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 My
research work with painting techniques covers a vast area. It now involves the oldest
creations of Mankind. These are the enigmatic rock paintings called Bradshaws
in the remote Kimberley region of Northern Australia. I was invited to become a
member of the Rock Art Research Team in
1999.
 My contributions to RART's
efforts are in the areas of image processing and image analysis as well as
pigment analysis. The team's ground-breaking work is shedding new light on these
mysterious paintings, some of them perhaps tens of thousands of years old.
After a highly successful expedition this summer and with publications in
preparation we hope to propel work in this field in a new direction and help
understand the meaning and purpose behind these, the oldest and most mysterious
paintings on Earth.
The Bradshaws are typically painted on sandstone
outcrops. They depict figures in a trance-like state, floating and dancing
as if weightless.
These scenes may be the earliest records of the shamans
which, in the case of the Bradshaws, appear to be women and some paintings
depict faces with recognizable and realistic features.
The image below left is a
stunning example of a well preserved rock painting. The bright square highlights the portion of the
painting under examination. In the middle below is an enlargement of that section.
To its right is the same area enhanced by digital processing. The result
was achieved by exploring the image for any traces of the color index typical of
pigment found elsewhere in the scene. These traces were then selectively and
recursively amplified to restore the faded image. The processing required about
one week to complete.
This example demonstrates the invaluable nature of digital
image processing. This circular, radially-hatched design I call 'Sun-wheel'
evaded detection by naked eye observation alone. Its presence can now shed light
on what may be happening in this scene.
Pigment analysis is another aspect of my work with RART. At
the time of writing this page (November, 2000) I am experimenting with possible
scenarios to explain how these paintings survived possibly tens of thousands of years subjected to the elements.
I have contributed to a number of articles and
research papers in this context. References can be found on the RART bibliography
page.
Peter Paul Biro
Media Cybernetics' ImagePro Plus was chosen
for this demanding effort.
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