Joakim Goldhahn
School of Humanities
College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities
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 worldview. A recent venue I have explored and would like to deepen through further research is the use of different forms of audio-visual media in the intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge and practice.
| 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 |
| 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, 35(4), 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. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2024 | 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. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2023 | Goldhahn, J., Harper, S., Popelka-Filcoff, R., & Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation. (2023). Scratching the surface: Subtractive rock markings from the Cockburn Ranges, eastern Kimberley, Western Australia. Australian Archaeology, 89(3), 227-243. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2023 | 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. Scopus2 WoS2 |
| 2022 | 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. WoS6 |
| 2022 | 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 WoS1 |
| 2022 | 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. Scopus6 WoS5 |
| 2021 | 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. Scopus6 WoS6 |
| 2021 | 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 WoS8 |
| 2021 | 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 WoS6 |
| 2021 | 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 WoS9 |
| 2021 | 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 WoS6 |
| 2021 | 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. Scopus2 |
| 2021 | 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. Scopus4 WoS5 |
| 2021 | 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. Scopus4 WoS5 |
| 2021 | 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. Scopus4 |
| 2021 | Oma, K. A., & Goldhahn, J. (2021). Introduction: Human-animal relationships from a long-term perspective. Current Swedish Archaeology, 28(28), 11-22. Scopus9 |
| 2021 | 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. Scopus15 WoS16 |
| 2020 | 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 WoS20 |
| 2020 | 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 WoS22 |
| 2020 | 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. Scopus26 WoS25 |
| 2020 | 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. Scopus7 WoS8 |
| 2020 | 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. Scopus8 WoS8 |
| 2019 | 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. WoS28 |
| 2019 | Goldhahn, J. (2019). Rock art worldings. Time and Mind, 12(3), 165-167. Scopus1 |
| 2019 | Goldhahn, J. (2019). On unfolding present and past (rock art) worldings. Time and Mind, 12(2), 63-77. Scopus10 WoS7 |
| 2019 | 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 WoS11 |
| 2018 | 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 WoS14 |
| 2017 | 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. Scopus23 WoS22 |
| 2016 | 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. Scopus2 |
| 2015 | Goldhahn, J. (2015). The show rolls as long as it consists of Bredaror on Kivik. FORNVANNEN-JOURNAL OF SWEDISH ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCH, 110(2), 126-130. WoS1 |
| 2014 | Goldhahn, J. (2014). Engraved biographies: Rock art and the life-histories of bronze age objects. Current Swedish Archaeology, 22, 97-136. Scopus18 |
| 2011 | 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. Scopus2 |
| 2011 | 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. Scopus3 |
| 2011 | 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 WoS6 |
| 2009 | Goldhahn, J. (2009). Bredarör on Kivik: A monumental cairn and the history of its interpretation. Antiquity, 83(320), 359-371. Scopus28 WoS16 |
| 2006 | Oestigaard, T., & Goldhahn, J. (2006). From the Dead to the Living: Death as Transactions and Re-negotiations. Norwegian Archaeological Review, 39(1), 27-48. Scopus41 |
| 2002 | 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. Scopus80 |
| - | Goldhahn, J. (1970). «Så godt det lar sig gjøre» – kommenterade krigstidsbrev adresserade till Arthur Nordén från norska kollegor 1940–1945 . Viking, 82. |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2024 | Rademaker, L., May, S., Maralngurra, G., & Goldhahn, J. (2024). Aboriginal Art and the Telling of History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. DOI |
| 2022 | Tacon, P. S. C., May, S., Frederick, U. K., & McDonald, J. (Eds.) (2022). Histories of Australian Rock Art Research. Canberra: ANU Press. DOI |
| 2019 | Goldhahn, J. (2019). Birds in the bronze age a north european perspective. London, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. DOI Scopus29 |
| 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. DOI |
| 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. DOI |
| 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. DOI Scopus3 |
| 2019 | 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. DOI Scopus2 |
| 2018 | 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. DOI |
| 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. DOI Scopus2 |
| 2017 | 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. DOI Scopus14 |
| 2015 | 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. DOI Scopus9 |
| 2012 | 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. DOI Scopus17 |
| 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. |
I am currently the Chief Investigator (CI) for three 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.
Between 2026 and 2030, I will be engaged in the ARC DP project Re-storying Arnhem Land’s Aboriginal Knowledge Holders. The project is led by Dr Sally K May (University of Adelaide). It also includes Dr Laura Rademaker (Australian National University), Dr Jessyca Hutchens (Berndts Museum, Perth), Distinguished Professor Paul Tacon (Griffith University), and Dr Luke Taylor (University of Adelaide). The aims and predicted outcomes read as follows:
This project aims to re-story the lives and knowledge of Aboriginal Elders who worked with anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt in Arnhem Land from 1940s–1970s. The Berndt fieldnotes have recently (2024) emerged from embargo, providing a unique opportunity to foreground and reclaim the contributions of Aboriginal participants in their long-term collaboration. Combining archival/collection research and oral history recording, this community-led research expects to produce new biographies of key Aboriginal Elders, re-centring their experiences in anthropological research; and to repatriate digital archival materials. Planned outputs (a book, short films, and an exhibition) will be used to support community arts and cultural programs.
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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