Chauvet paintings are oldest known

THE Chauvet cave paintings are the oldest known – probably dating from about 32,000 years ago, shows new French–led research published in the USA this week.

A similar age had already been suggested by radio carbon dating techniques, but doubt had been cast on the theory by certain archaeologists who said the painting techniques were of a kind associated with the Magdalenian period, 12-17,000 years ago.

Now the older date has been confirmed by Chlorine-36 dating and close analysis of the rocks at the entrance to the site, which is in the Ardèche.

The first technique allowed an estimate of the time elapsed since the rock faces were first exposed to the air; the second found evidence that the cave entrance collapsed on several occasions, from 29,000 years ago to 21,000 years ago, probably stopping any access after that. The cave was reopened in 1994 during explorations led by speleologist Jean-Marie Chauvet.

The paintings include hundreds of depictions of animals, not only those associated with the hunt, like cattle, horses and reindeer, but predators like lions and bears, and even rhinos. Some use the natural shapes of the rock to give shape to the animals.

The new research was published in the Annals of the National Academy of Sciences, by Benjamin Sadier of French research body the CNRS.