In Spain, the team of scientists under the leadership of Ana Isabel Ortega martínez, an archaeologist from the National centre for human studies (CENIEH), was able to accurately date the rock art in karstic complex of Ojo Guareña. They were ancient, than was considered still.
a study published in the journal of Archeological and Anthropological Sciences, and briefly about it tells Phys.org. We are talking about cave paintings in the caves of the Sala de Las Pinturas in Ojo Guareña, Burgos (Spain). This karst complex is one of the largest in the world. Its length is about 110 km away.
the New study confirmed the hypothesis that these caves have attracted people for thousands and thousands of years ago. Previously, there was discovered a lot of black rock paintings. They were dated only approximately, to a greater extent in style. It was believed that the oldest of them was created about 12 thousand years ago.
In this case, the scientists used the method of accelerated mass spectrometry. He helped to clarify the Dating of the images. It is established that the drawings were created on a Millennium earlier than thought until now. That is, their authors are the last groups of hunters-gatherers in Europe, who visited these caves are about 13 thousand years ago.
the Authors write that the Dating was carried out by analysing small fragments of charcoal, which the ancient painters created their time-tested masterpieces. The coal they used as a “pencil”. They depicted people and animals, and various geometric patterns.
furthermore, the researchers found that the walls of the caves were used by the artists again. In different periods of time the ancient painters applied their work over the work of their predecessors. This discovery has also added new knowledge to the study of Paleolithic art.
“the Repeated visits of human groups assumed speleological research of the underground space, – says study co-author Marcos garcía díez, from Madrid’s Complutense University. – To do this they needed to master even the technique of climbing. All this entailed the re-use of characters and with the more recent symbolic tradition. The latter group actually Christianized the place, leaving here the characters that are now considered to be pagan”.
