the wet (contours traced inblack). 10 (D) and (E). Transformation from forelimb to baobab branch, complete witha pod to clinch the diagnosis. In African rock art, transformations are usually withanimals. Transformations involving baobab trees indicate that this tree may have beenvery important to the culture and was likely to have been a key subject of trancevisualisations, just as the eland was to the Khoisan.

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these headdresses are unmistakeabletrees, such as the one shown in Figure 13.This example is taken from a site wherethere were four other figures with thesame style of branched headdress. Theseobvious trees do not bear a Linnaean labelof their species but we are entitled toassume that they represent the baobab,because of the context that has beenwoven here for this tree and because thereis no conceivable tree from NW Australiawith greater utility and significance to aStone Age culture. If visualisation of one’shead being replaced by a mushroom ispossible, what about a head replaced bythe most significant species of tree? Fig-ure 13 shows what might be an exampleof this phenomenon, a dendrianthrope,which refers to a tree–human hybrid, justas therianthrope refers to a mammal–human hybrid. The branching in thisdepiction is so elaborate that the head, if itis present at all, is not visible and we mightinterpret this depiction as a dendrian-thrope rather than the figure with a treeheaddress that first comes to mind.

Timing of baobab referencesWalsh1 was able to define a temporalrelationship between Tassel and SashBradshaw styles by using superposition,observing which style was painted overwhich when they were both foundtogether. Although later students of Brad-shaw art have found a degree of temporaloverlap, there seems to be general agree-ment that the Tassel style preceded theSash style. In this regard, it is of great inter-est that whenever one can attribute thebaobab reference to a particular style, it isalways the earlier Tassel style (Table 1). Inthe case of the four depicted baobab trees,there is no way to link them definitively toa particular style, although the simpledepictions of human figures that arenearby on the same wall might also belinked tentatively to the Tassel period (JSchmiechen, personal communication).

The disappearance of baobab refer-ences at the transition from the Tassel tothe Sash epochs could indicate that theperceived importance of baobabs wanedwith time as the culture developed frombeginnings where baobabs (or their

a

Figure 11. 11a, Original art work for 11.1. Ceremonial baobab fruit, (called ‘ceremonialoval objects by Walsh1) at either (11.2) or both ends (11.1, 11.3 and 11.4) or depicted witha radiating halo of lines like the adjacent human figure (11.5) but there is a constantunderlying baobab pod shape. The depictions have been rotated from their originalorientation on the rock wall to facilitate comparison. The ovoid shape varies somewhat,just as in life, and is distinctly different in outline (for example, more parallel sides) fromthe only other natural ovoid object depiction with which it might be confused, such as theemu egg, which is much less variable in shape and has a fatter ovoid. The baobab podsare always suspended in space, rather than being held. Combined with the decoration andthe halo, this supports a ceremonial or reverential attitude to the most nutritious andlong-lived part of the baobab tree, in keeping with the present thesis that it played acrucial role in survival post-Toba.

Figure 12. Parallel-fibre headdresses (A and C) and figurative baobab depiction (B): Band C are derived from Sadawe rock art at Kolo, Tanzania, while A is derived fromBradshaw rock art in the Eastern Kimberley. The baobab is unmistakable because of itsvery thick trunk. The parallel branches show some artistic licence, which is common inthis art, particularly for depictions of Euphorbia candelabra. Curved parallel fibre head-dresses are common in both cultures and may have been inspired by this figurativebaobab because it was immediately adjacent to depictions of the Sandawe headdress.

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memory) were more important, consistentwith the scenario of a post-Toba andbaobab-enabled start.

Contra-opinion on trancevisualisationsWalsh1 rejected the idea that the Brad-shaw images, with which he had suchdetailed familiarity, might representtrance visualisations á la Lewis-Williams.11

His expressed opinion was based on aconsideration of the grid of dots image,but not on any of the many other halluci-natory visualisations listed above. Thespecific image with dots that was chosenby Walsh was not actually an exampleof the hallucinogenic type of grid andmight explain his scepticism about this

approach. The image he chose, fromBradshaw Alley in Drysdale National Park,has well-separated, linear arrays of dotsrather than a regularly spaced array. Inthis case chosen by Walsh, the rows of dotsprobably represent a previous pattern oflines that were punctuated with colouredochre (like a row of beads) and where theinterrupted ochre has weathered away. Itis instructive to compare Walsh’s chosenexample with the two examples of the gridof dots illustrated here that conform moreto expectations about this phenomenon,if it were based on trance (Figures 3 and4). Notice that the more likely candidateshave larger diameter dots in relation tothe dots on the human figure (forexample, in the hair) and that they

occupy a uniform grid, with no hint of thelinear arrangement that is obvious inWalsh’s choice, and there is no evidenceof order that might betray an earlierpattern before the ochre wore off. IfWalsh considered different examples ofpossible trance visualisation apart fromthe grid, he has not set them out in any ofhis books. Based on the example hedescribed, Walsh9 appears to be wrong onthis issue, because there is abundant evi-dence of different depictions of trancevisualisations in Bradshaw art.

