Joakim Goldhahn
School of Humanities
Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Professor Joakim Goldhahn (PhD 2000, Umeå University, Sweden) is an internationally renowned archaeologist and a Senior Research Fellow at the School of Humanities. His main areas of expertise include Indigenous archaeology, rock art research, and the European Bronze Age. With a distinguished career spanning continents, he offers a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective on the study of Indigenous visual cultural heritage, colonial history, cultural memory, human-animal relationships, ritual practices, the history of archaeology, and the making of memory across time and cultures. Goldhahn is an Adjunct Professor at the Linnæus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Post-Colonial Studies, the School of Cultural Sciences, Sweden (2025-2028), and an Adjunct Researcher at the National Museum of Kenya (2025-2026). He has authored more than 260 research outputs, including 19 books, such as Birds in the Bronze Age (Cambridge University Press, 2019) and Aboriginal Rock Art and the Telling of History (Cambridge University Press, 2024), which he co-authored with Laura Rademaker, Sally K. May, and Gabriel Maralngurra. In recognition of his contributions to the field of archaeology, he was awarded the Oscar Montelius Prize by The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History, and Antiquities in 2018.Since 2020, Goldhahn has served as the Editor-in-Chief of the peer-reviewed journal Open Archaeology.
I concurrently conduct research in northern Europe, primarily focusing on the Bronze Age (2350-500 BC), western Arnhem Land in northern Australia, and among the Samburu in northern Kenya. A common thread among these research areas is my long-standing interest in what we, in search of a better term, call rock art: visual images that convey different forms of cultural identities and worldviews. A recent venue that I have explored and would like to deepen through further research is how different forms of audio-visual media are used in the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge and practice.
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Appointments
Date Position Institution name 2024 - ongoing Senior Research Fellow University of Adelaide 2020 - 2024 Rock Art Australia Ian Potter Kimberley Chair The University of Western Australia 2009 - 2020 Professor of Archaeology Linnaeus University 2006 - 2009 Senior Lecturer Kalmar University College 2002 - 2006 Reader University of Gothenburg 2001 - 2002 Lecturer Lund University 1997 - 2000 PhD Scholarship Umeå University
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Journals
Year Citation 2025 May, S., Lee, J., & Goldhahn, J. (2025). Contact Rock Art: A Biographical Perspective from Western Arnhem Land, Australia. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1-25.
2025 May, S. K., Troncoso, A., Harper, S., & Goldhahn, J. (2025). Christianity in the Rock Art of Australia and Chile. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 1-14.
2024 Goldhahn, J., May, S. K., & Lee, J. (2024). The audience and the message: Nayombolmi's bark paintings from western Arnhem Land, Australia. Aboriginal History Journal, 47, 3-36.
Scopus12024 May, S. K., Brady, L. M., Taçon, P. S. C., Miller, E., Jalandoni, A., Taylor, L., . . . Goldhahn, J. (2024). Brilliant blue: The blue rock art of Awunbarna, Northern Territory, Australia. Australian Archaeology, 90(3), 263-279.
Scopus12023 Goldhahn, J., Harper, S., Popelka-Filcoff, R., & Aboriginal Corporation, B. (2023). Scratching the surface: Subtractive rock markings from the Cockburn Ranges, eastern Kimberley, Western Australia. Australian Archaeology, 89(3), 227-243.
Scopus12023 Tacon, P., Taylor, L., May, S., Goldhahn, J., Jalandoni, A., Ressel, A., & Mangiru, K. (2023). Majumbu ('Old Harry') and the Spencer-Cahill bark painting collection. Australian Archaeology, 89(1), 14-31.
Scopus22022 Goldhahn, J., May, S., & Tacon, P. (2022). Picturing Nayombolmi: The most prolific known rock art artist in the world. Rock Art Research, 39(2), 155-167.
WoS12022 Goldhahn, J. (2022). Editorial: Open Archaeology in Challenging Times. Open Archaeology, 8(1), 1286-1288.
2022 Taçon, P. S. C., May, S. K., Goldhahn, J., Taylor, L., Brady, L. M., Ressel, A., . . . Maralngurra, G. (2022). Extraordinary Back-to-Back Human and Animal Figures in the Art of Western Arnhem Land, Australia: One of the World's Largest Assemblages. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 32(4), 707-720.
Scopus3 WoS12022 Miller, E., May, S. K., Goldhahn, J., Taçon, P. S. C., & Cooper, V. (2022). Kaparlgoo Blue: On the Adoption of Laundry Blue Pigment into the Visual Culture of Western Arnhem Land, Australia. International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 26(2), 316-337.
Scopus62021 May, S., Goldhahn, J., Rademaker, L., Badari, G., & Taçon, P. (2021). Quilp's Horse: Rock art and artist life-biography in western Arnhem Land, Australia. Rock Art Research, 38(2), 211-221.
Scopus62021 Goldhahn, J., Biyalwanga, L., May, S. K., Blawgur, J., Taçon, P. S. C., Sullivan, J., . . . Lee, J. (2021). "Our dad's painting is hiding, in secret place": reverberations of a rock painting episode in Kakadu National Park, Australia. Rock Art Research, 38(1), 59-69.
Scopus3 WoS52021 Hayward, J. A., May, S. K., Goldhahn, J., Jalandoni, A., & Taçon, P. S. C. (2021). An Analysis of Motif Clusters at the Nanguluwurr Rock Art Site, Kakadu National Park, N. T. Australia. Journal of Field Archaeology, 46(6), 414-428.
Scopus3 WoS42021 May, S. K., Wesley, D., Goldhahn, J., Lamilami, R., & Taçon, P. S. C. (2021). The missing Macassans: Indigenous sovereignty, rock art and the archaeology of absence. Australian Archaeology, 87(2), 127-143.
Scopus10 WoS52021 May, S. K., Rademaker, L., Goldhahn, J., Taçon, P. S. C., & Narndal Gumurdul, J. (2021). Narlim’s Fingerprints: Aboriginal Histories and Rock Art. Journal of Australian Studies, 45(3), 292-316.
Scopus6 WoS12021 Goldhahn, J., May, S. K., & Taçon, P. S. C. (2021). Revisiting Francis Birtles’ painted car: exploring a cross-cultural encounter with Aboriginal artist Nayombolmi at Imarlkba Gold Mine, 1929–1930. History Australia, 18(3), 469-492.
Scopus22021 May, S. K., Taçon, P. S. C., Jalandoni, A., Goldhahn, J., Wesley, D., Tsang, R., & Mangiru, K. (2021). The re-emergence of nganaparru (water buffalo) into the culture, landscape and rock art of western Arnhem Land. Antiquity, 95(383), 1298-1314.
Scopus42021 Goldhahn, J., Labarakwe, S. L., Skoglund, P., & Westergren, E. (2021). 'I have done hundreds of rock paintings': On the ongoing rock art tradition among Samburu, Northern Kenya. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 31(2), 229-246.
Scopus42021 Goldhahn, J. (2021). Science in a Time When the World Is Growing Apart and Coming Together. Open Archaeology, 7(1), 1-2.
2021 Goldhahn, J. (2021). To bring back some eagleness to eagles on bird worldings in the bronze age. Current Swedish Archaeology, 28(28), 47-73.
Scopus42021 Oma, K. A., & Goldhahn, J. (2021). Introduction: Human-animal relationships from a long-term perspective. Current Swedish Archaeology, 28(28), 11-22.
Scopus92021 May, S. K., Sanz, I. D., Goldhahn, J., Wright, D., & Maralngurra, G. (2021). Broadening our understanding beyond the 'Buffaroo'. ROCK ART RESEARCH, 38(2), 224-226. 2020 Goldhahn, J., & Fellow, A. R. (2020). Editorial. Open Archaeology, 6(1), 1.
2020 Goldhahn, J., May, S. K., Maralngurra, J. G., & Lee, J. (2020). Children and Rock Art: A Case Study from Western Arnhem Land, Australia. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 53(1), 59-82.
Scopus152020 May, S. K., Taylor, L., Frieman, C., Taçon, P. S. C., Wesley, D., Jones, T., . . . Mungulda, C. (2020). Survival, Social Cohesion and Rock Art: The Painted Hands of Western Arnhem Land, Australia. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 30(3), 491-510.
Scopus17 WoS112020 May, S. K., Huntley, J., Marshall, M., Miller, E., Hayward, J. A., Jalandoni, A., . . . Taçon, P. S. C. (2020). New Insights into the Rock Art of Anbangbang Gallery, Kakadu National Park. Journal of Field Archaeology, 45(2), 120-134.
Scopus24 WoS152020 Taçon, P. S. C., May, S. K., Lamilami, R., McKeague, F., Johnston, I. G., Jalandoni, A., . . . Goldhahn, J. (2020). Maliwawa figures—a previously undescribed Arnhem Land rock art style. Australian Archaeology, 86(3), 208-225.
