Just realized that cave painting dating might be way off

I was at a talk last month at the local museum in Santa Fe where a researcher showed how mineral buildup on cave art can form at different rates depending on humidity. They had a panel from a French cave that radiocarbon dated to 30,000 years ago but the layers above it suggested it could be 5,000 years younger. It made me think we might be giving these ancient artists too much credit for being first. Has anyone else seen evidence that our dating methods are less reliable than we assume?

2 comments

2 Comments

uma_martinez1mo ago

My cave paintings are just doodles from last Tuesday.

terryk281mo ago

Ha! @uma_martinez you're def not alone there.