RADIO CARBON DATING THE PAINTINGS OF FONT-DE-GAUME:

Font de Gaume Cave, France. Photograph by Anne Maigret.

Students of rock art and cave painting have long lamented the difficulties of estimating dates. With carbon 14 dating you need an organic component in order to date the image, and if there is no black charcoal in the image the pigment cannot be dated. Some paints have organic binders which can be dated sometimes, but organic binders usually do not last as long as inorganic pigments.

Font de Gaume Cave, France. Photograph by Anne Maigret.

One cave in France with Paleolithic cave art that we have wanted to date is Font-de-gaume. “Font-de-Gaume is one of many caves designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Dordogne region of France. Because of the historical significance of the cave art, touching the walls of Font-de-Gaume is forbidden. The only exception is for collecting a sample to conduct radiocarbon dating, as the analytical technique intrinsically requires some physical material.” (Samuels 2026)

Font de Gaume Cave, France. Photograph by Anne Maigret.

The cave of Font-de-Gaume in France has many paintings, but it has always been assumed that the black pigment was a manganese and/or iron mineral and, as such, could not be dated with radiocarbon dating. “Radiocarbon dating works by measuring carbon-14, a radioactive form of carbon that gradually disappears after an organism dies. Because charcoal is made from burned organic material, it can often be dated using this method. Mineral pigments, however, usually contain no carbon and therefore cannot be analyzed in the same way. Researchers had long believed that many black paintings in the region were made entirely from iron and manganese oxides. These naturally occurring minerals can produce dark pigments, but they do not contain the organic carbon needed for radiocarbon dating.” (CNRS 2026) A recent study, however, disproved this assumption.

A. Visible light photograph of the selected area of cave wall representing a deer, bison and a probable bison (top). B. RGB imaging of the same scene calculated from RIS data.  Photographs by Anne Maigret.

In a recent study it was proven that there is indeed charcoal in some of the black paint in Font-de-Gaume. “To carry out this verification, the scientists examined the chemical composition of two black drawings, depicting a bison and a mask, using Raman microspectrometry and hyperspectral imaging . These noninvasive methods revealed traces of charcoal in the black pigments.” (Landurant  2026)

C and D. Final version after analysis. Red = carbon based pigments, green - manganese oxide pigments. 

Knowing that a portion of the black paint provided a means for Carbon-14 dating, the researchers received permission to remove samples for testing. “Ina Reiche, a research chemist at the French National Center for Scientific Research led the team that removed tiny samples of charcoal for dating. They also added reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS) to their repertoire. The method essentially combines imaging and spectroscopy, and might be ‘even better with respect to what we did before,’ Reiche says. The scientists collected four tiny pigment samples one from the bison and three from the mask. The team then used accelerator mass spectrometry to determine the concentration of carbon-14 in each sample and calculated the ages. Three of the four samples date to the Paleolithic era, but the left eye of the mask was markedly younger. Reiche says that it’s clear the left eye contains younger carbon but impossible to know if it came from purposeful retouching, accidental contamination, or more recent graffiti.” (Samuels 2026) This newer date, however, is a sport and not relevant to our purposes.

Hyperspectral image of result provided by reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS). Image and colors sharpened with ChatGPT.

After the collection and processing of the samples the results turned out to be truly exciting. “Collecting micro-samples was authorized on an exceptional basis for carbon 14 dating. Although this dating is challenging given the tiny amount of material, analyses confirmed a date in the Upper Paleolithic, slightly more recent than previously estimated: the bison was painted between 13,461 and 13,162 calBP, while different parts of the mask were painted between 8,993 and 8,590 calBP, 15,981 and 15,121 calBP, and between 15,297 and 14,246 calBP.” (Landurant 2026) This procedure opens up possibilities for other locations as well. Being able to identify carbon in black painted images will provide a powerful new tool in cave art analysis.

REFERENCES:

CNRS, 2026, Hidden charcoal reveals the true age of ancient cave paintings, ScienceDaily, 28 July 2026, www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/07/260727214619.htm.

Landurant, Manon, 2026, First absolute dating of Paleolithic paintings in the Dordogne, 10 March 2026, phys.org (online). Accessed 10 March 2026.

Samuels, Fionna, 2026, First radiocarbon dating of ancient art in France’s Dordogne caverns, 10 March 2026, https://cen.acs.org. Accessed online 10 March 2026.

ATLATL PORTRAYALS IN ROCK ART SUGGEST ROUGH DATING ESTIMATES:

Hunter with atlatl, Jeffer's Site,Cottonwood county, Minnesota. Photograph enhanced, Peter Faris.

