These mineral deposits develop slowly, as water containing calcium comes into contact with cave surfaces. The water also contains trace levels of uranium from the rock. After the calcium carbonate has precipitated out of the water, a clock of sorts begins to tick, as uranium decays into thorium at a steady, known rate. Uranium-thorium dating has been used in geology for decades, but has seldom been employed to estimate the age of cave art.
Some archaeologists are sceptical of the approach. They suggest that the calcium carbonate could have dissolved and re-crystallized after it was first formed — a process that could have also washed away some uranium, making a sample of the mineral appear older than it is. Until now, the oldest known cave art was roughly 40, years old — stenciled hands and animals in an Indonesian site 2 that was dated in , and discs and hand stencils from a cave in Cantabria, Spain 3 , that were found by Pike and his colleagues in As they expected, the inner samples closest to the art yielded the oldest dates, and the outer samples had younger dates because they would have been later layers of precipitate.
The researchers waited three years to publish their results after finding their first clearly pre-human date so they could collect multiple examples and publish their methodology. Some archaeologists, however, remain unconvinced. Pike suggests that such reluctance to believe that Neanderthals were creating cave art may have less to do with methodological disputes than plain old species-ism. Paola Villa, an archaeologist who studies Neanderthal culture at the University of Colorado Boulder, says that Neanderthals have an undeserved reputation as moronic brutes.
But getting those samples is no small feat, requiring the use of scalpels mere millimeters away from priceless art. In the three caves with paintings, researchers found that some mineral crusts overlying the paintings were at least 64, years old, making the art itself at least that old, if not older. In light of the two lineages' identical knack for art, the researchers even call into question whether Neanderthals were truly a distinct species, or instead an isolated European subgroup of modern humans.
Other experts, however, recommend caution. Defining ancient art is challenging—and weighing an ancient artist's sophistication is even more fraught, says Margaret Conkey , an emerita professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and an authority on prehistoric cave art.
To be even more convincing, she says, future work should focus on explicitly connecting the dating and images with the presence of Neanderthals, whose remains have been found in other Spanish cave systems. We could be doing this all our lives. All rights reserved. Share Tweet Email. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets.
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December 13, Lions painted in the Chauvet Cave Wikimedia Commons Cave art includes paintings, carvings, and sculptures. Skull of a 'Neandertal man' from the cavern of La Chapelle-aux-Saints Correze , France Page of The age of mammals in Europe, Asia and North America Because cave art has been studied since , it might seem strange that we could have our image of the artists changed so dramatically now.
More stories like this. The researchers used a technique called uranium-thorium dating to obtain accurate ages. It relies on measuring the radioactive decay of uranium that gets incorporated into mineral crusts forming over the paintings.
The results gave a minimum age of 65, years ago for the cave art. Modern humans only arrived in Europe roughly 45, years ago. This suggests that the Palaeolithic artwork must have been made by Neanderthals, a "sister" species to Homo sapiens , and Europe's sole human inhabitants at the time. But, so far, the researchers have found only abstract expressions of art by Neanderthals. Prof Alistair Pike, from the University of Southampton, who is a co-author of the study, said: "Soon after the discovery of the first of their fossils in the 19th Century, Neanderthals were portrayed as brutish and uncultured, incapable of art and symbolic behaviour, and some of these views persist today.
Our findings will make a significant contribution to that debate. Prof Chris Stringer, from London's Natural History Museum, who was not involved in the study, commented: "Some previous claims for Neanderthal symbolic behaviour had dating uncertainties or lay within inferred overlaps between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens , years ago, meaning that they could still be attributed to modern humans, or to the influence of modern humans on Neanderthal behaviour. He said the new work "seems to remove any doubts" that Neanderthals were capable of symbolic or artistic expression.
Prof Stringer explained: "They further narrow any perceived behavioural gap between the Neanderthals and us.
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