Until a few years ago, the chronology of prehistoric cave paintings was based mainly on the accelerator mass spectrometry carbon-14 method, which enabled drawings made with charcoal to be dated directly (Arnold et al., 1987, Valladas et al., 2001). For representations not made with charcoal (iron oxide, engravings, etc.), we were interested in dating the calcite veils covering these works, or that of their support, in order to determine the chronological ‘terminus ante or post quem’ for their creation.
The methodological work carried out showed the need to carry out cross-dating using both the uranium-thorium (or 230Th/234U) and 14C methods on these carbonate deposits, in order to determine possible ‘openings in the geochemical system’ or, on the contrary, to validate the ages obtained. This methodology has been applied to works from the Nerja cave in southern Spain, as well as to works from the Huashan Mountains in southern China (see Figure 1).
At Nerja, we determined that non-figurative red marks are older than 25,000 years and can be associated with a known early occupation phase of the cave (between 39,035 and 25,555 cal BP). The dating of calcite veils on and under the paintings in the Huashan mountains has enabled us to constrain their age to between 1856 ± 16 and 1728 ± 41 years BP, i.e. between 25 and 220 AD.
References :
Valladas H, Pons-Branchu E., Dumoulin JP, Quiles A., Medina-Alcaide MA ; Sanchidrain JL. (2017) U/Th and C-14 cross dating of parietal calcite deposits: application to Nerja cave (Andalusia, Spain) and future perspectives. Radiocarbon 59 (6). 1955-1967. Doi:10.1017/RDC.2017.120
Shao Q., Pons-Branchu E., Zhu QP., Wei Wang W, Valladas H, Fontugne.M. (2017). High precision U/Th dating of the rock paintings at Mt. Huashan, Guangxi, southern China. Quaternary research, 88 (1) 1-13. Doi: 10.1017/qua.2017.24
Sanchidrián JL, Valladas H, Medina – Alcaide MA., Pons-Branchu E., Quiles A (2017) New perspectives for 14C dating of parietal markings using CaCO3 thin layers: an example in Nerja cave (Spain). Journal of Archaeological Science reports 12. pp 74-80. Doi:10.1016/j.jasrep.2017.01.028
Pons-Branchu E., Bourrillon R., Conkey M., Fontugne M., Fritz C., Gárate D., Quiles A., Rivero O, Sauvet G., Tosello G., Valladas H., White R. (2014). U-series dating of carbonate formations overlying Paleolithic art: interest and limitations. Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française, Tome 111, numéro 2, avril-juin 2014, p. 211-224. Doi: 10.3406/bspf.2014.14395
Arnold, M., E. Bard, P. Maurice & J.C. Duplessy. 1987. 14C dating with the Gif-sur-Yvette Tandetron accelerator: status report. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B29: 120-123.
Valladas H., Clottes J., Geneste J-M., Garcia M. A., Arnold M., Cachier H., Tisnérat-Laborde N., “Evolution of prehistoric cave art”. Nature 413, 4 October 2001, p. 479.