Knowing that the atlatl technology for hunting has existed since the Paleolithic in the Old World, it has been long assumed that the atlatl entered the New World across Beringia with the earliest migrants to North America. Given this assumption it was easy to assume that the later Clovis culture dated to roughly 13,340–12,710 years ago possessed atlatl technology. Yet, a study published in 2026 (Metin Erin et al.) questions this assumption and, based on the evidence available today, could find no support for Clovis use the the atlatl.

Rattlesnake Shelter, West of Langtry,  McClennon County, Texas. Photograph by Teresa Weedin, Oct. 1987.

"Late Pleistocene North American foragers assigned to the Clovis culture have long been assumed to have hunted megafauna with the atlatl, which would have provided several advantages. Yet, we chronologically modeled radiocarbon ages from preserved Holocene atlatls and show that Clovis atlatl use is not supported. If Clovis hunters did not use atlatl technology, then its emergence in the Americas during the early Holocene represents a case of technological convergent evolution analogous to atlatls in Late Pleistocene Europe. A further implication is if Clovis hunters used spears, javelins, or bow technology then models concerning megafaunal hunting need to be rethought given the distinct effectiveness, hunting risk, and tactics associated with these weapons." (Erin et al. 2026:1)

Basketmaker hunt panel. Internet photograph, public domain.

Erin and the members of his team compiled dates for known examples of atlatls and their figures suggest a 4,000 year gap between the end of the  Clovis culture and the adoption of atlatl technology in North America. “Researchers turned to the ages of the oldest securely dated atlatls from across the Americas. Their statistical model indicates that the earliest probably appearance of the weapon system was about 9,996 years ago, nearly four millennia after the disappearance of the Clovis culture.” (Raza 2026)

White Dog Cave, Arizona. Internet photograph, public domain.

This suggests that any image which indicates an atlatl in use likely dates from the period between 9,996 BCE and the adoption of the bow and arrow.

John Blitz, in 1988, compiled a comprehensive study of when the bow and arrow first appeared in North America. “The earliest evidence of the bow and arrow in North America is in the Arctic. A prepared core and microblade technology characterizes a number of local Alaskan complexes grouped into the Paleoarctic Tradition from 9000 to 6000 B.C. This technology derives from similar complexes m northeastern Asia with Old World Mesolithic techniques). After 6000 B.C. in interior Alaska and northwestern Canada, the microblade technology is infused with an Archaic technology of more southerly origins to form the Northern Archaic Tradition. These microblades may have paralleled Mesolithic usage as arrow barbs but there is no direct evidence; and a series of lanceolate, leaf-shaped, side-notched, and stemmed large points were used throughout this long sequence. While bow technology may have occurred in these early traditions, clear evidence appears only after 3000 B.C.” (Blitz 1988:127)

Blitz continues with a list of what he considers to be the first certifiable appearance of the bow and arrow throughout North America, leading to the abandonment of atlatl and dart technology in the north.

Arctic, 3000-1600 BC

Canadian Arctic, 2500-800 BC

Subarctic, 500 AD

Plains, 500 AD

Texas, 500-600 AD

Great Basin, 200-500 AD

California, 500 AD

Southwest, 575-750 AD

Southeast, 700 AD

These dates are illustrated in his map (Blitz 1988, Figure 1, page 132)

If the dates given in these studies are indeed correct then this gives us a vehicle for rough estimation of the dates of examples of rock art that shows an atlatl, it would fall between the adoption of the atlatl, and the adoption of the bow and arrow technology that replaced the atlatl in that region.

NOTE: Some images in this column were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below. Additionally, some of the quotations I have included have had citations removed from their text. These can also be acquired from the original texts.

REFERENCES:

Blitz, John H., 1988, Adoption of the Bow in Prehistoric North America, North American Archaeologist, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 123-145.

Erin, Metin I. et al., 2026, Late Pleistocene Clovis atlatl hunting fails a chronological modeling test, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS online, Vol. 123, no. 28, https://www.pnas.org. Accessed online 30 June 2026.

Raza, Hassan, 2026, Clovis Hunters Likely Never Used Atlatl, New Study Shows Weapon Gap Spanned 4,000 Years, BioScience, 29 June 2026, ISSN 2521-5760. Accessed online 30 June 2026.

ARCHAEOMAGNETIC DATING OF OLD PICTOGRAPHS:

For forty years I have maintained that it should be possible to date certain old pictographs painted with ochres by archaeomagnetic dating techniques.  A 2004 study by Avto Goguitchaichvili and his team used archaeomagnetic dating on ochre paint used to create precolumbian murals in Mexico. “The magnetic measurements of the pigments show that at least four murals retain a remanent magnetization carried by a mixture of magnetite and minor hematite grains.” (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004) Given that they have proved the feasibility of the process on murals, it stands to reason that it would work on paint deposits on cave walls and other pictographic imagery.

