2016-11-16 Jo McDonald - Arid Zone Hunter-Gatherer Rock Art
Channel: Archaeological Research Facility, UC Berkeley
Date: 2019-10-12

Arid Zone Hunter-Gatherer Rock Art: a View of the Great Basin from the Western Desert
16 November 2016, ARF Brownbag
Speaker: Jo McDonald (University of Western Australia).
The Australian arid zone was occupied soon after the arrival of modern humans to its shores – some 50,000 years ago. Throughout this remarkable period of time, hunter-gatherers have demonstrated all of the modern-human hallmarks – resilience and symbolic behaviour –signing the land and adapting to changing environmental landscapes. Like Australia, ethnographic models for Great Basin hunter-gatherers involve low population densities, flexible local organization and mobility, and a highly portable technological base closely articulated with landscape features. An adaptive rock art chronology for the Great Basin based on occupation indices, climatic indicators and information exchange theory is proposed using a stylistic analysis from the Pahranagat Valley. Arid zone hunter-gatherer mobility and the use of rock art as an information strategy are discussed as global phenomena.