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Radiocarbon Dating of the Decorated Cosquer Cave (France)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2016

H Valladas ,
A Quiles ,
M Delque-Kolic ,
E Kaltnecker ,
C Moreau ,
E Pons-Branchu ,
L Vanrell ,
M Olive  and
X Delestre
H Valladas*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
A Quiles
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France France Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Pôle d’archéométrie, 37 rue al-Cheikh Aly Youssef, B.P. Qasr el-Ayni 11652, 11441 Cairo, Egypt
M Delque-Kolic
Affiliation:
LMC14, CEA Saclay (CEA/CNRS/IRNS/IRD/Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication), UMS 2572, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
E Kaltnecker
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
C Moreau
Affiliation:
LMC14, CEA Saclay (CEA/CNRS/IRNS/IRD/Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication), UMS 2572, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
E Pons-Branchu
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, LSCE/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Université Paris-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
L Vanrell
Affiliation:
IMMADRAS, 39 Bd Maïre, 13008 Marseille, France
M Olive
Affiliation:
Direction régionale des affaires culturelles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, 23, boulevard du Roi René, 13617 Aix-en-Provence Cedex, France
X Delestre
Affiliation:
Direction régionale des affaires culturelles, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, 23, boulevard du Roi René, 13617 Aix-en-Provence Cedex, France
*
*Corresponding author. Email:helene.valladas@lsce.ipsl.fr.
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Abstract

The Grotte Cosquer (southeastern France) is a Paleolithic painted cave only accessible by a deep-water dive. The cave has yielded numerous Paleolithic engravings and drawings, which were produced from wood charcoal. This article presents new radiocarbon dates obtained on samples collected in 2012 directly on 17 parietal representations and at the soil surface, and discusses the 14C results obtained since the discovery of the cave in 1992. A total of 41 samples were dated with ages ranging from 33,000 to 20,000 cal BP. They show that the cave was intermittently decorated over about 10,000 yr.

Keywords

decorated Cosquer cave14C datingPaleolithic
Type
Puzzles in Archaeological Chronologies
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 2: Proceedings of the 22nd International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , April 2017 , pp. 621 - 633
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 2015 Radiocarbon Conference, Dakar, Senegal, 16–20 November 2015

References

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