Murals from Templo de Venus, Cacaxtla culture, Mexico. Image from Pinterest.

In traditional archaeomagnetic dating clay samples from a feature that has been exposed to high heat, like a fireplace or a adobe brick from a structure that burned down are tested for magnetic orientation. This is then used to calculate the time period that the earth’s magnetic north pole was in the position indicated. “A number of samples are removed from the feature by encasement in non-magnetic plaster within non-magnetic moulds. These samples are marked for true north at the time of collection. The samples are sent to an Archaeomagnetic Laboratory for processing. Each of the samples is measured in a spinner magnetometer to determine the thermal remnant magnetism of each sample. The results are statistically processed and an eigenvector is generated that shows the three-dimensional magnetic declination that will yield a location for the North Pole at the time of the last thermal event of the feature. Data from this feature is compared to the regional secular variation curve in order to determine the best-fit date range for the feature's last firing event.” (Wikipedia)

Murals at Templo Rojo, Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Photograph by Marcela Perez Z., El Giroscopo Viajero.

Now a team of scholars in Mesoamerica have tested the red paint in four Precolombian murals to see if they can be dated archaeomagnetically. The team of scholars involved in the study, aware that archaeomagnetic dates for Mesoamerican sites are relatively few, wanted to study the possibility of retrieving dates on paintings from Precolumbian sites. “For this study, we chose four mural paintings from Central Mexico: Templo de Venus (Cacaxtla culture), Templo Rojo (Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan), Chapulines and Estrellas (both belonging to the Cholula complex). These sites correspond to the Classic and early post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology (approx. 200 to 1200 A.D.).” (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004)

Heavy red paint, La Pasiega Cave, Spain. Internet image, public domain.

The results of these tests were very promising, having positive results in all samples. “In summary, 28 samples belonging to four Mesoamerican mural paintings were investigated and the direction of their remnant magnetization was successfully determined. A mixture of magnetite and hematite is responsible for the magnetization, Studied Mesoamerican mural paintings retain the direction of the magnetic field at the time they were painted and are therefore an invaluable source of information concerning secular variation. The archeomagnetic study of pre-Columbian mural paintings opens new alternatives for improving the Mesoamerican absolute chronology.” (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004) If this is the case in the tested murals, surely it will also apply to many other records painted with ochre paint, such as pictographs and cave painting.

Lascaux Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

The team of researchers also triple-checked their results to confirm them. “When researchers compared the magnetic directions of the murals to directions measured in volcanic rocks dated to the same periods and to other archaeomagnetic studies of similarly aged lime-plasters, they found rough agreement. And based on that agreement, they conjecture that the mean direction from three of the murals corresponds to the interval between A.D. 1000 and 1200.” (Pratt 2004)

 

Red dots in Pech Merle Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

In the situation I am proposing the layer of ocher paint will have to be thick enough on the painted surface (cliff, cave wall) to remove a sample. This might be the result of uneven application of paint, or applying paint to a rough stone surface where high and low points on the stone would create a paint layer of varying thickness. While it was still liquid after application the earth’s magnetic field would influence the magnetite and hematite constituents of the paint to orient to the magnetic North Pole as it was then located, and when the paint dried that orientation would be locked in place. This procedure would add a new tool to our collection of dating methods for ancient paintings in addition to radiocarbon dating of charcoal based black pigments. Now some graduate student can take this and run with it - it always feels really good to be vindicated.

NOTE 1: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

NOTE 2: For technical details see the paper (Goguitchaichvili et al. 2004) in References below.

REFERENCES:

A. Goguitchaichvili, A. M. Soler, E. Zanella, G. Chiari, R. Lanza, J. Urrutia-Fucugauchi, and T. Gonzalez, 2004, Pre-Columbian mural paintings from Mesoamerica as geomagnetic field recorders, Geophysical Research Letters, 22 June 2004, Vol. 31, No. 12. DOI:10:1029/2004GL020065. Accessed online 3 February 2-25.

Pratt, Sara, 2004, Geoarchaeology - Magnetic Murals, Geotimes Magazine online, September 2004, http://www.geotimes.org/sept04/NN_magneticmurals.html. Accessed online 12 January 2025.

Wikipedia, Archaeomagnetic dating,https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeomagnetic_dating. Accessed online 20 November 2024.

 

THE OLDEST KNOWN ROCK PAINTING IN AUSTRALIA:

17,300 year old kangaroo dated with mud dauber wasp nests. Illustration from Finch et al.

