Rock Carvings Document the Secret History of Aboriginal Contact with Outsiders

1. Aea
   September 23rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm

   I wouldn’t be terribly surprised if this some sort of elaborate hoax.

2. Matt
   September 23rd, 2008 at 5:21 pm

   Aboriginal art simply doesn’t look like the object being depicted. They never used perspective.
   Hoax.

3. ted
   September 23rd, 2008 at 5:38 pm

   Shopped, or just plain fake.
   They would never go into that much detail.

4. Evil Pundit
   September 23rd, 2008 at 6:03 pm

   I’m skeptical. The art is not in the Aboriginal style, it looks Western.

5. Jimbo
   September 23rd, 2008 at 6:12 pm

   Fake as a virgin after prom night!

6. CheeseDuck
   September 23rd, 2008 at 7:03 pm

   Its quite obvious its fake.

7. Christophe
   September 23rd, 2008 at 9:58 pm

   amazing how I thought ‘hoax’ as well. Still, there is hope…

8. Moodindigo
   September 24th, 2008 at 2:48 am

   Wow, aren’t we all getting cynical. “Hoax” from me too though. Reminds me of the Ica stones:

   skepdic.com/icastones.html

9. Pol x
   September 24th, 2008 at 4:34 am

   I don’t think it is particularly cynical to see a fraud at work when all the visual cues scream HOAX.

   All the drawings scratched into rock supposedly in the 19th century but oddly have not weathered back to the colour of the rock in a century.
   And they are all the same state of unweathered, like they were all done at once.

   Also the pics are all obviously photo referenced, thr sailing boat is at an angle, which wold be a big leap from no perspective non realist art to an action shot including fore shortening.

10. Moti The Wonder Dog
    September 24th, 2008 at 5:33 am

    Has anyone calling hoax actually read the story and seen ALL the pictures instead of just the one featured here? I call not a hoax (many of the pictures are quite recent, some are 1000s of years old) and do some research first before calling hoax.
    “Aboriginal art simply doesn’t look like the object being depicted” - what does “aboriginal” art look like?

11. Anthony
    September 24th, 2008 at 6:30 am

    It looks like things other than that. Good work on being gullible, Moti.

12. Pol x
    September 24th, 2008 at 8:50 am

    Mati

    “Aboriginal Art” uses a very distinct visual lexicon and system of symbols that is not used by Occidentals.

    And within the definition of Aboriginal to mean The aboriginal peoples of Australia including the Torres Strait Islanders even there ther is no homogeny. But they do have more in common artisically than they do with the European traditions.

    Are you saying it’s racist to say Aboriginal art?

13. Tempscire
    September 24th, 2008 at 4:39 pm

    The majority of the images seen in the slide show look like what you’d expect to see for aboriginal art. There’s even a couple other depictions of ships that blend right into that style.

    What’s pictured above looks like someone Photoshopped some 19th century etchings onto a cave wall. Those are suspicious.

14. Pol x
    September 25th, 2008 at 5:56 am

    I went back and ahad a really rthorough look at the slide show, and sure enough the boats are painted not scratched in. Which blows my line of thinking out of the water.

    But it does throw up some very odd things, a lot of the “modern” drawings are painted over older paintings.

    THis as far as I kow simply doesn’t happen with in aboriginal art/tradition.

    The pantings are semi mystical in themsselves and are maintianed generation after generation, going back a SERIOUSLY long time.

    So it would be frankly bizarre for some one to decide that drawing a a biplane or the missionaries should be domne over the old sacred paintings.

    It may well be from the 19th century but it does seem very strange to attribute it to aboriginal peoples.

    As their population has gone into decline many of the old sites simply don’t have enough informed people to maintain them, and quite a few have had significant vandalism problems.

    19th century vandalism?

    Just a thought.

15. Stacey
    September 27th, 2008 at 4:12 am

    I believe this could be the real thing, however would be extremely interested to know if they actually bothered to ask the traditional land owners permission to photograph these rocks.
    I have studied australian aboriginal art under Sally Butler from University of Queensland.

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