Aboriginal rock art discovery

2003-07-01 11:56

Sydney - Australian scientists on Tuesday announced the discovery of a cave containing scores of rock paintings up to 4 000 years old, calling it one of the most significant finds ever of Aboriginal art.

The paintings were kept secret for eight years after a hiker stumbled upon the cave in rugged national parkland near Sydney in 1995, officials at the Australian Museum said.

The inaccessibility of the area in Wollemi National Park kept researchers from conducting a full-scale investigation of the find until May, the museum said.

"It's like an ancient world that time forgot," said Paul Tacon, a museum anthropologist who led the expedition.

The cave holds 203 paintings, stencils and prints in "pristine condition" depicting humans and god-like human/animal composites, birds, lizards and marsupials, said Tacon.

There are life-size, delicately drawn eagles, kangaroos and an extremely rare depiction of a wombat, Tacon said, describing how the images were painted in 11 layers during a period from around 2000 BC to the early 1800s.

"We've never seen anything quite like this combination of rare representations in so many layers," he said in a statement.

The exact location of the site - described as a rock shelter 12 metres long, six metres deep and one to two metres high - was being kept secret to prevent damage by vandals or sightseers.

New South Wales Premier Bob Carr said the "remarkable" discovery confirmed the richness of Aboriginal culture and spiritual life at a time when civilisation was blossoming around the world.

"This reminds us 4 000 years ago, when you had civilisation flourishing in Mesopotamia, when you had the power of Egypt, before China was united, while Stonehenge was being built, we had Aboriginal people in these lands, on the outskirts of the Sydney basin," he said.

"This is eerie, because it's contact with a very old Australia and it's why we've got to honor our Aboriginal people."

- AFX