Oldest Rock Art Discovered In Australia

Archeologists have discovered the oldest rock art in Nawarla Gabarnmang, Northern Australia, according to University of Southern Queensland report.

An international team of archeologists has discovered that Nawarla Gabarnmang rock art is more than 25,000 years old, making it the oldest rock art painting in Australia and they claim that the art was probably created by modern humans.

The Narwala Gabarnmang site is one of the richest Aboriginal rock art sites in Australia and one of the most extensive in the world. It has been described as the "Sistine Chapel of rock art sites" due to the extensive coverings of art on the roof of the shelter.

Archeologists discovered this when they were studying the charcoal drawing in Nawarla Gabarnmang in 2011.

During the study, archeologists took fragments of the charcoal from the site and analysed the charcoal fragments using radiocarbon dating method. They were stunned to find that the rock art was more than 25,000 years old.

"When I turned over that little piece of rock and saw that art I couldn't believe it," said Professor Bryce Barker, Archeologist at the University of Southern Queensland, in a statement. "There I was sitting in the lab at USQ in Toowoomba with a piece of art that I knew had to be more than 20,000 years old."

Archeologists have also found some evidence about the earliest human use of edge ground axes. They found that these edge ground axes were more than 30,000 years ago a stone tool technology not developed elsewhere in the world until much later.

Archeologists believe that probably human occupation in Narwala Gabarnmang began more than 45,000 years ago.

"Rock art is notoriously difficult to date and although we know that people had occupied this site at least 45,000 years ago we did not know how old the art was," said Professor Barker.

Recently, another group of archeologists has discovered one of oldest cave art at El Castillo in northern Spain. They found that the El Castillo cave painting is more than 41,000 years old, making it Europe's oldest known cave art. They claimed that the El Castillo cave painting art was either created by modern man or by Neanderthals.