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Welcome to the homepage of Robert G. Bednarik.
My principal interests are in the origins of the human ability to create constructs of reality, and in a variety of fields providing supplementary information in that quest. This includes the beginnings of art and language, and technological developments providing a measure of early human capacities, such as seafaring and the use of beads. For instance I study rock art and portable palaeoart of the Ice Age, and I conduct experiments in replicative archaeology. In my spare time I edit three scientific journals and two monograph series, write academic books and articles, organise conferences, make TV documentaries and travel the world in search of sites and specimens. Naturally I am totally uneducated and like most autodidacts regard education as a hindrance to understanding. So I can barely write my name, but I have published more scientific works on archaeology than any other person in history. My work has appeared in 32 languages but I am not fluent in any one of them. I hold the following offices: Convener, CEO and Editor, International Federation of Rock Art Organisations (IFRAO); Secretary and Editor, Australian Rock Art Research Association (AURA); Managing Director, Archaeological Publications Inc. Managing Director, Archaeological Soil Lab Patron, Life Member, Honorary Member or Member of numerous scholarly associations worldwide; Permanent Chairman of the AURA Congress; National Coordinator of CAR, International Comite pour l'art Rupestre, ICOMOS. Chief Scientist, The First Mariners Expeditions Director, International Institute of Replicative Archaeology Member, UISPP Commission on Rock Art I have produced over 500 refereed scientific publications, mostly in cognitive epistemology and palaeoart studies, also general and replicative archaeology, soil science, speleology, deontology, semiotics and geomorphology. In all more then 1100 publications, including several books. I have appeared in 17 film documentaries, presented some 170 papers at professional meetings and invited lectures, and have given about 525 interviews to the printed and electronic media, in many parts of the world. Field research in various thematic and geographical areas: especially in central, northern, eastern, western and southern Europe; Siberia, India, China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Canada, U.S.A., Mexico, Caribbean, various South American countries, southern Africa, Morocco, all regions of Australia. Innovations: first in the world to date rock art directly with radiometric methods (reprecipitated carbonates in Malangine Cave, Australia); developed first non-interfering rock art dating method (microerosion method, first applied at Lake Onega, Russia); introduced advanced statistics in Australian archaeology (Brainerd-Robinson method). Developed new techniques for assessing weathering of silica minerals, and for studying cave climate; invented an instrument to measure the porosity of rock; conducted first comprehensive study of wall markings in caves, first to investigate Pleistocene seafaring, established taphonomic logic in 1993, metamorphology in 1995. Responsible for major scientific discoveries in various countries, including oldest known rock art in the world, first Palaeolithic art of China, first petroglyphs in central India, largest petroglyph concentration in the world (1967-1970, Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia) and much of the cave art of Australia. Founded Archaeological Soil Lab in 1980, Archaeological Publications and AURA in 1983, and co-founded IFRAO in 1988. Conducted extensive ethnographic research among Aborigines before it became fashionable, campaigned actively for Aboriginal control of sites of indigenous heritage, and frequently engaged in trying to prevent the destruction of rock art worldwide. Specific projects: Gudenus Cave 1963 - ongoing (oldest known occupation site of Austria); Promenadensteig Cave 1960-1966; Direct dating of rock art 1965 - ongoing; Discovery of the major Pilbara rock art concentrations in Western Australia 1967-1970; Parietal Markings Project 1975 - ongoing (cave art in Australia and abroad, included the discovery of 37 of the 45 known sites of Australian cave art); Cave habitability and speleoclimatic study project 1980 - 2000; Patination of sedimentary silicas and other minerals 1973 - 1981; Numerous geomorphological and sedimentary/pedological projects 1962 - ongoing; Portable Palaeolithic art of Eurasia, and beginnings of art and symbolism 1971 - ongoing; Pleistocene underground mining evidence of the world 1979 - 1992; Paroong Cave Preservation Project 1986 - 1988; Colour calibration and re-constitution by computer 1991 - 1995; Project with Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, India 