Th dating of flowstone from Ignatievskaya Cave, Russia

Age constraints of rock art and paleoclimate inferences

Bibliographic Data

ID12133589
AuthorsY V Dublyansky (0000-0003-1433-9999, Institute of Geology Innsbruck University Innsbruck Austria, corresponding author), N Shirokov (0000-0002-5308-2025, Institute of History and Archaeology), Vladimir Shirokov (Institute of History and Archeology, Ural Branch Russian Academy of Sciences Yekaterinburg Russian Federation), Gina E Moseley (0000-0002-5618-5759, Institute of Geology Innsbruck University Innsbruck Austria), Pavel Kosintsev (0000-0002-0973-7426, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch Russian Academy of Sciences Yekaterinburg Russian Federation), R Lawrence Edwards (0000-0002-7027-5881, Department of Earth Sciences University of Minnesota Minneapolis Minnesota USA), Christoph Spötl (0000-0001-7167-4940, Institute of Geology Innsbruck University Innsbruck Austria)
Year2021
Volume36
Issue3
Pages532-545
Publication date2021-02-24
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeoarchaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0883-6353 • E-ISSN: 1520-6548
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/gea.21851
PMID33883826
OpenAlexW3129552433
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited26

Paleolithic antiquity of parietal art in Ignatievskaya cave, Southern Ural, is supported by its subject (Late Pleistocene animals) as well as by paleontological and palynological data, and 14 C dates from cultural layers associated with artistic activity (17.8-16.3 cal ka BP; association is established by finds of ochre in these layers). However, three 14 C dates of charcoal motifs yielded younger, Holocene ages (7.4-6.0 cal ka BP). In this study, we constrain the age of parietal art in the cave by 230 Th dating of flowstone that brackets the paintings. Flowstone did not form in the cave between c. 78 and 10 ka BP, due to widespread permafrost in northern Eurasia at that time. Our 230 Th dates do not support the middle Holocene age of art in Ignatievskaya cave and are consistent with its Upper Paleolithic antiquity instead

Archaeology · Cave · Climate change · Geography · Holocene · Paleoclimatology · Palynology · Pleistocene · Speleothem · Taphonomy · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology · Geology · Paleontology