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Cation-ratio dating of rock-engravings from the Olary Province of arid South Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Ronald I. Dorn ,
Margaret Nobbs  and
Tom A. Cahill
Ronald I. Dorn
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
Margaret Nobbs
Affiliation:
8 Hazelwood Avenue, Hazelwood Park, 5006 South Australia, Australia
Tom A. Cahill
Affiliation:
Crocker Nuclear Laboratory, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
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Extract

Desert varnish, the distinctive coating on exposed rock surfaces in arid regions, can be dated by cation ratios, providing a rare means directly to date petroglyphs. A first application of the method, much used in north America, is here reported from Australia, where it indicates minimum ages up to 30,000 years old. And it also shows that the style of figures, so often taken as a measure of chronology, is in this instance largely independent of age.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 62 , Issue 237 , December 1988 , pp. 681 - 689
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 1988

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