Fossil Fever: Early Australian rock art studies in historical context

Commentaries by Basedow (1914) and by Mountford and Edwards (1964) on the northern Flinders Ranges sites of Deception Creek East and Red Gorge hold a special place in the history of thinking about the character of Australian rock art. This paper revisits their field observations in order to investigate the ways in which initial questions and speculations relating to the age of the petroglyphs have influenced enquiry and continue to drive efforts to establish a time-frame for rock art in this region and beyond.