QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA—According to a Cosmos Magazine report, Iningai Traditional Owners working with researchers from Griffith University are documenting and shedding light on the more than 15,000 petroglyphs within the Marra Wonga rock shelter, which is located in northeastern Australia. Paul Tacon of Griffith University said that the rock art has been interpreted as a Seven Sisters Dreaming story. Seven of the petroglyphs are large star-like designs with central engraved pits. Large snake-like designs run across and through other images, including animal tracks; lines, grooves, and drilled holes; more than 100 hand-related images; stencils of boomerangs, a digging stick, tips, and a possible ring pad; and a phallus. On the floor of the shelter, there is a cluster of human foot-shaped petroglyphs, some of which have six or more toes. Such stories, in which seven sisters are chased by a man or several men, are known all over the world, and are connected to the Pleiades star cluster and the Orion constellation. The Marra Wonga petroglyphs, Tacon explained, are related to Wattanuri, an ancestral being, who pursues the Seven Sisters. “There are plans to do some excavations near the site in the future and that should allow us to determine the length of occupation right at that site, and there is a possibility that some mud wasp nests overtop of some engraved figures could be sampled for dating,” Tacon said. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Australian Archaeology. To read about rock art that depict how Aboriginal ancestors envisioned creation, go to "Letter from Australia: Where the World Was Born."
