ABSTRACT
In the Northern Territory of Australia, in a shelter on the Arnhem Land plateau deep above Deaf Adder Gorge, there lies a painted rock face that has been understood as showing a skirmish, with several figures wounded by spears (Figure 2.1). The image belongs to the “Dynamic Figures” tradition, which has been dated to approximately 10,000 bc; 1 this tradition is the earliest utilizing figural imagery in this region, and its violent images are the oldest pictures of humans inflicting harm on one another known anywhere in the world. 2 Images of fighting are rare in hunter-gatherer societies at all, and are not the most prevalent type of Dynamic Figures imagery in Arnhem Land, where male figures in ceremonial headdresses predominate, though domestic and hunting scenes are also not uncommon. 3
