The kangaroo depiction was among a number of rock drawings first recorded in the 1990s by researchers in the Kimberley region, which contains one of the world’s largest collections of indigenous rock art. Scientists at various universities and research agencies have worked with local indigenous leaders to analyze the paintings, with their findings published Monday in the journal Nature Human Behavior.
According to the newspaper, they found the remains of 27 old mud wasps, which can be dated with radiocarbon.
The strategy is simple: if the nests are built on top of the rock art, the art must be older. If the art is built on top of nests, the nests must be older. The dating of these nests therefore gives scientists a minimum and maximum age for petroglyphs.
The old nests often also contain plant material or fragments of insects on which parent wasps are collected to raise larvae, all of which contain carbon.
By dating the wasp nests, the authors of this study determined that most paintings were made between 17,000 and 13,000 years ago. Some of the oldest paintings contain a picture of a boomerang and a rare depiction of a human figure lying on their back. Others depicted animals, including a snake, a lizard-like figure, and three macropods – the family of marsupials that include kangaroos, wallabies, and quacks.
The kangaroo painting was dated between 17,100 and 17,500 years ago. It is painted on the sloping ceiling of a rock shelter, home to thousands of fossilized mud wasps.
“Many dates from this period are still needed before the complete chronological scope of the paintings that are still visible today can be determined,” the researchers wrote.