50,000 year old paintings of 'Aliens', page 1

Disclaimer: I apologise greatly if any offense is taken to this by any Aboriginal peoples.

The Wandjina or Wondjina are a common figure seen in Australian Aboriginal cave paintings.

They are most commonly seen in the North West of Australia, a place called The Kimberley's. Which is basically a large oasis surrounded by the harshest desert and wild ocean.

Beings some of the closest Australian land to Southern Asia, it is likely that the Aborigines who settled in The Kimberley's were some of the first people to reach Australia over some 50,000 years ago. Some evidence even points to them coming up to 70,000 years ago.

Aboriginal dream time stories and cave paintings have often been considered more myth then reality, like the stories we find in the teachings of modern day religions. But recent discoveries of Animal fossils such as the mega fauna have revealed that some of these stories were probably once accounts of real life events; passed down by thousands of generations.

So it is not impossible to believe that if these drawings are not based on humans they could be based on some other real life thing.

The thing that really gets me about the Wandjina is that they are always painted with big dark eyes.
There is no shortage of dark pigments, so why if they were drawing a fellow Aboriginal did they not make the body dark and eyes light?

Why were the eyes always so disproportionate to the face and nose?

Why not draw the mouth? There has never been a wandjina found with a mouth.

The head is usually surrounded by a band with outward radiating lines. Elaborate head-dresses are both the hair of the Wandjinas and clouds. Long lines coming out from the hair are the feathers which Wandjinas wore and the lightning which they control.

The story goes that:

WANDJINA, came down from the Milky Way during DREAMTIME and created the earth and all its inhabitants. Then he took one look at those inhabitants and headed back home for reinforcements.
This was going to be a tricky job.

With the aid of the DREAMTIME-SNAKE, the WANDJINA descended and spent their DREAMTIME creating, teaching and being God-like to the natives. These Gods from the Milky Way were so powerful that they didn't need to speak. So they didn't bother to have mouths.

They were definite good guys, and are still worshipped and respected Top Gods to this day. (And how many deities can still say that?) Eye-witness reports are thin on the ground, but many ancient cave paintings still exist and show eerie creatures with large heads, huge black eyes and suspiciously spacesuit-like garments. In fact, they look just like Grey aliens from modern U.F.O. abduction scenarios.

Strangely enough, in 1838, a sea captain discovered an amazing treasure trove of Aboriginal artistry, filled with primitive and powerful WANDJINA cave pictures. His name was Captain Grey. Coincidence???
We can't tell you because the Kimberley tribes are very close-mouthed, just like their WANDJINA.

In Aboriginal mythology, the Wondjina (or Wandjina) were cloud and rain spirits who, during the Dream time, created or influenced the landscape and its inhabitants.[1] When they found the place they would die, they painted their images on cave walls and entered a nearby waterhole.

Today, certain Aboriginal people of the Mowanjum tribes repaint the images to ensure the continuity of the Wondjina's presence.[2] Annual repainting in December or January also ensures the arrival of the monsoon rains, according to Mowanjum belief.[3] Repainting has occurred so often that at one site the paint is over 40 layers deep. The painting style evolves during this process: the figures of recent years are stockier and some now possess eyelashes.[4]

The Wondjina paintings have common colors of black, red and yellow on a white background. They appear alone or in groups, vertically or horizontally depending on the dimensions of the rock, and can be depicted with figures and objects like the Rainbow Serpent or yams. Common composition is with large upper bodies and heads that show eyes and nose, but typically no mouth. Two explanations have been given for this: they are so powerful they do not require speech[5] and if they had mouths, the rain would never cease. Around the heads of Wondjina are lines or blocks of color, depicting lightning, clouds or rain. The Wondjina can punish those who break the law with floods, lightning and cyclones.[6] The paintings are still believed to possess these powers and therefore are to be approached and treated respectfully. Each site and painting has a name.

Alien or not, you cannot deny the history is amazing.

This is the oldest continuous sacred painting movement on the planet.

reply to post by HumanCondition

---

As wonderful and storied as these petroglyphs are, I'm certain they bear more value as cultural heritage then they do as 'photographic' evidence of extraterrestrials.

Not all myths necessarily have any real basis in reality.
Art, in all its categories, regardless the medium, modern, classical, and ancient all, in some ways could classified as myth, where there's plenty of art that has absolutely zero basis in reality but sprung into illustration, or being as a product of our ever wonderful human imaginations.

As a child, before I ever heard anything about religion, gods, fairies, or any sort of thing, I distinctly recall making up my very own stories about people living in the clouds, living on the moon, living underground; all sorts of people of different shapes and sizes. All this, simply from the imagination of a child before any exposure to religion.