Back on 20 June 2020, I wrote a column titled “Dating Australian Rock Art With Mud Wasp Nests” about using small samples of mud wasp (or mud dauber) nests that overlay old pictographs to date them using optically stimulated luminescence dating. This practice has now produced dates for an image in the Kimberly region in Australia as old as 17,300 BCE.

17,300 year old kangaroo dated with mud dauber wasp nests. Illustration from Finch et al.

“In two of the most extensive provinces for painted rock art in Australia, the Kimberley and Arnhem Land, naturalistic animals are the most common subjects in the oldest stylistic period on the basis of superimposition analysis, but there is debate about their antiquity and the adequacy of the definitions of these earliest styles. The same or similar animals are also depicted in more-recent art periods, but using different stylistic techniques (for example, solid or regular infill rather than irregular infill, and solid infill of the extremities of the head, tail and limbs); further evidence is therefore required to test these ideas as no old, radiometric age constraints have been published for any of these motifs. In the Kimberley region, it is now known that paintings from the superimposed and inferred to be more-recent Gwion stylistic period proliferated around 12 ka18, so the generally agreed relative rock art sequence predicts that the earlier paintings of naturalistic animals should be older than this.” (Finch et al. 2021)

12,700 year old kangaroo pictograph. Ian Waina nspecting the painting. Photo via Peter Veth, Balanggarra Aborigina Corporation. Illustration by Pauline Heney and Damien Finch.

Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating relies on the transfer of energy from cosmic rays to crystalline materials. If these materials are in the light the energy bleeds back out but, if they are in complete dark the energy accumulates and is stored up until it can release. If this small piece of material is hidden underground (or incorporated into a mud wasp nest) it can be taken back to the archeologists lab and handled under controlled conditions. Then, when hit with a pulse from a laser the energy is released at once, its intensity indicating how much had built up and thus how long it was in the dark. If the mud wasp nest was taken from the surface of a rock art image, the date found in it represents the possible minimum age of the image. It can be older, but not younger, then the OSL date.

The team recording rock art. Image from www.bbc.com.

“In the Kimberley rock art stylistic sequence, these naturalistic animals belong to the earliest known phase of painted rock art, the Irregular Infill Animal Period (IIAP). Notwithstanding the abovementioned debate about the classification of similar motifs in the Arnhem Land region (some 700 km to the east), we adopt the comprehensive definition of the Kimberley IIAP by Walsh and Welch as a starting hypothesis. This definition of IIAP motifs includes some styles of hand stencils, hand prints, stencils of boomerangs and other objects, and some freehand depictions of plants (such as yams), animals (particularly kangaroos but also echidna, birds, goannas, fish and possum) and, more rarely, anthropomorphs. Here we report radiocarbon ages determined from 27 mud wasp nests, which were collected from 8 separate sandstone rock shelters, that constrain the ages of 16 IIAP motifs. Fifteen nests overlay ten IIAP motifs and six nests were underneath a further five motifs. Importantly, three overlying and three underlying nests were dated from one further IIAP motif, thereby providing a bracketed age constraint for that individual painting.” (Finch et al. 2021) These bracketed ages give maximum and minimum ages for that particular image narrowing down its date.

“The age estimates for 27 mud wasp nests in contact with 16 different rock paintings of the Kimberley IIAP style suggest that these motifs were painted between 17.2 and 13.1 cal kBP. The age of one IIAP macropod motif is well-constrained by six radiocarbon dates on three overlying and three underlying wasp nests to be between 17,500 and 17,100 years old, corresponding to the middle of the age range for the European figurative motifs.

Rock shelter containing the 17,300 year old painting. Image from University of Melbourne, Australia.

This is a period during which sea levels in the nearby Joseph Bonaparte Gulf began to rise from a low of ~125 m below present sea levels during the Last Glacial Maximum (21±3 ka) but mostly before the rapid rise in sea levels between 14.6 and 8 ka. By 12 ka, the coastline to the northwest had advanced by around 300 km over the continental shelf toward the area in which our study was undertaken. Many generations of Kimberley coastal Aboriginal populations experienced a continuing loss of territory over these millennia. At around the same time, from 14 to 13 ka, a paleo-environmental record from a nearby mound spring and other Kimberley climate proxies indicate an improving climate with an increase in monsoonal activity and precipitation.”  (Finch et al. 2021) With a 300 kilometer advance of the coast during that period one has to wonder how many wonderful sites have disappeared.

