Uranium-series dating rock art in East Timor

Abstract

At many sites throughout the world rock art paintings have been covered by naturally deposited calcite laminations, which we demonstrate can be individually dated by recently improved uranium-series methods. Here we report the application of multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to measure the ages for carbonate coatings that bracket red pigment at Lene Hara cave, East Timor, which could be evidence of human painting. These analyses establish the feasibility of dating milligram samples of finely layered calcite deposits associated with archaeological evidence of human occupation. In addition to confirming an age of less then 6300 years for the visible red paintings on the carbonate surface we also report a substantially older age of 24,000 to 29,300 years for a similar, older red pigment lamination providing possible evidence for an earlier painting episode.

Rethinking the Neolithic in Island Southeast Asia, with Particular Reference to the Archaeology of Timor‑Leste and Sulawesi

“…I have noted however that in Timor-Leste there are other stylistically distinct images which occur deep within caves and which may pre-date the APT-style paintings (O'Connor 2003). Uranium Thorium dating of pigment encased in layers of calcite suggests that older art was executed in the caves in Timor and older engraved art has also been found (Aubert et al 2007;O'Connor et al 2010).…”

Rock Art Research in Southeast Asia: A Synthesis

“…There have been few attempts to directly date the rock art of Southeast Asia, but where we have dates suggests that the rock art may be surprisingly old: direct dating of Lene Hara paintings in East Timor by uranium-series dating put the age of the rock art at a minimum of 6,300 years, and possibly as old as 26,000 years [162], whereas the petroglyphs range between 10,000-12,000 years [163]; comparisons of dates derived using radiocarbon and uranium-series dating at Gua Saleh in Kalimantan indicate antiquity of at least 9,900 years [125]. It is interesting to note that we currently only have direct dates derived from Island Southeast Asia than Mainland Southeast Asia, but their considerable antiquity suggests that some rock art of the mainland would be of equal age or older.…”

“…Some of the boats and common sun motifs also share affinity with the Dong Son art depicted on the ubiquitous bronze drums found throughout Southeast Asia [159][160][161]. Attempts to date Lene Hara pigment from exfoliated rock fragments using uranium-series dating indicated multiple phases of painting with pigments dated to younger than 6,300 years BP, and a possibly older paint layer between 24,000 and 29,300 years ago [162]. Lene Hara produced yet another surprising find in 2010: two groups of petroglyph faces that were hitherto undiscovered were dated by uranium-series as between 12,500 and 10,200 years old [163] (Figure 12).…”

Réseaux néolithiques, nomades marins et marchands dans les petites îles de la Sonde

“…Ces informations proviennent d'abris ou de grottes parfois décorées et dont l'art a été daté par la méthode Uranium/Thorium de 24 000 à 29 000 ans pour les plus anciennes représentations, et de 6 000 ans pour les plus récentes, dans l'est de l'île (O'Connor 2003 ; Aubert et al 2007). La plupart de ces abris révèlent aussi des niveaux néolithiques qui permettent une première évaluation de cette période de transition à Timor.…”