A team led by a researcher from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) has achieved a milestone in prehistoric archaeology by confirming through absolute dating the age of several parietal representations from the Font-de-Gaume cave, located in Dordogne, France.
The results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), represent the first time precise dates have been obtained for Paleolithic rock art in this region using the carbon-14 technique, something that until now had been considered unfeasible due to the chemical composition traditionally attributed to the pigments.
Until this study, there had been a widespread technical impossibility in reliably dating the cave paintings of the region, including the famous ones from Lascaux. The main reason lay in the assumption that the black lines had been made exclusively using iron and manganese oxides, mineral compounds that do not contain carbon and therefore cannot be dated through radiocarbon methods.
However, the research team found that no systematic empirical verification had ever been carried out to confirm the complete absence of carbon-based materials in those paintings. To resolve this uncertainty, the scientists decided to apply a non-invasive analysis protocol to two specific black motifs from the Font-de-Gaume cave: the figure of a bison and a design interpreted as a possible anthropomorph or mask.
The methodology used combined two advanced chemical characterization techniques. On the one hand, the researchers employed Raman microspectrometry, a technique that allows the identification of the molecular composition of materials through the interaction of light with the chemical bonds of the sample. On the other hand, hyperspectral imaging was used, a technology that measures the reflectance of light at every point on the analyzed surface and makes it possible to deduce the chemical composition of the coloring compounds present.
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