Serious question about how they date cave paintings without ruining them

I was reading about a dig in France last month where they found ochre handprints estimated at 40,000 years old. The article said they used scraping samples from the edges, but doesn't that destroy part of the art? Has anyone here worked with nondestructive dating methods that actually work?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_diana1d ago

Oh wow, finally someone asking the real questions lol. Yeah, I've seen this debate pop up in archaeology circles and it always cracks me up how they're basically like "we need to date this ancient art... by taking a tiny chunk out of it." Like sure, the paint is already flaking off naturally over thousands of years but let me just speed that process up for science real quick. I get that scraping from the edges is supposed to be the least destructive option but it still feels wrong on some level. Honestly sometimes I wonder if these dating methods are just fancy ways of saying "we guessed and it sounded impressive.

dianaanderson1d ago

Went through this exact problem at a site I volunteered at a few years back. We had a whole debate about whether to sample from the edges or just skip dating altogether. Ended up using a technique where they press a special tape onto the surface and lift off a micro-layer of pigment. It's basically like peeling off a sticker but way more delicate. The sample is tiny, you can't even see the spot where they took it unless you know exactly where to look. We sent it to a lab and got back a date range that matched up with other stuff found nearby. Felt a lot better than scraping chips off the actual art.