Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T17:27:26.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cross-Dating (Th/U-14C) of Calcite Covering Prehistoric Paintings at Serra da Capivara National Park, Piaui, Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Michel Fontugne ,
Qingfeng Shao ,
Norbert Frank ,
François Thil ,
Niède Guidon  and
Eric Boeda
Michel Fontugne*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (UMR8212 CNRS/CEA/UVSQ), Domaine du CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Qingfeng Shao
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (UMR8212 CNRS/CEA/UVSQ), Domaine du CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France College of Geography Science, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210046, China
Norbert Frank
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (UMR8212 CNRS/CEA/UVSQ), Domaine du CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
François Thil
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (UMR8212 CNRS/CEA/UVSQ), Domaine du CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Niède Guidon
Affiliation:
Fundação Museu do Homem Americano (FUMDHAM), Centro Cultural S. Motta 64770, Sao Raimondo Nonato, PI, Brazil
Eric Boeda
Affiliation:
AnTET CNRS UMR7041 Maison Archéologie et Ethnologie Université Paris X, 21 avenue de l'Université, 92023, Nanterre Cedex, France
*
2Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The question of when the first humans arrived in the New World has been a bone of contention for several decades. Similarly, the age of rock paintings has been heatedly debated. Settlements in the Serra da Capivara National Park have been dated to between 5 kyr and >50 kyr, which is far older than the Clovis barrier. Moreover, calcite formation on a rock-wall painting in a rockshelter yielded thermoluminescence (TL) and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) ages older than 35 kyr BP (Watanabe et al. 2003). In an attempt to contribute to this ongoing debate, we have studied calcite deposits covering prehistoric paintings from several rockshelters (Toca da Bastiana, Toca do Serrote de Moendas, and Toca da Gameleirinha [Pedra pintada]). Coupled AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) 14C and MC-ICPMS (multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) 230Th/U dating was performed in Toca da Gameleirinha. The ages obtained for these cal-cites are younger than 12 kyr and suggest that the paintings could be more recent than proposed by previous studies.

Type
Archaeology of the Americas and Oceania
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 1191 - 1198
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, JW, Richards, DA, Edwards, RL, Silverman, BW, Smart, PL, Donahue, DJ, Hererra-Osterheld, S, Burr, GS, Calsoyas, L, Jull, AJT, Biddulph, D. 2001. Extremely large variations of atmospheric 14C concentration during the last glacial period. Science 292(5526): 2453–8.Google Scholar
Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Hoff, J, Gallup, CD, Richards, DA, Asmerom, Y. 2000. The half-lives of uranium-234 and thorium-230. Chemical Geology 169(1–2):17–33.Google Scholar
Douville, E, Sallé, E, Frank, N, Eisele, M, Pons-Branchu, E, Ayrault, E. 2010. Rapid and accurate U-Th dating of ancient carbonates using inductively coupled plasmaquadrupole mass spectrometry. Chemical Geology 272(1–2):1–11.Google Scholar
Genty, D, Massault, M. 1997. Bomb 14C recorded in laminated speleothems: calculation of dead carbon proportion. Radiocarbon 39(1):33–48.Google Scholar
Genty, D, Massault, M, Gilmour, M, Baker, A, Verheyden, S, Kepens, E. 1999. Calculation of the past dead carbon proportion and variability by the comparison of AMS 14C and TIMS U/Th ages on two Holocene stalagmites. Radiocarbon 41(3):251–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genty, D, Baker, A, Massault, M, Proctor, C, Gilmour, M, Pons-Branchu, E, Hamelin, B. 2001. Dead carbon in stalagmites: carbonate bedrock paleodissolution vs. ageing of soil organic matter. Implications for 13C variations in speleothems. Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta 65(20):3443–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guidon, N, Arnaud, B. 1991. The chronology of the New World: two faces of one reality. World Archaeology 23(2):167–8.Google Scholar
Guidon, N, Délibrias, G. 1986. Carbon-14 dates point to man in the Americas 32,000 years ago. Nature 321(6072):769–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, VT. 2009. Geoarchaeology and the search for the first Americans. Catena 78(3):310–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lavallée, D. 2000. The First South Americans. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. 260 p.Google Scholar
Ludwig, KR, Titterington, DM. 1994. Calculations of 230Th/U isochrons, ages and errors. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 58(22):5031–42.Google Scholar
McCormac, FG, Hogg, AG, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Higham, TFG, Reimer, PJ. 2004. SHCal04 Southern Hemisphere calibration 0–11.0 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1087–92.Google Scholar
Parenti, F. 2001. Le gisement quaternaire de Pedra Furada (Piaui, Brésil). Stratigraphie, chronologic evolution culturelle. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations. 445 p.Google Scholar
Parenti, F, Fontugne, M, Guerin, C. 1996. Pedra Furada in Brazil and its presumed evidence: limitations and potential of the available data. Antiquity 70(268):416–21.Google Scholar
Plagnes, V, Causse, C, Fontugne, M, Valladas, H, Chazine, J-M, Fage, L-H. 2003. Cross dating (Th/U-14C) of calcite covering prehistoric paintings in Borneo. Quaternary Research 60(2):172–9.Google Scholar
Rothhammer, F, Dillehay, TD. 2009. The Late Pleistocene colonization of South America: an interdisciplinary perspective. Annals of Human Genetics 73(5):540–9.Google Scholar
Rowe, MW, Steelman, KL. 2003. Comment on “Some evidence of a date of first humans to arrive in Brazil.” Journal of Archaeological Science 30(10):1349–51.Google Scholar
Santos, GM, Bird, MI, Parenti, F, Fifield, LK, Guidon, N, Hausladen, PA. 2003. A revised chronology of the lowest occupation layer of Pedra Furada Rock Shelter, Piaui, Brazil: the Pleistocene peopling of the Americas. Quaternary Science Reviews 22(21–22): 2303–10.Google Scholar
Sastry, MD, Sullasi, HSL, Camargo, F, Watanabe, S, Prous, APP, Silva, MMC. 2004. Dating sediment deposits on Montalvanian carvings using EPR and TL methods. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 213:751–5.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, P. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tisnérat-Laborde, N, Poupeau, JJ, Tannau, JF, Paterne, M. 2001. Development of an automated system for routine preparation of carbonate samples. Radiocarbon 43(2A):299–304.Google Scholar
Watanabe, S, Ayta, WEF, Hamaguchi, H, Guidon, N, La Salvia, ES, Maranca, S, Baffa, O. 2003. Some evidence of a date of first humans to arrive in Brazil. Journal of Archaeological Science 30(3):351–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar