Aboriginal Art, A Truly Ancient Art Form.
April 12, 2008
Evidence suggests that humans first arrived in Australia approximately 60,000 years ago. These people are purported to have traveled from south-east Asia across the land bridges to northern Australia. Archaeologists have now discovered early occupation sites at the three most probable entry areas - the Kimberley, Arnhem Land and Cape York Peninsula.
In northern Australia there are many caves, cliffs and sandstone rock-shelters, it is widely accepted that these were used for camping, their floors are layered with charcoal and ash from camp fires, the remains of food such as shells and animal bones, stone tools and, very often, pieces of ochre have been found. Ochre comes from soft varieties of iron oxide minerals (such as haematite - a fine-grained iron oxide which produces a strong red colour with a purple tint) and from rocks containing ferric oxide, and is still used in Aboriginal Art.
With these rock paintings which were the original Aboriginal Art scientist have proven the date on these paintings with carbon dating of the pigment. Also many items around the cave had a story emblazoned on them with easy to find painting products. Many of these paintings have even been tested using that latest most up to date testing methods.
Radiocarbon dating is limited to a maximum age of around 40 000 years, and the newer techniques are required for dating of older materials. AMS is a new radiocarbon dating method enabling the dating of much smaller samples of carbon than the traditional radiocarbon (C-14) method.
Pieces of Ocre have been associated with nearly all discovered sites and most have been dated at over 10000 years. The reason we dwell on the heritage of Aboriginal art is simply to prove that it can be traced back to the stone age. While aboriginal art now uses a lot of the latest artistic materials, many of the old favorites are still in use, so ochre, bark and wood is still popular.
Even though Aboriginal art has now started to move from caves and rocks to more main stream mediums it is still proving to be a great investment. Over the years many of the earlier artist people who started the revolution have seen their art appreciate into the hundreds of thousands.
If you are looking for a way to get into the art market there are some great new artist that have not been discovered yet these artist are like finding diamonds in the rough. By getting in early you can make a strategic investment and hold on for your potential artist to become more famous.
Even if you spread your purchases over a couple of artist and spread your luck you could still have a chance of making a $300 dollar painting into a $50000 dollar investment as has happened wit a couple of artist and investors. I suppose you could say it’s all about luck but I think its quality choose paintings you like and you cant go wrong.
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