Robert G. Bednarik

Robert G. Bednarik is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Federation of Rock Art Organisations, the Australian Rock Art Research Association and the Cave Art Research Association. He edits three academic journals and two series of monographs, and is also the Permanent Convener of IFRAO. Having produced about one thousand scientific publications, of which almost half have appeared in refereed academic journals, his interests range widely. Besides palaeoart, they include the origins of human cognition, early hominin technologies, scientific dating methods and the philosophy of science. To underpin his understanding of the hominin ascent he has conducted extensive replicative experiments. For instance, to determine the minimum Pleistocene seafaring abilities he built many primitive rafts with stone tools and attempted to cross with them sea barriers known to have been breached by Ice Age mariners, sometimes at considerable personal risk. His interest in ancient rock art is motivated by his desire to learn how hominins developed the earliest constructs of reality, and how these evolved to become what is now perceived as reality. It was initially prompted by his discovery, between 1967 and 1970, of the largest rock art concentration in the world, at Dampier Archipelago, Western Australia. Bednarik has worked extensively in every continent except Antarctica, but he has a special interest in India, where he discovered the currently oldest known rock art in the world, at the Bhimbetka site complex.