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Cation-ratio dating of rock-engravings: a critical appraisal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Maurice P. Lanteigne
Maurice P. Lanteigne*
Affiliation:
Rock Art Association of Canada, 306–450 Talbot Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada R2L OR3
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Extract

For a century, pictures painted and carved on to rock surfaces have been a vital and alluring strand of prehistoric evidence. Yet their dating remains a fundamental problem. The last few years have seen an interest in direct dating of rock-art, both painted and engraved, using the small-sample capabilities of the accelerator radiocarbon technique. Here. issue is taken with the security of one of the new methods, the cation-ratio technique for dating engraved figures in arid regions where a ‘desert varnish’ forms - a method whose results have already been published in Antiquity in 1988 and again in the present issue (pages 246–55 above).

Information

Type
Notes
Information
Antiquity , Volume 65 , Issue 247 , June 1991 , pp. 292 - 295
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1991

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