Bradshaw shamanism inother studiesObservations in rock art of the ubiquitouspractice of shamanism are not new.Michaelson and colleagues30 inferred sha-manism from completely different Brad-shaw icons to those put forward here, suchas ‘ecstatic postures’, bifid antenna-likeheaddresses and depictions of eucalyptusleaves, which they suggest are mild psyche-delics. These arguments are a littletenuous, like many made here, and illus-trate the inherent circularity, if there is noexternal anchor. In contrast, Michaelsonand colleagues30 seem to be correct aboutshamanism in Bradshaw culture, if oneadds the extra information put forwardhere. They appear to have learned agestalt for the recognition of shamanismin Bradshaw art without specifically iden-tifying any of the icons on the list in thispaper.

Need for datingThe link between baobab references andthe Toba event would obviously be muchimproved with more precise dating of thedepictions, which we predict will have anage around 70,000 years, close to the timeof the Toba event, with the Tassel Brad-shaws baobab references earlier, by somemore precise amount, than the Sash Brad-shaws, where we can find no references. Anew approach to dating of individualpaintings uses microorganisms that havereplaced the original paint.8 This discov-ery helps explain how paintings can lookyoung but be very old (infinite replenish-ment of the microorganisms is possible)and why radiocarbon and similar methods

Figure 13. Tree-on-head depictions: Although we do not have the diagnostic outline ofbaobab fruit in these depictions, we are entitled to assume that the depictions representbaobabs. Many details of the baobab context have been established for the Bradshawculture and this tree, of all the trees in the forests of north west ice-age Australia, wouldbe the number one priority for a hunter-gatherer on account of its extreme utility (morethan 40 uses for foods, pharmaceuticals, fibre, dye, glue et cetera). These depictionswere found on the eastern edge of the Kimberley escarpment, close to the Timor Sea.Depiction (A) was found alongside four other depictions of human figures with similarbranched headdresses. The branching pattern in depiction (C) is so elaborate that itcompletely obscures the head, if indeed a head is present at all. It is possible that this isa dendrianthrope, part-human part-tree, where the head has been replaced by a tree, justas the head was replaced by a mushroom in the first example in this paper.

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give anomalously young dates7 (the organ-isms in the painting are alive and there-fore have modern C14 levels). The newobservations on biofilms in Bradshawpaintings might constrain experimentswith paint composition in a way that helpsreveal some details about the original art-ists,8 in addition to the possibility of pro-viding a date for each painting based onthe phylogeny of its microorganisms.

FUTURE OF BRADSHAWICONOGRAPHY

There are hundreds more icons in Brad-shaw art to be decoded in addition to thebeginnings presented here. Two promi-nent examples include a three-point waistaccoutrement seen in both Tassel andSash Bradshaws and the double-wingaccoutrement that adorns the headdressof Sash Bradshaws only. Although therehave been suggestions of a practical role,three-point tassels and sashes seem to havea ceremonial role, as well as having a par-allel in Saharan rock art and in the relatedjewellery of the Tuareg, for whom thethree points represent the Southern Crossconstellation (R Weiler and A Weiler,personal communication). This Saharan(Tassili n’Ajer) three-point connectioncould be tested further. Walsh1 haspointed out that the temporal progressionof icons in Bradshaw art is the reverse ofwhat normally occurs in cultural evolu-tion, because complex, sophisticatedforms come first and there is a later pro-gression to simpler ones. It is as if theculture has sprung forth fully formed.The succession of baobab references,described here for the first time, conformsto this rule and has even provided a pos-sible explanation. There are unusualexceptions to the rule, such as the timingof the beautiful, feathered, double-wingaccoutrement, which occurs only later, ina temporal relationship that is comple-mentary to the baobab references. Furtherinvestigation of this transition from Tasselto Sash epochs could help illuminate themeaning of many more Bradshaw icons, ascould better information on the age ofindividual paintings.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Generous sharing of information aboutrock art sites was provided by CeciliaMyers, Steve McIntosh, Anscar MacPhee,Lee Scott-Virtue and Joc Schmiechen.James Sokoll provided valuable back-ground information on Bradshaw art andon his late friend and colleague, GrahameWalsh. Visitation of art sites in the WanjinaWunggurr Wilinggi area was under apermit from the Kalumburu AboriginalCorporation.

REFERENCES

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Corresponding author:Professor Jack PettigrewSchool of Biomedical Sciences andQueensland Brain InstituteUniversity of QueenslandBrisbane QLD 4072AUSTRALIAE-mail: [email protected]

Iconography in Bradshaw rock art Pettigrew

© 2011 The Author Clinical and Experimental Optometry 94.5 September 2011

Clinical and Experimental Optometry © 2011 Optometrists Association Australia 417


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