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Cave Art Research
International Newsletter of the Cave Art Research Association (CARA)
Volume 1 2001
Dating Australian cave petroglyphs
Robert G. Bednarik
Abstract. Modern rock art dating began with the analysis of secondary calcite deposits in an
Australian cave that are directly and physically related to petroglyphs sandwiched between them.
Since then, further work has been conducted, but has resulted in more questions than answers. This
paper summarises the research so far conducted on the isotopic geochemistry of such deposits and the
implications for the scientific dating of cave petroglyphs. Caution is advocated in the interpretation of
these empirical results and a possible strategy of future research is identified.
Introduction
The cave art of Australia is the world’s second largest
concentration of rock art that survived either entirely or
principally in limestone caves. Although there are
pictograms (pigmented rock art) in several caves on the
Nullarbor (Lane and Richards 1966) and in three Tas-
manian caves (Loy et al. 1990), the bulk of Australian
cave art consists of petroglyphs (rock art produced by a
reductive method). They have so far been reported from
four geographical regions. These are the limestone areas
near Perth, the Nullarbor karst plain, the Mt Gambier
karst, and a single instance from near Buchan, eastern
Victoria (Figure 1). By far the largest concentration so far
found is that near Mt Gambier, extending roughly from
Millicent in the far south-east of Australia to Portland in
western Victoria.
With a few notable exceptions, most of these sites of
Australian cave petroglyphs (Bednarik 1990) have only
been reported and examined since about 1980. However,
the question of their age estimation has been investigated
since that same time, and in fact led to the first attempts
of direct dating of any rock art in the world. Investigation
of the potential of isotopic geochemistry in establishing
the antiquity of rock art in limestone caves thus began in
1980.
In a determination of the merits of a geomorphologi-
cal and geochemical examination of the media of cave
petroglyphs, ranging from hammered to abraded mark-
ings and finger flutings, of dating clues derived from the
materials bearing or concealing this art, we need to
acquaint ourselves with the nature of speleothems.
Equally important are the effects of modification pro-
cesses on them, and the significance of different states of
preservation. These issues are to be considered here.
Carbonate speleothems
Speleothems (for definition see Moore 1952) result
from the responses of particular dissolved rock constitu-
ents to atmospheric/hydrospheric conditions in a cave
space. They are formations of precipitated compounds
such as chlorides (Goede et al. 1992), nitrates, sulphates
(James 1991) and, most importantly, carbonates. Calcite,
dolomite and aragonite generally form carbonate
speleothems. They occur in a number of modes, for
example as the familiar stalactitic growths, as dripstone
curtains, helictites, straws, cauliflower formations, and as
cutaneous flowstone formations of various forms. They
can also occur as mondmilch (montmilch, moomilk,
Bergmilch, etc.; Bates and Jackson 1987; Fischer 1989).
The morphology of this form of carbonate speleothem
ranges from a dough-like soft mass, over a metre thick
and of very high water content, to a sparse white and
powdery growth. