In this paper, we discuss observations from fieldwork in northern Kenya whichrevealed solid evidence for a vital ongoing rock art tradition among warriors ofSamburu—lmurran. They make rock art during their lives as warriors, typicallybetween the ages of 15 and 30, when they live away from their villages, herdingcattle and thus representing a specific ‘community of practice’. Our findings revealthat Samburu rock art is made predominantly as a leisure occupation, whilecamping in shelters, as part of activities also involving the preparation of food.Typical images include domestic animals, humans (both men and women) andoccasionally wild animals such as elephants and rhinos. Each age-set and newgeneration of lmurran is inspired by previous artwork, but they also change thetradition slightly by adding new elements, such as the recent tradition of writingletters and names close to the images. We conclude that even though rock art assuch is not part of any ritual or ceremonial setting, it plays an important role as aninter-generational visual culture that transfers a common ongoing culturalengendered warrior identity through time.

In this paper, we explore the social context of rock art creation through the lens of one woman's childhood experiences in, what is now, Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. We reflect upon oral history interviews conducted over the last three years with Warrdjak Senior Traditional Owner Josie Gumbuwa Maralngurra and her childhood spent walking country with family. As a witness to vast numbers of rock paintings being created, and sometimes an active participant in that process, Josie's memories provide rare insights into the social and cultural context of rock art practices during the late 1950s and early 1960s. We argue that Josie's personal experiences provide solid evidence for both the educational role that rock art continued to play across the region during the 20(th)century and its role as a tool for helping to ensure intergenerational connection to country.

This paper presents findings from a recent study of the Anbangbang Gallery in the Burrungkuy (Nourlangie) site complex of Kakadu National Park, Australia. Using new technologies alongside established methods for rock art documentation, we discuss the complexity and uniqueness of Anbangbang Gallery as an icon of Australian rock art. We have taken a comprehensive approach to our investigations, deliberately linking new technologies and scientific analysis with other archaeological and anthropological research methods. In particular, using evidence from a detailed site recording, oral histories, and pXRF analysis, we explore aspects of the site chronology, the nature of painting activity, and the retouching and repainting of earlier imagery. The findings force us to rethink the existing interpretative narrative for Anbangbang Gallery, the motivations behind previously held beliefs relating to recent rock art, and the implications this has had for ongoing conservation work in the region.

Only a few opportunities to interpret the production and use of rock art through informed methods can be found in northern Europe. Most rock art traditions seem to have ended millennia before any historical sources that could inform us about people’s life-worlds. Exceptions to this are post-Reformation sources that connect cup marks or cupules with Elves: light fairy creatures that were easy to disturb and that could cause sickness and ill fortune if they got annoyed. This article highlights this phenomenon through historical and oral sources and through archaeological evidence. It is argued that Elf-phenomena may very well be built on older traditions, but that they found new expression through the Reformation and the Danish and Swedish state religion: Protestantism.

This paper explores the complex story of a particular style of rock art in western Arnhem Land known as 'Painted Hands'. Using new evidence from recent fieldwork, we present a definition for their style, distribution and place in the stylistic chronologies of this region. We argue these motifs played an important cultural role in Aboriginal society during the period of European settlement in the region. We explore the complex messages embedded in the design features of the Painted Hands, arguing that they are more than simply hand stencils or markers of individuality. We suggest that these figures represent stylized and intensely encoded motifs with the power to communicate a high level of personal, clan and ceremonial identity at a time when all aspects of Aboriginal cultural identity were under threat.

Injalak Hill in western Arnhem Land is known for its extraordinary wealth of rock art imagery spanning thousands of years. This corpus of rock art speaks to the changing nature of life and culture in this region - and to the skills of the many artists who added their marks over time. This includes artists working in the 'contact' period who continued to create rock art in the face of increasing incursions into their lands, disease, and frontier violence. Hidden within a secluded rock shelter on Injalak Hill, one particular rock painting tells a special story of culture contact. Nicknamed by Aboriginal Traditional Owners as the 'Buffaroo', it most probably represents an amalgamation of a traditional subject - the kunj or kangaroo - with a newly introduced animal - the nganaparru or water buffalo. In this paper, we argue that the Buffaroo represents a 'first-sight' painting - one that was produced before the artists became truly familiar with water buffaloes. This life-size painting most likely embodies a period of experimentation for Aboriginal artists before they had become fully acquainted with depicting this newly introduced animal in this region. Furthermore, this painting also hints at a process whereby nganaparru became integrated into artistic and cultural systems in northern Australia.

Research into contemporary Indigenous relationships with the archaeological record has increasingly drawn upon frameworks emphasising relational, affectual and cultural understandings to learn about the complex ways that meaning and symbolism are negotiated and expressed. In this paper, we use a series of case studies from Arnhem Land to investigate the network of relationships Aboriginal Traditional Owners use in the process of interpreting the archaeological record. At the core of this process is Edward Casey's idea of "grasping-together", where people draw on their social and cultural knowledge as a means to make sense out of what is being encountered and how it fits into existing frameworks of knowledge and understanding. By approaching rock art through the lens of encounter and interaction, archaeologists are in a privileged position to add another layer to the, symbolism and significance people attach to their cultural heritage today.