On Friday, December 1, 2017, Géraldine Castets, a doctoral student in chemistry at the Laboratory of Mountain Environments, Dynamics, and Territories (EDYTEM), will defend her dissertation on “The Contributions of the Analysis of Pigments and Colored Materials to the Integrated Study of a Decorated Site. Application to the Nawarla Gabarnmang site (Arnhem Land, Northern Territory – Australia),” supervised by Jean-Jacques Delannoy and Émilie Chalmin.
The defense will take place at 2:00 p.m. in the lecture hall (Room 110) of the Pôle Montagne, within the EDYTEM laboratory on the Bourget-du-Lac university campus.
The thesis defense committee consists of:
- Roberto Ontañon Peredo, director of the museum Museum of Prehistory and Archaeology of Cantabria, rapporteur
- Ina Reiche, Research Director, State Museums of Berlin, rapporteur
- Bruno David, professor at the Monash Indigenous Studies Centre – Monash University, examiner
- François Farges, Professor, National Museum of Natural History, Examiner
- Jean-Michel Geneste, Chief Heritage Curator, Ministry of Culture and Communication, Examiner
thesis abstract
During the creation of rock art, various pigments may be used, resulting in artifacts associated with the different stages of preparing the paint. At Nawarla Gabarnmang, a major Jawoyn rock art site (Arnhem Land, Northern Territory – Australia), archaeological excavations have uncovered a large number of such artifacts. The archaeological sequence, established through 14C dating, revealed the presence of some of the oldest known cultural deposits in Australia, with occupation of the site spanning from ≥48,000 cal BP to the early 20th century. The ceilings and pillars of the site feature several generations of paintings; the site’s ceilings alone contain nearly 1,400 graphic elements. The significance of this art raises questions: is it the expression of the first humans who arrived on the Australian continent nearly 50,000 years ago, or evidence of more recent occupations? Characterized by the layering of several generations of paintings that cannot be dated “directly” due to the mineralogical nature of the paint components, establishing their chronology is a major research challenge. Conducted from the outset using an integrated approach, the initial studies made it possible to examine the chronology and nature of the occupations through archaeological excavations , to identify the modifications made during the various phases of occupation, and to highlight the richness and diversity of its artistic repertoire as well as the abundance and variety of the remains associated with rock art.
In order to gain a better understanding of the history and uses of the Nawarla Gabarnmang site, from its earliest prehistoric occupations to recent visits, the analysis of pigments and pigmented materials, found in test pits dug beneath the painted ceiling panels or directly beneath the decorated pillars allows us to reconstruct the stages of the production process that yielded the pictorial materials: from the source of raw materials, through methods of processing and preparation (grinding, mixing with fillers and/or binders, heat treatment), to their application. The methodological strategy implemented covers a wide range of physicochemical characterization techniques to address the issues raised by the various remains associated with rock art. From macroscopic observation to non-invasive microanalyses coupled with structural analyses, including techniques based on synchrotron radiation, the study of pigments and colored materials has revealed the diversity and complexity of mineral phases used in the rock art of Nawarla Gabarnmang. When cross-referenced with archaeological, anthropogeomorphological, and parietal data, this study enables the proposal of a chronological framework for the different generations of paintings in relation to the phases of occupation that have marked the site’s history.
The analysis of pigments and colored materials conducted in this dissertation provides valuable insights and offers additional information to complement the archaeological, geomorphological, and rock art studies carried out at the Nawarla Gabarnmang site. The insights provided by the study of these materials shed light on both technical and behavioral developments as well as the cultural significance of this site, in both its spatial and temporal dimensions.
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Contact: Jean-Jacques Delannoy