1994 - 2000; Pleistocene seafaring and maritime replication studies 1994 - ongoing; Early Indian Petroglyphs (EIP) Project, 2000 - ongoing. Survey of Saudi Arabian rock art 2002 - ongoing; Leader of the campaign to save the rock art of the Dampier Archipelago, 1969 - ongoing; Editing and publishing of three scientific periodicals (Rock Art Research, AURA Newsletter and Cave Art Research) and two monograph series 1983 - ongoing. Memberships: Australian Rock Art Research Association (Founder, Secretary and Editor, Past President), Rock Art Society of India (Patron and Life Member), ICOMOS-CAR (National Co-ordinator), Rock Art Research Association of China (Editorial Board Member), Centro Studi e Museo d'Arte Preistorica, American Rock Art Research Association, American Committee to Advance the Study of Petroglyphs and Pictographs, Australian Archaeological Association, Sociedad de Investigacion del Arte Rupestre de Bolivia, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies and numerous others. Selected publications of recent years: 1990. On the cognitive development of hominids. Man and Environment 15(2): 1-7. 1990. More to Palaeolithic females than meets the eye. Rock Art Research 7(2): 133-137. 1990/91. Epistemology in palaeoart studies. Origini 15: 57-78. 1991. Asian palaeoart and Eurocentric science. Purakala 2: 71-76. 1991/92. Rock art as a cultural determinant. Survey 5/6(7/8): 11-20. 1992. Palaeoart and archaeological myths. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 2(1): 27-43. 1992. Palaeolithic art found in China. Nature 356: 116. 1992. Prioritetnye napravleniya v rabotakh po konservatsii pamyatnikov naskal’nogo iskusstva. In Naskal’nye risunki evrazii, Pervobytnoe iskusstvo, pp. 8-13. Novosibirsk ‘Nauka’, Sibirskoe otdelenie, Novosibirsk. 1992. On Lower Paleolithic cognitive development. In S. Goldsmith, S. Garvie, D. Selin and J. Smith (eds), Ancient images, ancient thought: the archaeology of ideology, pp. 427-435. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Chacmool Conference, University of Calgary. 1992. Mehr über die rote Farbe in Vorgeschichte. Almogaren 23: 179-189. 1992. Natural line markings on Palaeolithic objects. Anthropologie 30(3): 233-240. 1993. European Palaeolithic art - typical or exceptional? Oxford Journal of Archaeology 12(1): 1-8. 1993. Shi jie shang zui gu lao de yan hua. Mei Shu 8(308): 82-83. 1993. About Palaeolithic ostrich eggshell in India. Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association Bulletin 13: 34-43. 1993. Die Bilzingslebener Gravierungen im Lichte altpaläolithischer Beweise kognitiver Fähigkeit. Ethnographisch-Archäologische Zeitschrift 34(4): 549-553. 1994. Art origins. Anthropos 89: 169-180. 1994. A taphonomy of palaeoart. Antiquity 68(258): 68-74. 1994. On the scientific study of palaeoart. Semiotica 100(2/4): 141-168. 1994. The Pleistocene art of Asia. Journal of World Prehistory 8(4): 351-375. 1994. The oldest art in the world. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma Serie I, 7: 75-91. 1995. Metamorphology: in lieu of uniformitarianism. Oxford Journal of Archaeology 14(2): 117-122. 1995. Concept-mediated marking in the Lower Palaeolithic. Current Anthropology 36(4): 605-634. 1995. Refutation of stylistic constructs in Palaeolithic rock art. Comptes Rendus de L’Académie de Sciences Paris 321(série IIa, No. 9): 817-821. 1995. The Côa petroglyphs: an obituary to the stylistic dating of Palaeolithic rock-art. Antiquity 69: 877-883. 1995. Contexte eurasien de l’art paléolithique chinois. L’Anthropologie 99(2/3): 459-466. 1995. Traces of cultural continuity in Middle and Upper Palaeolithic material evidence. Origini 18: 47-67. 1995. Untertag-Bergbau im Pleistozän. Quartär 45/46: 161-175. 1995. Wallace’s barrier and the language barrier in archaeology. Bulletin of the Archaeological Survey Association of Southern California 20(3): 8-9, 13. 1996. Crisis in Palaeolithic art studies. Anthropologie (Brno) 34(1): 123-130. 1996. Early rock art in the Americas: a contextual study. Survey 10: 119-131. 1997. Rock art as reflection of conditional visual perception. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7(2): 255-259. 1997. More reflections of perceived realities. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 7(2): 263-268. 1997. (With Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty) Indian rock art and its global context. Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi, and Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, Bhopal. First edition, ISBN 81 208 1464 9. 1997. The origins of navigation and language. The Artefact 20: 16-56. 1997. The global evidence of early human symboling behaviour. Human Evolution 12(3): 147-168. 1997. About ostrich eggshell beads. Acta Archaeologica 68: 153-161. 1998. Über die Urkunst der Welt. Almogaren 28: 21-49. 