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Cova Eirós: An Integrated Approach to Dating the Earliest Known Cave Art in NW Iberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2017

Karen L Steelman ,
Arturo de Lombera-Hermida ,
Ramón Viñas-Vallverdú ,
Xosé Pedro Rodríguez-Álvarez ,
Fernando Carrera-Ramírez ,
Albert Rubio-Mora  and
Ramon Fábregas-Valcarce
Karen L Steelman*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR 72035USA Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center, Comstock, TX 78837USA
Arturo de Lombera-Hermida
Affiliation:
Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste (GEPN), Dpto Historia I, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Pz. Universidade nº1, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/ Marcel.lí Domingo s/n- Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3) 43007 Tarragona, Spain Área de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
Ramón Viñas-Vallverdú
Affiliation:
IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/ Marcel.lí Domingo s/n- Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3) 43007 Tarragona, Spain Área de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
Xosé Pedro Rodríguez-Álvarez
Affiliation:
IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, C/ Marcel.lí Domingo s/n- Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3) 43007 Tarragona, Spain Área de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV). Avinguda de Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain
Fernando Carrera-Ramírez
Affiliation:
Escola Superior de Conservación e Restauración de Bens Culturais de Galicia, Rua Xeneral Martitegui s/n 36002 Pontevedra, Spain
Albert Rubio-Mora
Affiliation:
Seminari d´Estudis i Recerques Prehistòriques (SERP), Universitat de Barcelona, Dpto. de Prehistòria, Història Antiga i Arqueologia, Facultat de Geografia i Història, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Ramon Fábregas-Valcarce
Affiliation:
Grupo de Estudos para a Prehistoria do Noroeste (GEPN), Dpto Historia I, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Pz. Universidade nº1, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. Email: ksteelman@shumla.org.
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Abstract

At Cova Eirós, we discovered 13 panels with paintings and engravings that stylistically point to the final moments of the Upper Paleolithic. Scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and Fourier transform Raman spectroscopy were used to identify charcoal as black pigment. Although contamination from medieval fires inside the cave complicates the dating of these pictographs, analyses of unpainted rock backgrounds allowed calculation corrections for contaminated samples. We used plasma oxidation and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) to directly radiocarbon (14C) date two charcoal paintings—confirming that the images are more than 9000 yr old. As these paintings superimpose engravings, these 14C dates also provide a minimum age for an engraving at Cova Eirós that is stylistically Final Magdalenian/Epipaleolithic. This is the first known evidence of Paleolithic cave art in Galicia of NW Iberia.

Keywords

northwest Iberiaprehistoric rock artplasma oxidationAMS radiocarbon dating
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 151 - 164
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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