In summary, the study found what they are pronouncing as the oldest rock art yet discovered in Australia. “These Pleistocene ages for naturalistic animal motifs from the earliest known period of Australian rock painting position this creative human activity at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum. The initial results from eight rock art sites in the northeastern Kimberley suggest an extended period for the Irregular Infill Animal style, from 17 to 13 ka. Many more dates from this period are required before the full chronological extent of the paintings still visible today can be determined. For now, a robustly dated, approximately 17,300-year-old painting of a kangaroo is the oldest in situ rock painting radiometrically dated in Australia.” (Finch et al. 2021) This is such a fortuitous and clever way to date rock art, working in a team with an insect to learn marvelous facts.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2020, Dating Australian Rock Art With Mud Wasp Nests, 20 June 2020, https://www.blogger.com.

Finch, Damien et al., 2021, Ages for Australia’s oldest rock paintings, March 2021, Human Nature Behavior, doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-01041-0. Accessed online 17 June 2023.

NEW RADIOCARBON DATING STUDY GIVES DATES FOR CHAUVET CAVE AS 10,000 YEARS OLDER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT:

Cave Lion panel, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

A remarkable and comprehensive study published on 2016 pushed the dates of the art of Chauvet Cave in France back to about 10,000 years earlier than we previously thought.

“Chauvet-Pont d’Arc is a cave located in the Ardèche département, a region that is found in south-central France. Discovered in 1994, it features human hand prints as well as drawings of 14 different animal species, ranging from cave bears to big cats. It was long believed to be the oldest known human-decorated cave in the world, with its artwork estimated to be from between 22,000-18,000 BCE.” (Pilny 2016) Chauvet is certainly one of the most admired painted caves in Europe for the striking quality and sophistication of its imagery.

Horses and rhinoceros panel, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“From their analysis, the researchers discovered a totally new timeline for the cave. According to their results humans left their furst marks inside the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago, and then occupied the cave again from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago - although the researchers don’t think humans and bears tried to live in the cave at the same time.” (Pilny 2016) These dates are within the Upper Paleolithic period known as the Aurignacian.

Coexisting with cave bears might have periodically been a slippery situation. Humans did hunt cave bears on occasion and, when we consider the number of people killed by bears in the modern world, I would suspect the opposite may have also happened once in a while as well.

Cave bears panel, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

"Before these cave painters could move into their respective studios, some of them had to evict existing tenants. In two French caves containing paintings dating back around 32,000 years ago, ancient humans displaced cave bears in order to claim the sites for themselves, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Archaeological Science. Cave bears even appear on some of the art on the wall. Researchers came to this determination after they 'performed radiocarbon dating, mitochondrial DNA analysis and isotope investigations of cave bear remains from Chauvet-Pont d'Arc and Deux-Ouvertures caves located along the Ardeche River in France,' according to Discovery News' Jennifer Viegas. Whether humans are responsible for the broader cave-bear extinction in the region is still unclear. Environmental and/or climatic changes may have also played a role." (DNews 2016)

"We compiled a set of more than 250 radiocarbon dates related to the rock art, human activities, and bone remains in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave (Ardeche, France) and derived a modeled absolute chronology of the human and cave bear occupations of this site, presented here in calendar years. It provides an insightful framework for the successive events that occurred in the cave during the Paleolithic period.” (Quiles 2016)

Rhinoceros, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

"Radiocarbon dates for the ancient drawings in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave revealed ages much older than expected. These early ages and nature of this Paleolithic art make this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) site indisputably unique. A large, multidisciplinary dating program has recently mepped the anthropological evolution associated with the cave. More than 350 dates (by ¹⁴C, U-Th, TL and ³⁶Cl) were obtained over the last 15 y. They include 259 radiocarbon dates, bainly related to the rock art and human activity in the cave. We present here more than 80 previously unpublished dates. All fo the dates were integrated into a high-precision Bayesian model based on archaeological evidence to securely reconstruct the complete history of the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave on an absolute timescale. It shows that there were two distinct periods of human activity in the cave, one from 37 to 33,599 y ago, and the other from 31 to 28,000 y ago. Cave bears also took refuge in the cave until 33,000 y ago." (Qiles 2016)

Rhinoceroses, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“Other dating methods were applied to different materials. Heated wall fragments were dated by thermoluminescence to determine the age of hearth structures. Uranium-series dating was applied to carbonate concretions superimposed on some ¹⁴C-dated charcoal, yielding a “terminus ante quem” for the deposit of this charcoal. The latter was recently confirmed by ³⁶Cl exposure dating of rock, indicating collapses that occurred in the past and that sealed off the (paleo) entrance of the cave, thereby confirming the early age of the art contained inside.” (Quiles 2016) Notice the detailed dating using different methods as cross-checks. C¹⁴ dating with Uranium series dating, Chlorine 36 dating and thermoluminescence dating. As a layman I find this very impressive and am inclined to give their results considerable weight.

"Using a robust interdisciplinary approach, our modeled results clearly support previous hypotheses postulating two different occupations of the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave. They definitively show that humans frequented the site during two distinct time periods, between 37,000 - 33,500 and 31,000 - 28,000 y ago. These clear results, based on a large number of dates obtained from diverse materials introduced into the cave through various biological or anthropogenic processed, provide a decisive argument in favor of the realization of the parietal art works before 28,000 y ago. They now enable further extensive exploration of the remarkable rock art created in the Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave during these two occupation phases." (Quiles 2016)

Full panel of multiple animals, Chauvet-Pont d'Arc Cave, France. Internet image, public domain.

“However, dangerous rock slides drove both humans and bears away from the cave, with the mouth finally being sealed by rock around 23,500 to 21,500 years ago. Either way, though, the new timeline of the animal cave paintings puts them in the same range as the Sulawesi ones in Indonesia, meaning Chauvet-Pont d’Arc may just contain the oldest known animal drawings on Earth.” (Pilny 2016)

Based upon these results the team has stated that Chauvet cave art may be the oldest in the world and that seems a stretch when much of the cave art we know of has not yet been dated, to say nothing about cave art not yet discovered. And, since their study was published, a cave painting in Sulawesi, Indonesia, has been dated to 43,500 BCE which is considerably older (6.5k) than the new dates for Chauvet.  Still, this is a very impressive study for very impressive art, and a positive contribution for which we should all be grateful.

NOTE: Images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

DNews, 2016, Cave Art in France 10,000 Yrs Older Than Thought, 13 April 2016, https://seeker.com/. Accessed online 16 June 2023.

Pilny, Susanna, 2016, French cave paintings are 10,000 years older than we thought, oldest in the world, 12 April 2016, https://www.redorbit.com/news/. Accessed online 17 June 2023.

Quiles, Anita et al., 2016, A high-precision chronological model for the decorated Upper Paleolithic cave of Chauvet-Pont dArc, Ardeche, France, 11 April 2016, PNAS, 113 (17), 4670-4675, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1523158113. Accessed online 16 June 2023.

 

 

12,000 YEAR OLD ROCK ART DATES IN NORTH AMERICA:

Team member taking a pXRF reading at Rochester Creek site, Utah.

The perennial problem of dating petroglyphs may have finally been solved. A team from the Max Planck Institute has used portable X-ray fluorescence equipment (pXRF) to measure levels of elements in the patina in petroglyphs and comparing that to the levels of the same elements in the rock varnish on the unpecked surfaces have come up with seemingly accurate and reliable age estimates for four sites in the northeastern Great Basin of North America. 

Legend Rock site, near Thermopolis, Wyoming.

"Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry have now succeeded in applying their non-destructive method to dating rock art in North America. The analysis shows that rock art in the Great Basin, a region in the western U.S., was produced and continuously renewed for twelve millennia. Indigenous people accessed the same artworks over and over again and endowed them with new meaning, the findings show." (Max Planck Institute 2022)

Map Rock Site, Snake River valley, Idaho.

"Rock art originated some 46,000 years ago and can provide unique insights into the minds of our human ancestors. However, dating of these ancient images, especially of petroglyphs, remains a challenge. In this study, we explore the potential of deriving age estimates from measurements of the areal densities of manganese (D_mn) and iron (D_fe) in the rock varnish on pertoglyphs, based on the concept that the amount of varnish that has regrown on a petroglyph since its creation, relative to the surrounding intact varnish, is a measure of its age. We measured (D_mn) and (D_fe) by portable X-ray fluoresence (pXRF) on dated Late Pleistocene and Holocene rock surfaces, from which we derived accumulation rate of Mn and Fe in the rock varnish. The observed rates were comparable to our previous findings on basalt surfaces in North America. We derived age estimates for the rock art at four sites in the northern Great Basin region of North America based on D_{mn measurements on the petroglyphs and intact varnish. They suggest that rock art creation in this region began around the Pleistocene/Holocene transition and continued into the Historic Period, encomassing a wide range of styles and motifs. Evidence of reworking of the rock art at various times by indigenous people speaks of the continued agency of these images through the millennia. Our results are in good agreement with chronologies based on archeological and other archaeometric techniques. While our method remains subject to significant uncertainty with regard to the absolute age of individual images, it provides the unique opportunity to obtain age estimates for large ensembles of images without the need for destructive sampling."} (Andreae and Andreae 2022)

Celebration Park site, Idaho.