Scopus25 WoS152020 May, S. K., Wright, D., Sanz, I. D., Goldhahn, J., & Maralngurra, G. (2020). The buffaroo: A ‘first-sight’ depiction of introduced buffalo in the rock art of western Arnhem Land, Australia. Rock Art Research, 37(2), 204-216.
Scopus72020 Brady, L. M., May, S. K., Goldhahn, J., Taçon, P. S. C., & Lamilami, P. (2020). What painting? Encountering and interpreting the archaeological record in western Arnhem Land, northern Australia. Archaeology in Oceania, 55(2), 106-117.
Scopus82019 May, S. K., Maralngurra, J. G., Johnston, I. G., Goldhahn, J., Lee, J., O'Loughlin, G., . . . Tacon, P. S. C. (2019). 'This is my father's painting': a first hand account of the creation of the most iconic rock art in Kakadu National Park. Rock Art Research, 36(2), 199-213.
WoS192019 Goldhahn, J. (2019). Rock art worldings. Time and Mind, 12(3), 165-167.
Scopus12019 Goldhahn, J. (2019). On unfolding present and past (rock art) worldings. Time and Mind, 12(2), 63-77.
Scopus92019 Goldhahn, J. (2019). Brian Hayden, The power of ritual in prehistory: Secret societies and origins of social complexity. Cambridge 2018. 398 pp. ISBN 978-1-108-42639-8. Fornvannen, 114(3), 196-198. 2019 Goldhahn, J. (2019). Art of the ancestors: spatial and temporal patterning in the ceiling rock art of Nawarla Gabarnmang, Arnhem Land, Australia. ANTIQUITY, 93(371), 1393-1395.
2018 Goldhahn, J., & May, S. K. (2018). Beyond the colonial encounter: global approaches to contact rock art studies. Australian Archaeology, 84(3), 210-218.
Scopus9 WoS72018 May, S. K., Johnston, I. G., Taçon, P. S. C., Domingo Sanz, I., & Goldhahn, J. (2018). Early Australian Anthropomorphs: Jabiluka's Dynamic Figure Rock Paintings. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 28(1), 67-83.
Scopus23 WoS92017 May, S. K., Wesley, D., Goldhahn, J., Litster, M., & Manera, B. (2017). Symbols of Power: The Firearm Paintings of Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II). International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 21(3), 690-707.
Scopus22 WoS172016 Goldhahn, J., & Horn, C. (2016). A new Valsømagle spearhead from Tjust, Småland, southeast Sweden. Fornvannen, 111(1), 49-52. 2015 Goldhahn, J. (2015). Debatt: Showen rullar på så länge Bredarör på Kivik består. Fornvannen, 110(2), 126-130.
Scopus22014 Goldhahn, J. (2014). Engraved biographies: Rock art and the life-histories of bronze age objects. Current Swedish Archaeology, 22, 97-136.
Scopus172011 Broström, S. G., Goldhahn, J., Ihrestam, K., & Wikell, R. (2011). Skålgropsfat, skeppshäll och solvagn: nyfunna hällbilder vid Casimirsborg i Tjust vid norra Smålandskusten. Fornvannen, 106(1), 54-57.
Scopus22011 Goldhahn, J. (2011). Sveriges äldsta och norra Europas näst äldsta hällbildsdokumentation - en notis om Johannes Haquini Rhezelius antikvariska resa till Öland och Småland 1634. Fornvannen, 106(1), 1-7.
Scopus32011 Goldhahn, J. (2011). Materialitas: Working Stone, Carving Identity. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, 14(1-2), 251-253.
2011 Brown, A. D., Bradley, R. J., Goldhahn, J., Nord, J., Skoglund, P., & Yendell, V. (2011). The environmental context of a prehistoric rock carving on the Bjäre Peninsula, Scania, southern Sweden. Journal of Archaeological Science, 38(3), 746-752.
Scopus7 WoS62009 Goldhahn, J. (2009). Bredarör on Kivik: A monumental cairn and the history of its interpretation. Antiquity, 83(320), 359-371.
Scopus262006 Oestigaard, T., & Goldhahn, J. (2006). From the Dead to the Living: Death as Transactions and Re-negotiations. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 39(1), 27-48.