1998. The ‘australopithecine’ cobble from Makapansgat, South Africa. South African Archaeological Bulletin 53: 4-8. 1998. Mariners of the Pleistocene. Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly 25(3): 7-15. 1998. An experiment in Pleistocene seafaring. The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 27(2): 139-149. 1998. The archaeological significance of beads and pendants. Man and Environment 23(2): 87-99. 1999. Der Kiesel von Makapansgat. Früheste Urkunst der Welt? Anthropos 94: 199-204. 1999. (With Martin Kuckenburg) Nale Tasih: Eine Floßfahrt in die Steinzeit. Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Stuttgart. 1999. (With Bob Hobman and Peter Rogers) Nale Tasih 2: journey of a Middle Palaeolithic raft. International Journal of Nautical Archaeology 26(1): 25-33. 1999. Der Beginn der Seefahrt. Almogaren 30:13-34. 1999. Sailing a Paleolithic raft. Institute of Nautical Archaeology Quarterly 26(1): 12-18. 1999. Pleistocene seafaring in the Mediterranean. Anthropologie 37(3): 275-282. 1999. Determining the maximum capabilities of Palaeolithic technologies. Praehistoria Thuringica 3: 80-97. 1999. Seefahrt im Pleistozän. Quartär 49/50: 95-109. 1999. The implications of hominid seafaring capabilities. Acta Archaeologica 70: 1-23. 2000. Crossing the Timor Sea by Middle Palaeolithic raft. Anthropos 95: 37-47. 2000. Pleistocene Timor: some corrections. Australian Archaeology 51: 16-20. 2000. Age estimates for the petroglyph sequence of Inca Huasi, Mizque, Bolivia. Andean Past 6: 277-287. 2001. The oldest known rock art in the world. Anthropologie 39(2): 81-89. 2001. Cupules: the oldest surviving rock art. International Newsletter on Rock Art 30: 18-23. 2001. An Acheulian figurine from Morocco. Rock Art Research 18(2): 115-116. 2001. Replicating the first known sea travel by humans: the Lower Pleistocene crossing of Lombok Strait. Human Evolution 16(): 2001. Rock art science: the scientific study of palaeoart. Brepols, Turnhout. 2002. First dating of Pilbara petroglyphs. Records of the Western Australian Museum 20: 414-429. 2002. The first mariners. The American Neptune 61(3): 317-324. 2002. The dating of rock art: a critique. Journal of Archaeological Science 29(11): 1213-1233. 2002. 2002. The oldest surviving rock art: a taphonomic review. Origini 24: 335-349. 2002. Paläolithische Felskunst in Deutschland? Archäologische Informationen 25(1-2): 107-117. 2003. Seafaring in the Pleistocene. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13(1): 41-66. 2003. A figurine from the African Acheulian. Current Anthropology 44(3): 405-13. 2003. (With Mario Consens, Alfred Muzzolini, Dario Seglie and Yakov A. Sher) Rock art glossary: a multilingual dictionary. IFRAO-Brepols Series 2, Brepols, Turnhout. 2003. Seafaring in the Pleistocene. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 13(1): 41-66. 2003. A figurine from the African Acheulian. Current Anthropology 44(3): 405-413. 2003. A major change in archaeological paradigm. Anthropos 98: 511-520. 2004. Public archaeology and political dynamics in Portugal. Public Archaeology 3(3): 162-166. 2004. On the cognitive development of hominids. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in History and Archaeology 1(1): 30-38. 2004. Interpretatsiya dannykh o proiskhozhdeii iskusstva (Interpreting the evidence for art origins). Arkheologiy, etnografiy i antropologiy Evraziy (Ethnology and Anthropology of Eurasia) 20(4): 35-47. 2004. The cave bear in Chauvet Cave. Cave Art Research 4: 1-12. 2005. Scientific studies of Saudi Arabian rock art. Rock Art Research 22(1): 49-81. 2005. Middle Pleistocene beads and symbolism. Anthropos 100(2): 537-552. 2005. Archaeology and science: a response to Huffman. The South African Archaeological Bulletin 60(181): 39-41. 2005. (With G. Kumar, A. Watchman and R. G. Roberts) Preliminary results of the EIP Project. Rock Art Research 22(2): 147-197. 2006. Out of India? The world’s earliest rock art. Minerva 17(1): 31-32. 2006. A unified theory for palaeoart studies. Rock Art Research 23(1): 85-88. 2006. The Middle Palaeolithic engravings from Oldisleben, Germany. Anthropologie 44(2): 113-121. 2006. The cave art of Mladeč Cave, Czech Republic. Rock Art Research 23(2): 207-216. 2006. Australian apocalypse. The story of Australia’s greatest cultural monument. Occasional AURA Publication 14, Australian Rock Art Research Association, Melbourne. 2007. Experimental crossing from Sumbawa to Komodo by bamboo raft. INA Quarterly 34(2): 13-17. 2007. The Late Pleistocene cultural shift in Europe. Anthropos 102(2): 347-370. 2007. The science of Dampier rock art - part 1. Rock Art Research 24(2): 209-246. A comprehensive list of my publications I invite you to visit the following sites that relate to my work: |
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