Paul Taçon
Biographic Data
| ID | 773554 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Paul Taçon |
| GIVEN NAMES | Paul |
| FAMILY NAME | Taçon |
| SIGNATURE | TAÇON P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Griffith University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 122 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2019 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Angara Rock Art Style and the Emergence of Ethno‐Cultural Identity
This paper focuses on a stylistic analysis of depictions of elk in Siberian rock art in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The aim of this paper is to go beyond the cultural and chronological attributions of rock art and to try to understand why and through what processes changes in rock‐art style occurred. In order to answer these questions, the phenomena of ethnicity and ethno‐cultural identity are explored. Rock art is not considered as a passive …
The archaeology of Maliwawa
The archaeology of Bald Rock 1, Bald Rock 2 and Bald Rock 3 at the sandstone outcrop of Maliwawa has established ∼25,000 years of Indigenous occupation in the Wellington Range, northwestern Arnhem Land. Flaked stone artefacts were found from the beginning of the sequence, with ground-edge axes, pounding and grinding technology and ochre recovered from deposits dating from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the recent contact period. Maliwawa was o…
The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia
Western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, has a rich archaeological landscape, ethnographic record and body of rock art that displays an astonishing array of imagery on shelter walls and ceilings. While the archaeology goes back to the earliest period of Aboriginal occupation of the continent, the rock art represents some of the richest, most
Managing the Past in Northern Australia
The challenges faced by Aboriginal groups and other interested parties in protecting cultural heritage sites in the current Australian economic and legislative context are discussed. While the focus is primarily on Queensland, many of the issues raised here are applicable in other parts of Australia and in other countries, although, of course, there are varying legislations in force in the different regions. The analysis in this article is based …
From the Iconography of Rock Art to Its Anthropological Interpretation
The aim of this collective study is to examine the hypothesis that the iconographic structure of rock art traditions will vary as a function of the socio-economic organisation and belief systems of the societies in which they are developed and used. To that end we have assembled, mostly through our own fieldwork, bodies of data on motifs from different continents and different periods of prehistory. These data come from Africa – Brandberg / Daure…
De l’iconographie de l’art rupestre à son interprétation anthropologique
L’objectif de cette étude collective est d’examiner l’hypothèse selon laquelle la structure iconographique des traditions d’art rupestre varie en fonction de l’organisation socio-économique et des systèmes de croyance des sociétés dans lesquelles elles sont développées et furent utilisées. À cette fin, nous avons rassemblé, principalement grâce à nos propres travaux de terrain, des corpus de données sur les motifs de différents continents et de d…
Interpreting the In-between
Paul S.C. Tacon, FAHA, FSA, is Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology in the School of Humanities, Griffith University, Queensland. He also directs Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit. Professor Tacon has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 and has over 77 months’ field experience in remote parts of Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Myanm…
Rock Art Dating in Australia and Beyond
One of the biggest challenges in rock art research is accurate and reliable dating. A related issue is that of interpretation what do the numbers obtained really mean? In this paper we briefly review the results of rock art dating programs in Australia with those undertaken in other parts of the world. We identify a number of common problems arising from the results as well as patterning related to taphonomy and cultural difference. We also obser…
Migrant Resource Centres
While there has been significant growth in the number of Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in recent years, there has been no attempt to date to examine the impact of these centres on migration management goals. This study aims to help bridge the gap by providing an overview of good practices employed by MRCs to help migrants move to their destinations in a legal, voluntary, orderly and protected manner. This assessment covers the work of 17 MRCs i…
A man on the rim
Neanderthals and us
Recent archaeological, fossil and genetic discoveries involving Neanderthals, as well as new interpretations of Neanderthal behaviour, are reviewed in order to examine how similar or different Neanderthals were to early modern humans and, ultimately, to us. It is argued that Neanderthals have been cast in a bad light since their discovery in the 1850s and that prejudice still pervades much research. However, the most extreme views can easily be d…
A man on the rim
Thinking with Animals in Upper Palaeolithic Rock Art
This article develops a novel method for assessing the cultural context of rock art, and applies it to the rock art of the Upper Palaeolithic of France and Spain. The article relies on a generative approach, assuming that artists have the potential to choose which motifs to select from the repertoire or vocabulary of their artistic system, but that appropriate choices at any place are guided by the location of that site within the culturally-medi…
