Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

ARCHAEOLOGY

Australian Pleistocene rock art

Obtaining accurate dates for rock art is important to both archaeologists and Aboriginal Traditional Owners, but a lack of organic material associated with rock art can make this challenging. Using radiocarbon dating of mud wasp nests, Finch et al. show that naturalistic depictions of animals in the Kimberley region of northern Australia date to between 13,000 and 17,000 years ago.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: The oldest dated Kimberley rock painting.

References

  1. Finch, D. et al. Nat. Human Behav. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01041-0 (2021).

  2. Aubert, M. et al. Nature 514, 223–227 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Aubert, M. et al. Nature 576, 442–445 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Aubert, M. et al. Nature 564, 254–257 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Quiles, A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 113, 4670–4675 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Valladas, H. et al. Radiocarbon 59, 621–633 (2017).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Finch, D. et al. Science Adv. 6, eaay3922 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Taçon, P. S. C. et al. Aust. Archaeol. 86, 208–225 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul S. C. Taçon.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Taçon, P.S.C. Australian Pleistocene rock art. Nat Hum Behav 5, 301–302 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01043-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01043-y

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing