scholarly journals Chemical characterization and radiocarbon dating of the rock art of Las Charcas caves, Cuba

Archaeometry ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. A. Armitage ◽  
R. Arrazcaeta ◽  
S. Torres ◽  
S. M. Baker ◽  
D. Fraser
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Chemical Characterization

scholarly journals CALCIUM OXALATE RADIOCARBON DATING: PRELIMINARY TESTS TO DATE ROCK ART OF THE DECORATED OPEN-AIR CAVES, ERONGO MOUNTAINS, NAMIBIA

Radiocarbon ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jean-Pascal Dumoulin ◽  
Matthieu Lebon ◽  
Ingrid Caffy ◽  
Guilhem Mauran ◽  
Alma Nankela ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organic Carbon ◽  
Calcium Oxalate ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Targeted Sampling ◽  
Heritage Site ◽  
Carbon Compounds ◽  
First Results ◽  
Two Phases

ABSTRACT The direct dating of rock paintings is not always possible due to the lack of organic carbon compounds in pigments, or because sampling from a heritage site is often restricted. To overcome these limitations, dating laboratories have to develop new approaches. In this study, we consider sampling calcium oxalate crusts covering the painted artworks as a way to indirectly date the rock art. This stratigraphic approach includes isolating and extracting pure oxalate from the crusts. The approach was tested on natural bulk accretions collected in the open-air sites of Erongo Mountains in Namibia. The accretions were separated into two phases (pure oxalate and the remaining residues) with a special pretreatment. This process removes carbonates through acidification (HCl 6N) and dissolves the oxalate into the supernatant, leaving the minerals and windblown organic compounds in the residue. The efficiency of the separation was checked on the two phases by FTIR analyses and by 14C dating and showed that pure oxalate powders were indeed obtained. AMS radiocarbon results of various accretions on the same art panels provided ages from modern periods to 2410 ± 35 BP. From these first results, more targeted sampling campaigns can be considered to provide a terminus ante quem for the rock art.

Accelerator radiocarbon dating of Natal Drakensberg paintings: results and implications

Antiquity ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 71 (272) ◽  
pp. 445-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. D. Mazel ◽  
A. L. Watchman
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
The South

As Rosenfeld & Smith report in this number of ANTIQUITY, the reconciliation of conventional chronologies for rock-art with the emergent radiocarbon-based dates is not proving an easy affair. Here are the first steps for the classic area of San hunter-gatherer art, on the South Africa/Lesotho border.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon Dating the Late Upper Paleolithic of Cantabrian Spain: El Mirón Cave Date List IV

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 183-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence Guy Straus ◽  
Manuel R González Morales ◽  
Thomas Higham ◽  
Michael Richards ◽  
Sahra Talamo
Keyword(s):  
Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Glacial Maximum ◽  
Upper Paleolithic ◽  
Last Glacial ◽  
The Last Glacial Maximum ◽  
Late Upper Paleolithic ◽  
The Last Glacial

This fourth date list for the long cultural sequence in El Mirón Cave (Cantabria, Spain) reports on 19 new AMS assays for Solutrean, Initial, Lower, and Middle Magdalenian and Azilian levels, ranging from about 19 to 11 uncalibrated kyr. Key results are provision of further precision on the transition between the Solutrean and Magdalenian at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the very exact dating of a Magdalenian human burial and its relationship to both major living floors and closely associated rock art in the cave.

First Direct Radiocarbon Dating of the Lower Congo Rock Art (Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1383-1390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffroy Heimlich ◽  
Pascale Richardin ◽  
Nathalie Gandolfo ◽  
Eric Laval ◽  
Michel Menu
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Atlantic Coast ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Entire Region ◽  
Republic Of The Congo ◽  
Congo Brazzaville ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
Real Challenge

Lower Congo rock art is concentrated in a region that stretches from Kinshasa to the Atlantic coast and from northern Angola to southern Congo-Brazzaville. Although Lower Congo rock art was identified as early as the 19th century, it had never been a subject of thorough investigation. Presently inhabited by the Ndibu, one of the Kongo subgroups, the Lovo Massif is situated north of the ancient Kongo Kingdom. With 102 sites (including 16 decorated caves), the massif has the largest concentration of rock art in the entire region. In 2008 and 2010, we were able to collect pigment samples directly on the panels of the newly discovered decorated cave of Tovo. Unlike the Sahara and southern Africa, both extensively prospected, rock art of central Africa is still widely unknown and not dated. Radiocarbon dating of rock art in Africa is a real challenge and only a few direct dates have been obtained thus far. After verifying that the pigment samples were indeed charcoal, we proceeded to 14C date them using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The results indicate dates between cal AD 1480 and 1800, confirming that the occupation of Tovo Cave was contemporaneous with the ancient Kongo Kingdom.

scholarly journals Horses and Habitations: Iron Age Rock Art from Fortified Hilltop Settlements in the Wadi Draa, Morocco

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Youssef Bokbot ◽  
Corisande Fenwick ◽  
David J. Mattingly ◽  
Nichole Sheldrick ◽  
Martin Sterry
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Contextual Information ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Detailed Survey ◽  
Mobile Pastoralists

Abstract The article presents important results from the Middle Draa Project (MDP) in southern Morocco related to two mid-1st millennium CE hilltop settlements (hillforts) that were associated with significant rock art assemblages. The combination of detailed survey and radiocarbon dating of these remarkable sites provides a unique window on the Saharan world in which the pecked engravings, predominantly of horses, were produced. As the horse imagery featured on the walls of buildings within the settlement, the radiocarbon dating around the mid-1st millennium CE can also be applied in this instance to the rock art. The rarity of rock art of this period within habitation sites is also discussed and it is argued that its occurrence at both these locations indicates that they had some special social or sacred significance for their occupants. While it is commonplace for rock art of this era, featuring horses and camels, to be attributed by modern scholars to mobile pastoralists, a further argument of the paper is that the desert societies were in a period of transformation at this time, with the development of oases. The association of the rock art imagery with sedentary settlements, where grain was certainly being processed and stored, is thus an additional new element of contextual information for the widespread Saharan images of horses and horse and riders.

Dating Tom Ketchum: The Role of Chronometric Determinations in Rock Art Analysis

1993 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-247 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary M. Farrell ◽  
Jeffery F. Burton
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometer ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometer ◽  
Art Analysis ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Game Animals

Rock art analysis has been used both to provide insight into prehistoric symbolism and ceremony, and to measure prehistoric interaction and communication. But chronological control, essential to distinguishing functional or social differences from temporal differences, has been difficult to establish. No one method of dating has yet proven completely reliable or applicable. Accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon dating, at the Tom Ketchum Cave pictograph site in southeastern Arizona, provides one of the first examples of direct independent dating of rock art. The dates suggest the pictographs may have been created during a time when subsistence patterns were shifting from Archaic hunter and gatherer traditions to more agriculture-based subsistence. The Tom Ketchum Cave artists broke from the abstract style more common in the region to represent game animals and hunters, perhaps to ensure success in a disappearing way of life.

Perspectives and potentials for absolute dating prehistoric rock paintings

Antiquity ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 67 (254) ◽  
pp. 58-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Watchman
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Rock Art ◽  
Organic Substances ◽  
Sample Collection ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Rock Paintings ◽  
Analytical Equipment

Absolute dating of prehistoric rock paintings is an exciting archaeological pursuit. Sophisticated sample collection, handling and pretreatment methods and new analytical equipment and techniques are minimizing contamination and permitting identification of trace amounts of organic substances in prehistoric paints. Radiocarbon dating using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is producing dates for minute residues of blood, charcoal and plant fibres, either accidentally or deliberately incorporated in paintings. Carbon-bearing laminations, such as oxalate-crusts and silica skins, which have accumulated under and over rock art, have also been recently dated.

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