Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 01:34:37 -0400 (EDT) Commenting on: http://www.ufomind.com/place/au/marree/index.shtml From: michael thompson A search of the media coverage of Marree Man has revealed some material and clues to the origin of the engraving, not previously covered at this website: The Age newspaper (Melbourne, 17/10/98) published a long article entitled "New Clues to Mystery Desert Man" and subtitled: "The evidence suggests Marree man was created by people with expert knowledge of Aborigines - An academic says the huge carving in the South Australian desert is culturally accurate". The article concludes that the mystery artists were either Aborigines or anthropologists, and it includes photographs of desert Aborigines showing the accurate details of the carving. This conclusion was further borne out when The Advertiser (Adelaide, 26/1/99) published a photograph from "The Red Centre", a 1935 account of Australian desert exploration by H.H. Finlayson, showing three central Australian desert Aborigines hunting small wallabies with throwing sticks, an alleged impossibility according to leading anthropological authorities quoted in The Age article and in items 2 and 9 indexed at this website. The Advertiser article states that "The Red Centre" photograph may have provided an inspiration for the carving, and that the quote about Aboriginal hunting skills referred to in item 13 was also apparently taken from the same book. A letter writer to "The Adelaide Review" (January 1999) summarised this mystery as follows: "Someone has conceived this amazing idea; ingeniously and artistically melded allusions to various existing art forms (ethnographic photography, classical sculpture, neolithic chalk carvings, modern land art); regionalised the figure, apparently with a level of anthropological knowledge that, judging from Dr. Jones' retractions, surpasses one of the world's foremost experts in the field; selected a stunning natural frame and exotic location in the framing plateau (How?); simultaneously located a site with potential to create a permanent neolithic type chalk figure (How?); performed a surveying feat of stunning detail and professional expertise; and executed a major earthmoving, plant maintenance and logistics exercise - all apparently without a soul noticing a thing!"