Australian rock art impresses Spanish research student

June 20, 2007

Armidale is a long way from home for Trinidad Martinez, a Spanish student of archaeology; but, as she says, "if you want to study rock art, Australia is the place to go".

The Valencia University student’s visit has not been confined to Armidale, though. During the first two months of her three-month stay at the University of New England she went on a field trip to the Burrup Peninsula in Western Australia's Pilbara region with Professor Iain Davidson (UNE's Professor of Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology) and Ken Mulvaney (UNE PhD researcher), and on another field trip to central Australia with Dr June Ross (UNE archaeologist) and Dr Mike Smith (Director of Research and Development at the National Museum of Australia and the first PhD graduate of UNE's Archaeology and Palaeoanthropology Department).

"Wow! I’ve never seen so much rock art in all my life," Ms Martinez said. "It’s very impressive for me. The engravings on the Pilbara coast were interesting, not only because it’s very good art, but also because of how the archaeologists are dealing with development in the area. The art in central Australia was also very interesting because of the way it is used for communication within and between different groups."

The 25 year-old, who is in the second year of her PhD program, came to UNE as part of a Spanish Government-funded three-month research tour. Ms Martinez (pictured here) chose UNE on the recommendation of her supervisor, who knows Professor Davidson.

"Professor Davidson is my supervisor here," she said. "He’s been giving me work and advice and leading me through Australian rock art research, which is huge. I could easily get lost amongst all the papers, but Professor Davidson has been really helpful in guiding me through it."

Ms Martinez gave a seminar at UNE earlier this month on the Levantine art of the Iberian Peninsula. Like Australia’s own "Bradshaw" paintings of north-western Australia, Levantine rock art is surrounded by mysteries such as the chronology of the paintings and the nature of the people who made them.

After the seminar, she spoke about the temptation to over-interpret such artworks. "In Europe and America there is great pressure to give all rock art a meaning," she said. "The first thing I learnt here is that the meaning is less important. It can be good to keep an open mind."

Ms Martinez, who has been living at UNE's Mary White College, says that while she initially had some difficulty adjusting to the Australian timetable of eating dinner early and going to bed, she has made some great friends. "I’ve had a great experience in rock art, which will give me a lot of ideas to apply to my thesis," she said. "I have also made a lot of good mates, and I really want to come back to Australia to study the Bradshaws in the Kimberleys."

Posted by Jim Scanlan at June 20, 2007 04:35 PM