There are several rock paintings in the Great Basin in the United States. A couple of researchers have now found out several exciting details about the historical works of art.
Mainz – Line drawings, abstract geometric patterns and human-like creatures: around 12,000-year-old rock art in the Great Basin in the western United States has been renewed again and again. This was confirmed by a research couple from the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz using a special method.
“People kept accessing the same artworks and giving them new meaning,” the study said.
The pair studied rock art in Idaho, Wyoming and southern Montana in the northeastern part of the Great Basin. “Here is, among other things, the cultural area of the Shoshone Indians,” said the institute. In the area, the diverse rock art extends over a wide period of time – ranging from the Paleo-Indian era around 15,000 years ago to the recent past. However, the works examined by the researchers were up to 12,000 years old.
Manganese and iron as a basis
To date the works of art, the researchers determined the distribution of manganese and iron in the rock surface without destroying it. Both substances are contained in the crust known as rock varnish, which has been deposited on rocks as a thin, dark coating. After scratching, this layer formed again and grew over the years. “We compared intact rock lacquer with the lacquer of the engravings and were able to classify them chronologically,” reports Meinrat O. Andreae. The director emeritus of the institute and his wife, the biogeoscientist Tracey Andreae, carried out a total of 461 measurements using a portable X-ray fluorescence device.
According to the announcement, the scientists have supplemented their method with measurements of rock engravings, the age of which had previously been dated using independent geochemical methods. “Both age estimates agree and thus confirm each other. The comparison with other, archaeologically dateable material at the sites where the rock art was found also supported the age estimates.”
“With our method, we create a link between the natural and human sciences,” said Andreae. “It enables age estimates for a statistically relevant, large number of rock art elements – with little effort and, above all, without destructive sampling.” The study has been published in the journal “PLOS ONE”. dpa
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