Scientists study impact on ancient rock art

Scientists have begun a major study in Australia’s remote northwest into how mining and pollution is damaging the world’s largest concentration of ancient rock art, a state government announced. The Burrup Peninsula in the state of Western Australia is the home to up to 1 million prehistoric Aboriginal rock engravings and carvings as a well as Australia’s largest resource development. Increased acidity of rainwater has been blamed for a major deterioration in the art since the late 1980s. The New York-based World Monuments Fund has the peninsula on its list of the world’s 100 most endangered sites. —AP

Home | Infotech