ABSTRACT
The art body is considered to belong to the last 8500 years, the period spanned by human occupation in the two excavated Koolburra sites, Green Ant and Echidna Shelters (Flood & Horsfall 1986, Flood 1987). Since some of the engravings are deeply patinated, some lie at or below present ground surface, and others have paintings or stencils superimposed on them, it is considered that the engravings generally pre-date the stencils and paintings. Among engraved motifs, non-figurative circular marks contribute 54 per cent and linear motifs 7 per cent; figurative motifs (motifs which resemble objects familiar to the observer) make up 38 per cent, 33 per cent being tracks - marks resembling traces on the ground left by fauna such as macropods (kangaroos, wallabies, etc.) and birds, and the other 5 per cent resembling actual artefacts or animals. Only four out of some 604 recorded engravings appear to depict animals; two are snake-like, one lizard-like, and one tortoise-like. However, if tracks are taken to be a pars pro toto representation of an animal, then a third of the engraved motifs are concerned with fauna. Of these there are some 73 individual marks resembling bird tracks (occasionally in pairs but usually found singly), 35 pairs of macropod tracks (always in pairs rather than singly), three single dingo tracks, and nine human footprints.
