Age of Barrier Canyon-style rock art constrained by cross-cutting relations and luminescence dating techniques

Abstract

Rock art compels interest from both researchers and a broader public, inspiring many hypotheses about its cultural origin and meaning, but it is notoriously difficult to date numerically. Barrier Canyon-style (BCS) pictographs of the Colorado Plateau are among the most debated examples; hypotheses about its age span the entire Holocene epoch and previous attempts at direct radiocarbon dating have failed. We provide multiple age constraints through the use of cross-cutting relations and new and broadly applicable approaches in optically stimulated luminescence dating at the Great Gallery panel, the type section of BCS art in Canyonlands National Park, southeastern Utah. Alluvial chronostratigraphy constrains the burial and exhumation of the alcove containing the panel, and limits are also set by our related research dating both a rockfall that removed some figures and the rock's exposure duration before that time. Results provide a maximum possible age, a minimum age, and an exposure time window for the creation of the Great Gallery panel, respectively. The only prior hypothesis not disproven is a late Archaic origin for BCS rock art, although our age result of A.D. ∼1-1100 coincides better with the transition to and rise of the subsequent Fremont culture. This chronology is for the type locality only, and variability in the age of other sites is likely. Nevertheless, results suggest that BCS rock art represents an artistic tradition that spanned cultures and the transition from foraging to farming in the region.

OSL surface exposure dating of a lithic quarry in Tibet: Laboratory validation and application

“…One practical solution is to quantify the σφ 0 and μ parameters using a calibration sample of known age with similar lithological characteristics and exposure conditions as the dating sample (Sohbati et al, 2012a). Using this approach, Sohbati et al (2012a) estimated the exposure time of multiple sandstone bedrock samples, thus constraining the age of an archaeologically-significant Barrier Canyon Style rock art in the southwestern USA (Chapot et al, 2012;Pederson et al, 2014). Despite several applications of the OSL-surf technique since then (e.g., Lehmann et al, 2018;Meyer et al, in press, other manuscripts in LED2017 proceedings), the bleaching-depth model (Eq.…”

User Guide for Luminescence Sampling in Archaeological and Geological Contexts

“…D R samples should be collected from both the rock and the underlying sediment. Previous light exposure of the rock surface itself may also be datable (Pederson et al 2014;Sohbati et al 2012). However, it is recommended that researchers contact the collaborating laboratory beforehand to discuss the feasibility of these specialized luminescence dating applications in the study area.…”

The death of a pterodactyl

“…The Barrier Canyon style, as defined by Polly Schaafsma, is found in the middle Colorado Plateau, south-east Utah (USA), and comprises monochrome and polychrome pictographs, petroglyphs and combination forms (Schaafsma 1971: 69). Despite some recent significant advances showing that this rock art tradition persisted during the transition from the late Archaic into the agrarian Fremont culture (approximately AD 1–1100), at least in the type locality (Chapot et al 2012; Pederson et al 2014), its cultural status is still debated. This is largely because diversity is evident in this rather protean style, whose variants probably include several ‘schools’ or transitional expressions offering continuities with other styles (Cole 2004, 2009: 59–67; Manning 2013).…”