Hidden Charcoal Inside a Famous French Cave Just Rewrote the Timeline of Its Ice Age Paintings

A recent study has found charcoal in the cave paintings at Font-de-Gaume, overturning the assumption that these paintings lacked the carbon needed for radiocarbon dating. The research, published in PNAS, identifies the first direct radiocarbon dates for the cave’s artwork. The findings suggest that the paintings were created around 13,461 to 13,162 calibrated years before 1950, likely in the Magdalenian period. The study also found that the charcoal was evenly distributed along the lines of two particular paintings, ruling out later contamination. The research involved collaboration among several French institutions, including the CNRS and the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. The approach developed by the team could allow archaeologists to directly date artwork across the Dordogne region that had previously been considered impossible to date. The study found that the mask-like painting had multiple date ranges, suggesting it may have been modified over time. The findings change how archaeologists view decorated caves, as some may have remained active and meaningful places that later generations revisited and modified long after the original artists had finished their work.

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