Red dot discovered as oldest cave art
16th June 2012
Cave paintings in Spain are now known to be at least 40,000 years old thanks to new developments in uranium dating
New methods of dating cave paintings shows European cave art is older than previously thought. The iconic hand painting on the walls of El Castillo cave in Spain are well known for their age but a red dot among the hands is now known to have a minimum age of 40,000 years, making it Europe's oldest dated art by about 4,000 years.
Cave paintings have previously been hard to pin an age on due to the impossibility of using the normal method of carbon dating on ochre paint. However, advancements in uranium dating has allowed researchers to determine a minimum age by examining calcite deposits that have formed over the markings.
This thin layer of calcite contains radioactive uranium that decays at a known rate, thus dating the dot at at least 40,800 years old and one of the hand stencils with a minimum of 37,300 years. At this time modern humans had only just arrived in Europe but Neanderthals had been on the continent for thousands of years. This raises the question of who made the marks.
If modern humans brought the practice of cave painting with them from Africa they left little trace there and made the markings almost as soon as they arrived in Europe. If, on the other hand, the paintings were made by the hands of Neanderthals, it sheds new light on their capabilities and thought processes. It is quite possible the markings were in existence for thousands of years before the calcite formed, in which case Neanderthals can be the only plausible authors.
Joao Zilhao, a research professor at ICREA, University of Barcelona says: “There is a strong chance that these results imply Neanderthal authorship. But I will not say we have proven it because we haven't, and it cannot be proven at this time.”
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