World’s Oldest Rock Art Discovered
By Steve Casimiro, Adventure Journal on February 14th, 2012
Say what you will about Neanderthals (and we’re talking to you, Geico), they weren’t as second-rate as people assume. Indeed, what appears to be the world’s oldest rock art has just been discovered — and it may have been painted by, yes, Neanderthals. Found in a cave in Spain, these petroglyphs of seals could date to 43,000 years old — charcoal found by the paintings was radiocarbon dated to then — making them 13,000 years old than the famous Chauvet cave art in France. “Until recently, Neanderthals were thought to have been incapable of creating artistic works. That picture is changing thanks to the discovery of a number of decorated stone and shell objects – although no permanent cave art has previously been attributed to our extinct cousins.” Via New Scientist.
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Pretty sure carbon-14 dating only works to about 10,000 years…
From the article: “The finding ‘is potentially fascinating’, says Paul Pettitt at the University of Sheffield, UK. He cautions that the dating of cave art is fraught with potential problems, though, and says that clarification of the paintings’ age is vital.”
Wiki gives Carbon 14’s limit as around 60,000 years, but it depends on what they calibrate it with. It’s most accurate to around 5.5 x its half life, ~ 30,000 years.