Rock Art at Burrungkuy - Kakadu National Park - NT, Australia

About 6 weeks ago I was able to visit Kakadu National park, and see some of the Australia Aboriginal rock art. Some of this artwork is 20,000 years old. Just think about that 20,000 years, that's about 18,000 year before Jesus, about 16,000 odd years before the The Pyramids of Giza, 15,000 years before Stonehedge - it's so long ago it's mind bending.

That is how long the Aboriginal People of Australia have been living in this land (it's was about time we changed the line in our national anthem from we are Young and free to we are One and Free) we have one of the longest continuous cultures on earth here.

Burrungkuy (sometimes called, incorrectly Nourlangie) is a huge rocky outcrop in the escarpment of Kakadu, and the art galleries are in one of the many rocky overhangs.

Art is often in X-ray style, like this Kangaroo

Not all of the art is ancient, People have been painting here, using the ochre of the clay dirt continuously - there are 'contact paintings' which document white men in Australia so are only 230 odd years old.

There are of course pictures of all sorts of animals - many of these paitnings where to tell other people what animals could be hunted in the area.) Here we have a Wallaby/or maybe a fat Kangaroo, and the goanna or lizard at the bottom

And then there are the more important paintings, those of the spirits and the legends of creation, this is where the classrooms or church of the society were, the stories of Lighting Man or Namarrgon

This insect like fella is another of these spirits, but if you also told me he was a Marvel character I'd probably believe you - I can certainly see where the conspiracy theories about aliens visited Earth thousands of year ago come from.

This is something strangely modern about these figures

And finally back to something more traditional, a kangaroo and a hunter