Overview
- Researchers working with Traditional Owners documented 14 Tasmanian tiger images and two Tasmanian devil images at Awunbarna and Injalak Hill in northwest Arnhem Land, with the peer-reviewed study published in Archaeology in Oceania.
- The team recorded paintings made with red and yellow ochre as well as white pipe clay, and they note white pigments weather quickly and often indicate younger artworks possibly under 1,000 years old.
- Lead author Paul Taçon says the more recent-looking images could reflect memories of living thylacines in Arnhem Land, though he also offers copying of older art as a plausible explanation.
- Indigenous co-authors describe thylacines, known locally as djanggerrk, as culturally important in stories and rituals, and researchers observed retouching of some figures across generations.
- Before this work, the mainland record included roughly 150 thylacine and about two dozen devil depictions, and the new finds may prompt targeted dating and broader research on when these species vanished from the mainland.