A Rainbow Serpent in the rock art of western Arnhem Land is an amalgam creature showcasing features from multiple animals, predominantly a snake body accompanied by attributes such as a macropod or crocodile head, and occasionally fish fins or human breasts. These Ancestral Beings hold a crucial role in myths concerning creation and destruction, with regional stories persistently recounting their importance. A survey published in “Australian Archaeology” has recorded Rainbow Serpent paintings in Amurdak Country, specifically at Awunbarna or Mount Borradaile, tallying 29 Serpent paintings across 21 locations, with 20 created after European contact. Awunbarna comprises 38.5% of the 52 recent regional paintings.<\/p>\n
Since 2018, the examination of 165 out of 167 recognized Awunbarna rock art sites has revealed these Rainbow Serpents in 12.6% of the locations. In contrast to neighboring areas like Namunidjbuk, which has two Serpent paintings spread across 352 sites, the density at Awunbarna stands out. Geographically, while other regional clusters span over 100 square kilometers, the Awunbarna sites are contained within 27 square kilometers, housing a total of 139 known regional Rainbow Serpents: 70 in Yam style, 52 recent, and 17 transitional.<\/p>\n
The Yam style Serpents at Awunbarna vary from 0.32 to 2.0 meters in length, with an average of 1.14 meters. The 20 recent paintings range from 0.9 to 6.1 meters, averaging 2.4 meters, displaying increased variation in color and fill, featuring a crocodile-like head on the largest serpent at AW5, which measures 6.1 meters or 6.88 meters when accounting for the curvature of the body. This supports earlier findings suggesting that Yam-style Serpents are smaller compared to Modern ones.<\/p>\n
In addition to the Rainbow Serpents, notable features at Awunbarna include a whale painting, a massive human figure, and a distinct stone arrangement. The whale, unique compared to other regional art, measures two meters wide and showcases a baleen structure, likely symbolizing a humpback. The 2.1-meter giant is recognized as the largest human figure in Awunbarna. The stone formation extends 38.2 by 37.5 meters in a serpentine pattern linked to a crocodile-head boulder, which served as a ceremonial site until the 1970s.<\/p>\n
Dating the paintings relies on style analysis, layer positioning, pigment durability, and comparisons with sites like Nawarla Gabarnmang. The recent Rainbow Serpents, inferred to have been created after 1640 based on stylistic and pigment attributes, bolster the authors\u2019 thesis that larger artworks aimed to reaffirm cultural power in the face of societal disruptions from the late 1800s. While the extensive Rainbow Serpents are rooted in strategic cultural reaffirmation motives, the survey merely documents the locations and dimensions of the art. In contrast, introduced species and crocodiles are not depicted as large at Awunbarna, unlike other clusters, highlighting the unique and important representation of the Rainbow Serpent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Rainbow Serpent in the rock art of western Arnhem Land is an amalgam creature showcasing features from multiple animals, predominantly a snake body accompanied by attributes such as a macropod or crocodile head, and occasionally fish fins or human breasts. These Ancestral Beings hold a crucial role in myths concerning creation and destruction, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":376042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-376041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-source-scienceblog-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=376041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/376042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=376041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=376041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wolfscientific.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=376041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}