Science· 2012Q1
U-Series Dating of Paleolithic Art in 11 Caves in Spain
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- 2012year
Short summary
Uranium-series dating of calcite deposits reveals Paleolithic cave art in 11 Spanish caves, including UNESCO sites, extends back to at least the Early Aurignacian period.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Uranium-series dating applied to calcite deposits in 11 Spanish caves.
- Art found includes a red disk (min. 40.8 ka), hand stencil (min. 37.3 ka), and symbol (min. 35.6 ka).
- Dating demonstrates cave art tradition extends back to at least the Early Aurignacian period.
- Findings suggest cave art was present with the first modern humans in Europe or potentially Neanderthals.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Paleolithic cave art is an exceptional archive of early human symbolic behavior, but because obtaining reliable dates has been difficult, its chronology is still poorly understood after more than a century of study. We present uranium-series disequilibrium dates of calcite deposits overlying or underlying art found in 11 caves, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage sites of Altamira, El Castillo, and Tito Bustillo, Spain. The results demonstrate that the tradition of decorating caves extends back at least to the Early Aurignacian period, with minimum ages of 40.8 thousand years for a red disk, 37.3 thousand years for a hand stencil, and 35.6 thousand years for a claviform-like symbol. These minimum ages reveal either that cave art was a part of the cultural repertoire of the first anatomically modern humans in Europe or that perhaps Neandertals also engaged in painting caves.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Science, 2012 · DOI ↗
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Field: Anthropology
AnthropologySocial Sciences