People make up all sorts of things, and in our ancestry, tens of thousands of years ago, making up stories was similar to the top 40 music charts of today. The most popular stories stuck and got retold, over and over, becoming tradition, and eventually becoming belief as fact when in all senses, the stories were just that.

reply to post by Druscilla

---

As wonderful and storied as these petroglyphs are, I'm certain they bear more value as cultural heritage then they do as 'photographic' evidence of extraterrestrials.

I agree 100% but this isn't exactly a cultural heritage forum.
I have great respect for the aboriginal people and their heritage but I do enjoy sharing theories.

Not all myths necessarily have any real basis in reality.

Indirectly it can often have a basis although not in the way you would expect.

Art, in all its categories, regardless the medium, modern, classical, and ancient all, in some ways could classified as myth, where there's plenty of art that has absolutely zero basis in reality but sprung into illustration, or being as a product of our ever wonderful human imaginations.

For the Aborigines these paintings were as much a form of communication as they were art.

As a child, before I ever heard anything about religion, gods, fairies, or any sort of thing, I distinctly recall making up my very own stories about people living in the clouds, living on the moon, living underground; all sorts of people of different shapes and sizes. All this, simply from the imagination of a child before any exposure to religion.

You would of had plenty of exposure to language, which is often the inhibitor of such ideas.

People make up all sorts of things, and in our ancestry, tens of thousands of years ago, making up stories was similar to the top 40 music charts of today. The most popular stories stuck and got retold, over and over, becoming tradition, and eventually becoming belief as fact when in all senses, the stories were just that.

It has become obvious that many of the Aboriginal stories once believed to be myth were in reality probably accounts of once living animals. I am not saying that all their stories are based in reality but that it is possible for the Wandjina to be.

reply to post by Druscilla

---

You think wrong. You think that people make up stories, in the current case it is not a madeup story, it is humans seeing their 5 fingers and toes. Not a fake story if a story at all..

reply to post by HumanCondition

---

Firstly, these painting are not 50,000 years old. You can't carbon date paintings that far.

Secondly, whose to say they are Aliens? It is known a white civilization arrived here long before the Aboriginal people as there was of a similar civilization before the Mori Ori of NZ.

reply to post by nerbot

---

I believe the word you're looking for is ignorance, my friend.
Believing we're the only lifeforms in the entire universe isn't being level headed. In my opinion anyway

Originally posted by Imtor
P.S Apology not accepted. Aborigens will come to slice you, cook you in a cauldron, spice you up and eat you.

edit on 28-7-2012 by Imtor because: (no reason given)

Now that's one for the books. Did it take you long to completely make that up or are you actually (laughing out loud wiping away the tears) serious?

...


OP:
The Aborigines had a lot of dreamtime legends. The Waugal for instance, which I think you may be referring to as the dreamtime snake? It's a large snake that inhabits the Swan river... but .. there is no large snake there. It's different to the rainbow serpent.

It is also known that when the first fleet arrived the white man scared the Aborigines because they believed that the white men were the ghosts of their ancestors.

Who knows what was reality and what was a way of remembering dreamtime stories as they passed down through generations.

You'd also think, at least I do, that if ancient aliens were visiting Aborigines 50,000 years ago, they would not still to this day be one of the most primitive tribal people on the planet. Unless the biggest technological advancement the aliens had was a bent stick.

reply to post by bluemirage5

---

"It is known a white civilization arrived here long before the Aboriginal people" - Pfft. Sure mate.

We have been here for 60 000 years, where is your proof of a white civilization.

Originally posted by Imtor
reply to post by Druscilla

---

You think wrong.

I'll second that.

People make up stories as a way to express the abstract. Folk tales and legends are more often meant to share wisdom and experience; not just for entertainment purposes. Admittedly, the entertainment is usually added to spice up the tale each time it is told.

But there is something at the core of every good story. We are a storytelling species. I think these stories and myths have a purpose other than pure entertainment and fiction--which is the element of truth contained within.

After all, a story without a moral or redeeming tidbit of wisdom based in truth is a very poor story and probably wouldn't be told repeatedly for generations--unless you work in Hollywood.

UFO Filmed From Avebury Crop Circle, UK With Multiple Witnesses
  Posted 19 days ago with 89 member flags

The Men In Black(OPs) The Aviary & UFOs
  Posted 12 days ago with 83 member flags

The Mysterious Baltic Sea Object : an Update from Peter Lindberg "Ocean Explorers Team"
  Posted 16 days ago with 41 member flags

Did a RAF Tornado crash during a UFO intercept mission in 1997?
  Posted 14 days ago with 39 member flags

What is this comming out of our star?
  Posted 9 days ago with 33 member flags

Huge Unknown Objects orbiting the Sun for months...?
  Posted 8 days ago with 29 member flags

The CIA and the UFO Mythos
  Posted 16 days ago with 26 member flags

UFO Reporting for the 21st Century!
  Posted 12 days ago with 26 member flags

Newest topics, updated in real-time:

Newest topics getting flags, in real-time:

Newest topics getting replies, in real-time: