Dating rock art can be problematic, especially for carvings. Although pigments and other materials used in painted rock art can often be precisely dated (also called absolute dating) with scientific techniques, such as Radiocarbon dating or Uranium Series (when in caves), these methods can not be used for carvings (for now). Unlike painted rock art, carvings are cut into natural rock, and are rarely linked to deposits that can provide precise dates. The main way to date carved rock art is usually through stylistic comparisons (called relative dating methods). This means analysing the type of motifs depicted on the rocks, the techniques used, their location in the landscape, and other recognizable characteristics, then compare them to similar sites where dateable information is available.
European cup-and-ring carvings were originally dated to the Bronze Age because carved stones were sometimes found in funerary monuments of that period. In countries such as Portugal and Spain, cup-and-ring motifs are often carved alongside images of weapons (daggers, halberds) that are similar in style to actual Bronze Age weapons. Researchers concluded that the cup-and-ring carvings were created around the same time as the carvings of Bronze Age weapons. In recent years, however, opinions on the age of cup-and-ring rock art have shifted, mainly due to new discoveries from archaeological excavations.
Prehistoric carvings in Scotland, as elsewhere in Britain and Ireland, are almost entirely abstract and do not represent anything that might give us clues about when they were made. We do have indirect evidence to help us, however. Cup-and-ring carved rocks are sometimes found in prehistoric monuments with a known date, and this tells us that the carvings were created before or at the same time as the monuments. Researchers now believe that they were first created in the Neolithic period (around - years ago). This is supported by the discovery of cupmarked rocks in Neolithic monuments, such as the long cairn at Dalladies in Aberdeenshire, dating to BC. Excavations of a rock art panel at Torbhlaren near Kilmartin, Argyll has also provided Neolithic dates from deposits on and around the rock surface, whilst in Northumberland, excavations of a carved rock at Hunterheugh revealed that an Early Bronze Age burial had been built over earlier, eroded motifs. You can read more about this research on our Other Research page.
Although there is still no certainty about the date of Britain&#;s rock art, we now think that it was created over a relatively long period during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age (roughly - BC). It may also have been used for much longer in some parts of Britain, possibly throughout the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Many questions remain, however. Was rock art made constantly throughout this period, or were there bursts of carving activity? Were carvings made at different times in different regions? Did certain types of motifs have long life-spans, whilst others were current only for a short time? Similarly, it is possible that some carved rocks were one-off creations, and others were repeatedly added to and modified.
Dating ancient rock art is difficult.
Artists who created the ancient masterpieces of rock art that we appreciate today&#;cave paintings, murals on cliff walls, pictographs, petroglyphs, and other artifacts&#;left no written words about the worlds in which they lived. This makes it difficult to know when they lived. Fortunately, modern technology has helped scientists develop several dating methods to accurately date ancient art sites.
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Scientists used carbon 14 dating to determine that the charcoal used at Chauvet was over 30,000 years oldThe most well-known of these methods is radiocarbon dating, also known as carbon-14 dating. Radiocarbon dating was first developed in the late s and has since become a staple in many scientific fields. The principle behind this method is relatively simple. Carbon 14 is present in all living things. Once an organism dies, the carbon-14 atoms decay at a steady rate and become carbon-12 atoms. Scientists can measure the ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in a sample, and using this ratio they can derive the sample&#;s age. It&#;s an extremely helpful method when dating organic material, such as black charcoal pigments, which contain large amounts of carbon. But it&#;s not as helpful in dating inorganic material, such as geologic formations, that contain little or no carbon. And there is a limit to how far back the method can reach. Samples less than 50,000 years old can readily be dated using carbon-14; older, samples, however, often no longer contain enough carbon-14 for accurate measurements. Radiocarbon dating has been used to find the ages of paintings in the Chauvet cave in southern France, some of which are more than 30,000 years old.
Another dating method uses uranium and thorium (U/T). This approach measures the decay of uranium-234 into thorium-230. The ratio of uranium to thorium then yields the deposit&#;s age.
Pulling a sample of calcite (limestone) to take a U/T date from Altamira cave in SpainBecause uranium-234 is soluble in water and thorium-230 is not, scientists can use U/T to date the age of cave deposits, such as limestone. Limestone that is dissolved in water has no thorium in it. Once the limestone is deposited, say, on the surface of a cave painting, the atomic &#;clock&#; starts. Unlike radiocarbon dating, the uranium-thorium method is not dependent on the presence of organic material and, with an upper age limit of 500,000 years before the present, it reaches much further back in time. Uranium-thorium dating has been used to prove that some of the paintings in El Castillo in Spain are more than 40,000 years old, much older than previously suspected.
The third widely used method to date ancient art is luminescence dating. Luminescence works differently than radiocarbon or uranium-thorium techniques. Common crystalline minerals, like silica, absorb radiation from heat or sunlight. Scientists can measure this absorbed radiation, or luminescence, which in turn can be used to give an approximate date of when the sample was last exposed to heat or light. This method can be used to test samples where radiocarbon or uranium-thorium dating may be impossible. Luminescence dating is most useful for portable art that is found in situ at an archeological site. Humanity&#;s oldest carved object, for example, the 77,000-year-old red ochre block from Blombos Cave in South Africa was dated using the luminescence method.
Red Ochre Block from Blombos Cave, South AfricaEven with these dating techniques, pinpointing the ages of rock art and cave art can be maddeningly difficult. Sometimes the only clue to the age of an artwork is the style in which it was painted or carved. Still, these three dating techniques provide some of the most reliable data on our species&#; oldest art and help us to imagine familiar creative desires across vast expanses of time.
-Joshua Alvarez
Sewanee, TN
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