Scopus372002 Goldhahn, J. (2002). Roaring Rocks: An Audio-Visual Perspective on Hunter-Gatherer Engravings in Northern Sweden and Scandinavia. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 35(1), 29-61.
Scopus78- Goldhahn, J. (1970). «Så godt det lar sig gjøre» – kommenterade krigstidsbrev adresserade till Arthur Nordén från norska kollegor 1940–1945 . Viking, 82.
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Books
Year Citation 2024 Rademaker, L., May, S., Maralngurra, G., & Goldhahn, J. (2024). Aboriginal Art and the Telling of History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2022 Tacon, P. S. C., May, S., Frederick, U. K., & McDonald, J. (Eds.) (2022). Histories of Australian Rock Art Research. Canberra: ANU Press.
2019 Goldhahn, J. (2019). Birds in the bronze age a north european perspective. London, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
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Book Chapters
Year Citation 2025 Rademaker, L., May, S., Goldhahn, J., & Maralngurra, G. (2025). History on the rocks. In A. McGrath, & J. Huggins (Eds.), Deep History: Country and Sovereignty (1 ed., pp. 151-165). Sydney: UNSW Press. 2024 May, S., Goldhahn, J., & Lee, J. (2024). Oral Histories and Indigenous Rock Art: Capturing Lives, Moments, Memories and Emotions. In C. Smith, K. Pollard, A. Kanungo, S. May, S. Lopez Varela, & J. Watkins (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Global Indigenous Archaeologies (pp. 19 pages). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2023 Goldhahn, J. (2023). GHOSTHAWK WORLDINGS: RAPTOR HARUSPICY DURING THE NORTH EUROPEAN BRONZE AGE. In R. J. Wallis (Ed.), The Art and Archaeology of Human Engagements with Birds of Prey: From Prehistory to the Present (pp. 53-68). Bloombury.
2021 Brady, L. M., Gunn, R. G., & Goldhahn, J. (2021). ROCK ART MODIFICATION AND ITS RITUALIZED AND RELATIONAL CONTEXTS. In I. J. McNiven, & B. David (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology of Indigenous Australia and New Guinea (pp. 969-992). Oxford University Press.
Scopus32019 Goldhahn, J. (2019). On the archaeology of elves. In Cognitive Archaeology Mind Ethnography and the Past in South Africa and Beyond (pp. 270-310). Routledge.
Scopus12018 Goldhahn, J. (2018). Roaring rocks: An audio-visual perspective on hunter- gatherer engravings in northern Sweden and Scandinavia. In Narratives and Journeys in Rock Art A Reader (pp. 371-407). Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
2018 Goldhahn, J. (2018). To let mute stones speak - on the becoming of archaeology. In Giving the Past A Future Essays in Archaeology and Rock Art Studies in Honour of Dr Phil H C Gerhard Milstreu (pp. 37-57). Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
Scopus22017 Goldhahn, J. (2017). North European rock art a long-term perspective. In B. David, & I. J. McNiven (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of the Archaeology and Anthropology of Rock Art (pp. 51-72). Oxford University Press.
Scopus142015 Goldhahn, J. (2015). Contested worlds - a chronotopic essay about mortuary monuments and cultural change in northern Europe in the second millennium BC. In Ritual Landscapes and Borders within Rock Art Research Papers in Honour of Professor Kalle Sognnes (pp. 13-30). Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.
Scopus92012 Goldhahn, J., & Fuglestvedt, I. (2012). Engendering North European Rock Art: Bodies and Cosmologies in Stone and Bronze Age Imagery. In A Companion to Rock Art (pp. 237-260). Wiley.
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Report for External Bodies
Year Citation 2024 May, S., Goldhahn, J., & Tacon, P. S. C. (2024). Pathways: People, Landscape and Rock Art in Djok Country. Adelaide. 2024 May, S., Blair, S., O'Loughlin, G., & Goldhahn, J. (2024). Anlarrh Bininj Bush Camps. -
Original Creative Works
I am currently the Chief Investigator (CI) for two research projects: the ARC SRI-funded Art at a Crossroads: Aboriginal Responses to Contact in Northern Australia (2021–2025), and the international project Making Rock Art Today: Encounters with Practising Samburu Rock Art Painters (2025-2028), funded by the Swedish research foundation Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
My ongoing research in Australia and Kenya is committed to collaborative, community-led research approaches that foreground Indigenous knowledges and perspectives.
I am currently in a research-focused role, but I am happy to discuss any supervision that falls within my area of expertise.
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