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U/Th and 14C Crossdating of Parietal Calcite Deposits: Application to Nerja Cave (Andalusia, Spain) and Future Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 December 2017

Hélène Valladas ,
Edwige Pons-Branchu ,
Jean Pascal Dumoulin ,
Anita Quiles Open the ORCID record for Anita Quiles [Opens in a new window] ,
José L Sanchidrián  and
Maria Ángeles Medina-Alcaide
Hélène Valladas*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Bâtiment 12, avenue de la terrasse, 91198 Gif Sur Yvette Cedex, France
Edwige Pons-Branchu
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, Bâtiment 12, avenue de la terrasse, 91198 Gif Sur Yvette Cedex, France
Jean Pascal Dumoulin
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Mesure du Carbone 14 (LMC14), LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Anita Quiles
Affiliation:
Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Pôle archéométrie, 37 rue al-Cheikh Aly Youssef, B.P. Qasr el-Ayni, 11652, 11441 Le Caire, Egypt
José L Sanchidrián
Affiliation:
University of Cordoba UCO, Geography and Territory Sciences, Cardenal Salazar s/n, 14071 Cordoba, Spain
Maria Ángeles Medina-Alcaide
Affiliation:
University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, Geography, Prehistory and Archaeology, Tomás y Valiente s/n, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. Email: helene.valladas@lsce.ipsl.fr.
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Abstract

14C and U/Th methods were used to date three thin carbonate layers deposited on decorated walls of Nerja Cave (Malaga, southern Spain) in order to constrain the age of the parietal non-figurative marks situated under these carbonate layers. Modern formations were also dated to estimate the detritic contribution for the U/Th method and the dead carbon proportion for 14C dating. We sampled two locations with ocher painting marks. In one case (mark 1), the good agreement between the ages obtained by the two methods suggests that the sample was not subjected to post-deposition alteration and that the results are reliable. In the other case (mark 2), the age discrepancy between the two methods reached 30,000 yr, indicating that geochemical alteration had affected the sample and that one or both results were inaccurate. The ages for mark 1 indicate that this type of non-figurative representation is older than 25,000 cal BP and that it can be associated with the oldest attested Paleolithic occupation of Nerja Cave.

Keywords

crossdatingNerja Caveparietal carbonateradiocarbonU/Th
Type
Method Development
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 6: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 2 of 2 , December 2017 , pp. 1955 - 1967
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

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