Verification of the age of the Palaeolithic rock art at Creswell
Verification of the age of the Palaeolithic rock art at Creswell
Engravings representing Britain's first apparently Pleistocene cave art were discovered in Church Hole and Robin Hood caves, Creswell Crags. Representations of a deer, highly stylised females or birds and vulvae were engraved into the bedrock, and in some cases had been covered with a thin layer of flowstone. In the absence of radiocarbon datable pigments, uranium-series disequilibrium dating was undertaken on these flowstones to provide minimum ages for the engravings. Here we show that the oldest motif was carved earlier than 12,800 years ago which is consistent with radiocarbon dates for the Late Upper Palaeolithic archaeology at Creswell Crags. Thus we demonstrate the authenticity of the engravings and show them to be the oldest known examples in Britain.
1649-1655
Pike, A.W.G.
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Gilmour, M.
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Pettitt, P.
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Jacobi, R.
888cf2d6-fd83-4944-bd95-431cb2776096
Ripoll, S.
a373f46d-0add-4d9c-a424-ad0d40368f74
Bahn, P.
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Muñoz, F.
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November 2005
Pike, A.W.G.
e8603e20-0a89-4d57-a294-247b983fc857
Gilmour, M.
152d6a99-8660-45b7-91eb-96dc1e5200bb
Pettitt, P.
5e9085cf-cf40-4ff3-8139-28958ba05182
Jacobi, R.
888cf2d6-fd83-4944-bd95-431cb2776096
Ripoll, S.
a373f46d-0add-4d9c-a424-ad0d40368f74
Bahn, P.
3e134557-662f-441a-b663-3190b07c580b
Muñoz, F.
b2db2c82-1a9b-4c92-b6ef-f1b2c4af773d
Pike, A.W.G., Gilmour, M., Pettitt, P., Jacobi, R., Ripoll, S., Bahn, P. and Muñoz, F.
(2005)
Verification of the age of the Palaeolithic rock art at Creswell.
Journal of Archaeological Science, 32 (11), .
(doi:10.1016/j.jas.2005.05.002).
Abstract
Engravings representing Britain's first apparently Pleistocene cave art were discovered in Church Hole and Robin Hood caves, Creswell Crags. Representations of a deer, highly stylised females or birds and vulvae were engraved into the bedrock, and in some cases had been covered with a thin layer of flowstone. In the absence of radiocarbon datable pigments, uranium-series disequilibrium dating was undertaken on these flowstones to provide minimum ages for the engravings. Here we show that the oldest motif was carved earlier than 12,800 years ago which is consistent with radiocarbon dates for the Late Upper Palaeolithic archaeology at Creswell Crags. Thus we demonstrate the authenticity of the engravings and show them to be the oldest known examples in Britain.
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Accepted/In Press date: 10 May 2005
e-pub ahead of print date: 15 July 2005
Published date: November 2005
Organisations:
Archaeology
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Local EPrints ID: 394417
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/394417
ISSN: 0305-4403
PURE UUID: c229e45b-c9b2-41c4-8583-c4e9a2dec262
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Date deposited: 28 Jun 2016 15:56
Last modified: 11 Jul 2024 01:50
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Contributors
Author:
M. Gilmour
Author:
P. Pettitt
Author:
R. Jacobi
Author:
S. Ripoll
Author:
P. Bahn
Author:
F. Muñoz
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