Shamanism and rock art interpretation
Behaviourally modern at 300,000 BP
When did behavioural modernity first emerge from a symbolic point of view? Many researchers place the date at 40,000, 60,000, 80,000 or, at the earliest, 100,000 years ago. In this paper it is argued that the earliest surviving evidence actually dates to between 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, with some roots of behavioural modernity even earlier. It also is argued that our view of the past has been distorted by the spurious nature of the archaeolo…
Modern human behaviour and the implications of small-bodied hominin finds from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia
Recent publications by various authors have presented three alternative views about the taxonomy and anatomy of recently recovered hominin remains from the island of Flores, Indonesia. No matter what the exact taxonomy, Homo floresiensis exhibits an incredible range of complex modern human behaviour for an individual with such a small cranial capacity. If we are to accept that the archaeological material associated with H floresiensis resulted fr…
Rock-art and relationships
This paper introduces to the Before Farming readership a selection of 14 rock-art-centric papers arranged \naround three key human relationships. These comprise the relationships people have with other people \n(colonialism), relationships people have with places (landscape), and relationships that people have with \nother animals and with plants (ecology). Rock-art1 is a theoretically-informed artefact capable of illuminating \naspects of past a…
Changing ecological concerns in rock-art subject matter of north Australia's Keep River region
The Keep River region has a complex body of engraved and painted rock-art, distinct from but with links to regions to the east, west and south. At least four major periods of figurative rock-art have been identified with differing subject matters and ages. Significant changes in depictions of human figures and animals are evident, reflecting shifts in emphasis associated with ecological concerns and environmental change. We flesh out the relative…
Minimum ages for pecked rock markings from Jinmium, north western Australia
Sixteen accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) determinations for oxalate crusts overlying three pecked rock markings (cupules) at three separate localities in the Keep River area of north western Australia provide age estimates from 1430–11,000 years since the markings were last retouched. These are the first direct dates reported for rock‐art of this kind. While these determinations do not lend strong support to previous argument…
Archaeological Research In The Keep River Region, Northern Territory
Archaeological Research In The Keep River Region, Northern Territory." Australian Archaeology, 49(1), pp. 45–46
Australia's Ancient Warriors
Depictions of battle scenes, skirmishes and hand-to-hand combat are rare in hunter-gatherer art and when they do occur most often result from contact with agriculturalist or industrialized invaders. In the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia we have been documenting rare depictions of fighting and are able to show that there has been a long tradition of warrior art. At least three phases have been identified and in each of t…
Australia's Ancient Warriors
Depictions of battle scenes, skirmishes and hand-to-hand combat are rare in hunter-gatherer art and when they do occur most often result from contact with agriculturalist or industrialized invaders. In the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia we have been documenting rare depictions of fighting and are able to show that there has been a long tradition of warrior art. At least three phases have been identified and in each of t…
The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia
Western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, has a rich archaeological landscape, ethnographic record and body of rock art that displays an astonishing array of imagery on shelter walls and ceilings. While the archaeology goes back to the earliest period of Aboriginal occupation of the continent, the rock art represents some of the richest, most
Changing ecological concerns in rock-art subject matter of north Australia's Keep River region
The Keep River region has a complex body of engraved and painted rock-art, distinct from but with links to regions to the east, west and south. At least four major periods of figurative rock-art have been identified with differing subject matters and ages. Significant changes in depictions of human figures and animals are evident, reflecting shifts in emphasis associated with ecological concerns and environmental change. We flesh out the relative…
Minimum ages for pecked rock markings from Jinmium, north western Australia
Sixteen accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) determinations for oxalate crusts overlying three pecked rock markings (cupules) at three separate localities in the Keep River area of north western Australia provide age estimates from 1430–11,000 years since the markings were last retouched. These are the first direct dates reported for rock‐art of this kind. While these determinations do not lend strong support to previous argument…
The archaeology of Maliwawa
The archaeology of Bald Rock 1, Bald Rock 2 and Bald Rock 3 at the sandstone outcrop of Maliwawa has established ∼25,000 years of Indigenous occupation in the Wellington Range, northwestern Arnhem Land. Flaked stone artefacts were found from the beginning of the sequence, with ground-edge axes, pounding and grinding technology and ochre recovered from deposits dating from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the recent contact period. Maliwawa was o…
Thinking with Animals in Upper Palaeolithic Rock Art
This article develops a novel method for assessing the cultural context of rock art, and applies it to the rock art of the Upper Palaeolithic of France and Spain. The article relies on a generative approach, assuming that artists have the potential to choose which motifs to select from the repertoire or vocabulary of their artistic system, but that appropriate choices at any place are guided by the location of that site within the culturally-medi…
The Angara Rock Art Style and the Emergence of Ethno‐Cultural Identity
This paper focuses on a stylistic analysis of depictions of elk in Siberian rock art in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The aim of this paper is to go beyond the cultural and chronological attributions of rock art and to try to understand why and through what processes changes in rock‐art style occurred. In order to answer these questions, the phenomena of ethnicity and ethno‐cultural identity are explored. Rock art is not considered as a passive …
Behaviourally modern at 300,000 BP
When did behavioural modernity first emerge from a symbolic point of view? Many researchers place the date at 40,000, 60,000, 80,000 or, at the earliest, 100,000 years ago. In this paper it is argued that the earliest surviving evidence actually dates to between 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, with some roots of behavioural modernity even earlier. It also is argued that our view of the past has been distorted by the spurious nature of the archaeolo…
Neanderthals and us
Recent archaeological, fossil and genetic discoveries involving Neanderthals, as well as new interpretations of Neanderthal behaviour, are reviewed in order to examine how similar or different Neanderthals were to early modern humans and, ultimately, to us. It is argued that Neanderthals have been cast in a bad light since their discovery in the 1850s and that prejudice still pervades much research. However, the most extreme views can easily be d…
Australia's Ancient Warriors
Depictions of battle scenes, skirmishes and hand-to-hand combat are rare in hunter-gatherer art and when they do occur most often result from contact with agriculturalist or industrialized invaders. In the Arnhem Land region of the Northern Territory of Australia we have been documenting rare depictions of fighting and are able to show that there has been a long tradition of warrior art. At least three phases have been identified and in each of t…
Archaeological Research In The Keep River Region, Northern Territory
Archaeological Research In The Keep River Region, Northern Territory." Australian Archaeology, 49(1), pp. 45–46
Minimum ages for pecked rock markings from Jinmium, north western Australia
Sixteen accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) determinations for oxalate crusts overlying three pecked rock markings (cupules) at three separate localities in the Keep River area of north western Australia provide age estimates from 1430–11,000 years since the markings were last retouched. These are the first direct dates reported for rock‐art of this kind. While these determinations do not lend strong support to previous argument…
Rock-art and relationships
This paper introduces to the Before Farming readership a selection of 14 rock-art-centric papers arranged \naround three key human relationships. These comprise the relationships people have with other people \n(colonialism), relationships people have with places (landscape), and relationships that people have with \nother animals and with plants (ecology). Rock-art1 is a theoretically-informed artefact capable of illuminating \naspects of past a…
Changing ecological concerns in rock-art subject matter of north Australia's Keep River region
The Keep River region has a complex body of engraved and painted rock-art, distinct from but with links to regions to the east, west and south. At least four major periods of figurative rock-art have been identified with differing subject matters and ages. Significant changes in depictions of human figures and animals are evident, reflecting shifts in emphasis associated with ecological concerns and environmental change. We flesh out the relative…
Modern human behaviour and the implications of small-bodied hominin finds from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia
Recent publications by various authors have presented three alternative views about the taxonomy and anatomy of recently recovered hominin remains from the island of Flores, Indonesia. No matter what the exact taxonomy, Homo floresiensis exhibits an incredible range of complex modern human behaviour for an individual with such a small cranial capacity. If we are to accept that the archaeological material associated with H floresiensis resulted fr…
Shamanism and rock art interpretation
Behaviourally modern at 300,000 BP
When did behavioural modernity first emerge from a symbolic point of view? Many researchers place the date at 40,000, 60,000, 80,000 or, at the earliest, 100,000 years ago. In this paper it is argued that the earliest surviving evidence actually dates to between 300,000 to 400,000 years ago, with some roots of behavioural modernity even earlier. It also is argued that our view of the past has been distorted by the spurious nature of the archaeolo…
Thinking with Animals in Upper Palaeolithic Rock Art