"In the present study, we conducted in-situ measurements by pXRF on petroglyphs at four sites in Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana to determine the areal densities of Mn and Fe in the varnish that had re-accumulated on the rock since its creation. We also made measurements on the intact varnish surrounding the rock (art) to assess the variability of varnish foration between different rock surfaces. We complimented these data by measuring the Mn and Fe densities on rock surfaces of known geological age to obtain varnish accumulation rates. From these results, we derived age estimates for the petroglyphs and evaluate tham within their archaeological and cultural context. Our study extends significantly the very scarce knowledge base on the rate of rock varnish accumulation in semiarid to mesic regions, provides further validation of non-destructive dating technique for rock art, and elucidates the history of rock art creation at four important archaeological sites representing the Great Basin Macrotradition." (Andreae and Andreae 2022)

Celebration Park site, Idaho.

The four sites tested by the Andreaes are; Celebration Park and Map Rock, two petroglyph sites in the Snake River Valley between Twin Falls and Marsing, Idaho; Legend Rock, 35 km northwest of Thermopolis, Wyoming; and Petroglyph Canyon, 21 km northwest of Lovell, Wyoming, just north of the Montana state line. (Andreae and Andreae 2022)

Celebration Park site, Idaho.

Sites were chosen that had age estimates assigned previously by other methods to allow the team to cross-check their results against previous age estimates. "The diverse rock art spans a broad time period, from the Paleo-Indian era about 15,000 years ago to the recent past. Moreover, the scientists were able to complement their own method with measurements of rock engravings whose ages had previously been dated using independent geochemical methods. Both age estimates were in excellent agreement and thus confirmed each other. The comparison with other archaeological material at the rock art sites, which had been previously dated, also supported the researchers' age estimates." (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 2022) 

Graph of testing results from Celebration Park site, Idaho.

"'All of our analyses suggest that the earliest petroglyphs were created as early as the transition period from the Pleistocene to the Holocene, about 12,000 years ago, and were repeatedly revised by indigenous people over thousands of years until the recent past,' explains Andreae, a biogeochemist." (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft 2022)

Celebration Park site, Idaho.

If these results hold up through further testing it may be that we have finally achieved at least this one holy grail of rock art research - the ability to date petroglyphs through clues in the patination coating them. Back in the early 80s I made some unsuccessful attempts to do this using a photographic light meter to determine relative darkness of the patina in and ourside of a petroglyph. At roughly the same time Dr. Ronald Dorn was analyzing cation ratios in the varnish to determine the age of petroglyphs, and at that time his method also was not widely trusted and adopted, although I know of instances where his readings successfully matched age estimates for petroglyphs made using other methods. But now we may finally have an inarguable success in dating petroglyphs, and I congratulate the Andreaes' and look forward to their further developments.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.  

REFERENCES:

Andreae, Meinrat O., and Tracy W. Andreae, 2022, Archaeometric studies on rock art at four sites in the northeastern Great Basin of North America, 26 January 2022, PLOS, https://doi.org/10.137/journal.pone.0263189. Accessed online 18 August 2022.

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (Institute), 2022, 12,000-kyear-old rock art in North America, non-destructive method dating petroglyphs in the American West, 28 January 2022, https://mpg.de/18213975/rock-art-petroglyph-dating. Accessed online 17 August 2022.  

CUEVA DE ARDALES - FAMOUS ROCK ART CAVE IN SPAIN WAS USED BY ANCIENT HUMANS FOR OVER 50,000 YEARS:

Excavations in Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Photograph diariodecadiz.es.

Although Cueva de Ardales has been long known and studied for its prehistoric occupation and art it is only with recent dating that the great extent of its use by ancient peoples can be appreciated.

"The Cueva de Ardales is a hugely important Palaeolithic site in the south of the Iberian Peninsula owing to its rich inventory of rock art. From 2011 - 2018, excavations were carried out in the cave for the first time ever by a Spanish-German research team. The excavations focused on the entrance area of the cave, where the largest assemblage of non-figurative red lpaintings in the cave is found. - The dating of the Middle Palaeolithic layers agrees with the U/Th dating of some red non-figurative paintings in the entrance area. In  addition, a large assemblage of ochre lumps was discovered in the Middle Palaeolithic layers. Human visits of the cave in the Gravettian and Solutrean can be recognized, but evidence from the Aurignacian and Magdalenian cannot be confirmed with certainty. The quality and nature of meterials found during the excavations indicate that Cueva de Ardales was not a campsite, but was mainly visited to carry out non-domestic tasks, such as the production of rock art or the burial of the dead." (Ramos-Muñoz et al. 2022)

Handprint, Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Internet photograph, public domain.

