Verification of the age of the Palaeolithic cave art at Creswell Crags, UK
Introduction
In April 2003, Britain's first apparently Pleistocene cave art was discovered in Church Hole and Robin Hood caves, Creswell Crags, on the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire border (Fig. 1). The initial discoveries take the form of shallow engravings underlying graffiti from the last two centuries. In Church Hole this includes an engraving of what was originally identified as an ibex (later re-identified as a red deer, Fig. 2), a series of vertical lines below this, and a group of enigmatic elongated figures of a type found in contemporary art on the European continent which may represent highly stylised females or long-necked birds [2], [23]. In Robin Hood Cave, a triangular ‘vulva’ typical of the Upper Palaeolithic period was also found. Subsequent survey of all the Creswell caves has revealed further engravings in Church Hole and the analysis and publication of these is ongoing.
As the art takes the form of engravings, there is a lack of pigment, which is often suitable for radiocarbon dating. Fortunately, a number of the images were overlain by thin veneers of precipitated calcite (flowstone) which is datable by uranium-series (U-series) disequilibrium dating. A number of samples were taken to establish a minimum age for the underlying art.
Section snippets
Archaeological context
Church Hole and Robin Hood caves were principally excavated in 1875–1876 by Dawkins, Heath and Mello [6], [7], [10], [21], [22]. A similar sedimentary sequence was reported from both, and over much of their area these sediments were sealed by stalagmite [22]. Bone accumulations in the red sand and cave earth deposits suggest that both caves had been spotted hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) dens at some time in the Middle Devensian, and this is supported by the 14C dating of hyaena teeth to at least
U-series dating
The disequilibrium of 238U and its long-lived radioactive decay products 234U and 230Th can be used to date precipitated calcite such as flowstones and stalagmites, back to about 500 ky [24]. A radioactive disequilibrium occurs in aqueous systems because of the relative insolubility of Th, compared to uranium. Aqueous soluble U is co-precipitated with calcite and the date since formation of the calcite can be derived from in-growth of radiogenic 230Th, as the radioactive equilibrium is slowly
Implications
Each of these dates is consistent with Late Upper Palaeolithic people, whose archaeology is well represented at Creswell, being the makers of the engravings, and clearly rules out the possibility of forgery. A series of radiocarbon determinations, largely on human-modified arctic hare bones found in association with Late Upper Palaeolithic stone artefacts from Robin Hood Cave, Church Hole and Pin Hole, give a tight cluster of calibrated dates in the range 13.2–15.7 ky BP (Table 1). These
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Creswell Heritage Trust for their kind assistance in providing access into the caves at Creswell Crags, to Jon Humble and Alex Bayliss of English Heritage for facilitating the scientific study of the Creswell art, to Lucy Cramp for help with sample collection and to the staff at the NERC U-series Facility at the Open University. Robert Symmons kindly produced Fig. 1.
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2013, Journal of Archaeological ScienceCitation Excerpt :This proportion justifies the application of the method as a way to obtain valuable chronological information for Palaeolithic parietal art. In addition, Uranium series dating is a vital tool in discussions about the authenticity of figures, as the dates of even Holocene carbonates covering figures can be used to dismiss the possibility that they are modern falsifications (as at Arcy – Liger, 1995, Covalanas – Bischoff et al., 2003, Creswell Crags – Pike et al., 2005). Equally, carbonates situated below figures and whose dates are not of Pleistocene age (as at the cave of El Becerral – García-Diez and Eguizabal, 2007–2008 in Cantabria) or which are later than the time of the first discoveries of Palaeolithic art (about 1875) imply the figures are modern.
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