This article develops a novel method for assessing the cultural context of rock art, and applies it to the rock art of the Upper Palaeolithic of France and Spain. The article relies on a generative approach, assuming that artists have the potential to choose which motifs to select from the repertoire or vocabulary of their artistic system, but that appropriate choices at any place are guided by the location of that site within the culturally-medi…
A man on the rim
Neanderthals and us
Recent archaeological, fossil and genetic discoveries involving Neanderthals, as well as new interpretations of Neanderthal behaviour, are reviewed in order to examine how similar or different Neanderthals were to early modern humans and, ultimately, to us. It is argued that Neanderthals have been cast in a bad light since their discovery in the 1850s and that prejudice still pervades much research. However, the most extreme views can easily be d…
A man on the rim
Migrant Resource Centres
While there has been significant growth in the number of Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in recent years, there has been no attempt to date to examine the impact of these centres on migration management goals. This study aims to help bridge the gap by providing an overview of good practices employed by MRCs to help migrants move to their destinations in a legal, voluntary, orderly and protected manner. This assessment covers the work of 17 MRCs i…
From the Iconography of Rock Art to Its Anthropological Interpretation
The aim of this collective study is to examine the hypothesis that the iconographic structure of rock art traditions will vary as a function of the socio-economic organisation and belief systems of the societies in which they are developed and used. To that end we have assembled, mostly through our own fieldwork, bodies of data on motifs from different continents and different periods of prehistory. These data come from Africa – Brandberg / Daure…
De l’iconographie de l’art rupestre à son interprétation anthropologique
L’objectif de cette étude collective est d’examiner l’hypothèse selon laquelle la structure iconographique des traditions d’art rupestre varie en fonction de l’organisation socio-économique et des systèmes de croyance des sociétés dans lesquelles elles sont développées et furent utilisées. À cette fin, nous avons rassemblé, principalement grâce à nos propres travaux de terrain, des corpus de données sur les motifs de différents continents et de d…
Interpreting the In-between
Paul S.C. Tacon, FAHA, FSA, is Chair in Rock Art Research and Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology in the School of Humanities, Griffith University, Queensland. He also directs Griffith University’s Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit. Professor Tacon has conducted archaeological and ethnographic fieldwork since 1980 and has over 77 months’ field experience in remote parts of Australia, Cambodia, Canada, China, India, Malaysia, Myanm…
Rock Art Dating in Australia and Beyond
One of the biggest challenges in rock art research is accurate and reliable dating. A related issue is that of interpretation what do the numbers obtained really mean? In this paper we briefly review the results of rock art dating programs in Australia with those undertaken in other parts of the world. We identify a number of common problems arising from the results as well as patterning related to taphonomy and cultural difference. We also obser…
Managing the Past in Northern Australia
The challenges faced by Aboriginal groups and other interested parties in protecting cultural heritage sites in the current Australian economic and legislative context are discussed. While the focus is primarily on Queensland, many of the issues raised here are applicable in other parts of Australia and in other countries, although, of course, there are varying legislations in force in the different regions. The analysis in this article is based …
The Archaeology of Rock Art in Western Arnhem Land, Australia
Western Arnhem Land, in the Top End of Australia’s Northern Territory, has a rich archaeological landscape, ethnographic record and body of rock art that displays an astonishing array of imagery on shelter walls and ceilings. While the archaeology goes back to the earliest period of Aboriginal occupation of the continent, the rock art represents some of the richest, most
The archaeology of Maliwawa
The archaeology of Bald Rock 1, Bald Rock 2 and Bald Rock 3 at the sandstone outcrop of Maliwawa has established ∼25,000 years of Indigenous occupation in the Wellington Range, northwestern Arnhem Land. Flaked stone artefacts were found from the beginning of the sequence, with ground-edge axes, pounding and grinding technology and ochre recovered from deposits dating from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the recent contact period. Maliwawa was o…
The Angara Rock Art Style and the Emergence of Ethno‐Cultural Identity
This paper focuses on a stylistic analysis of depictions of elk in Siberian rock art in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The aim of this paper is to go beyond the cultural and chronological attributions of rock art and to try to understand why and through what processes changes in rock‐art style occurred. In order to answer these questions, the phenomena of ethnicity and ethno‐cultural identity are explored. Rock art is not considered as a passive …
Archaeology (17 works) · Geography (17 works) · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology (16 works) · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies (13 works) · History (12 works) · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (11 works) · Rock art (11 works) · History (10 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Art (8 works)