So there was no sign of actual habitation in Cueva de Ardales, but it was utilized periodically from the Paleolithic Period to modern times for various purposes including ceremonial (a probable reason for the rock art) and as a burial site.

Red painted speleothems in Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Illustration from scitechdaily.com. 

Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Photograph Jose Ramos-Munoz.

“Red-painted speleothems in Ardales Cave – were created more than 64,000 years ago. These cave paintings are the earliest dated so far and predate, by at least 20,000 years, the arrival of modern humans in Europe, which implies Neanderthal authorship.” (News Staff 2018) This is not the only site of that age in Spain, the painted caves of La Pasiega and Maltravieso also contain Neanderthal red painted markings of that age.

"A review of artifacts and more than 50 new dates obtained from the layers of southern Spain's Cueva de Ardales indicates that the cave was not used as a campsite, but was periodically visited for the creation of rock art and the burial of the dead from the Palaeolithic period through the Neolithic period. The internationa team of researchers, led by Jose Ramos-Muñoz of the University of Cadiz, suggests that the cave was probably first used by Neanderthals more than 65,000 years ago. The oldest artworks in the cave, including dots, finger tips, and hand stencils made with red pigment, have been dated to more than 58,000 years ago." (Saraceni 2022)

Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Internet photograph, public domain.

Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Internet photograph, public domain.

Cueva de Ardales, Spain. Internet photograph, public domain.

“Homo sapiens arrived later, around 35,000 years ago, and used the cave sporadically until as recently as the beginning of the Chalcolithic period (Copper Age). – Human remains indicate the use of the cave as a burial place in the Holocene, but evidence of domestic activities is extremely poor, suggesting humans were not living in the cave.” (Lazaro 2022)

This was explained by Ramos-Munoz et al. “The excavations of the area of Geleri’as Bajas in the Cueva de Ardales have not found evidence for prehistoric activity that could suggest the use of the cave as a long-term campsite. The traces of human activity are ephemeral and point out to very specific activities related to the symbolic use of the cave. For instance, burial during the Neolithic. The presence of a substantial number of potential ochre lumps is important in this regard. Ochre lumps were documented in all chronological phases, peaking significantly during the middle Paleolithic. This supports the idea that the cave was maintly used as a location for rock art from the Paleolithic onwards. It seems reasonable to assume that the associated campsite was located outside the cave.” (Ramoz-Muñoz 2022:23)

So, unlike so many of the painted caves in France that were essentially lost for one reason or another (landslides covering the entrances has been documented for more than one cave) the Cueva de Ardales was open and available for human use from as early as 64,000 BCE to the Holocene, and therefore provides a record of that whole time span. "Modern humans then used the cave some 35,000 years ago, after the disappearance of the Neanderthals some 40,000 years ago. Burials dated to the end of the last Ice Age, some 12,000 years ago, were also unearthed. Modern humans continued to use the site sporadically until about 7,000 years ago, the researchers concluded." (Saraceni 2022)

This record is backed up by a unique series of hard dates. “A series of 50 radiocarbon and 12 U/Th dates obtained within the framework of the archaeological excavation confirms a long history of human occupation in Cueva de Ardales. Over 60 U/Th taken from calcite samples covering rock art at the cave gave very valuable additional chronological information.” (Ramoz-Muñoz 2022:27)

We can probably hope for many more significant discoveries from a place with such a significant record of human usage.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Lazaro, Enrico de, 2022, Study: Spain’s Cueva de Ardales Was Used by Ancient Humans for Over 50,000 Years, 1 June 2022, http://www.sci-news.com/archaeology/cueva-de-ardales-10864.html, accessed 7 August 2022.

Marti, Africa Pitarch, et al., 2021, The symbolic role of the underground world among Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals, edited by Andrew M. Zipkin, PNAS 118 (33), https://doi.org/10.1073.pnas.2021495118

News Staff, 2018, Iberian Peninsula’s Earliest Cave Paintings Were Made by Neanderthals: Study, 23 February 2018, http://www.sci-news.com, accessed 9 July 2022.

Ramos-Munoz, J., Canalejo, P., Blumenrother, J., Bolin, V., Otto, T., Rotganger, M., et al., 2022, The nature and chronology of human occupations at the Galerias Bajas, from Cueva del Ardales, Malaga, Spain, PLoS One 17(6):e0266788, https://doi.org/10/1371/journal.pone.0266788

Saraceni, Jessica E., 2022, Spain’s Cueva de Ardales May Have Held Symbolic Value, 8 June 2022, https://www.archaeology.org/news?page+1, accessed 8 July 2022.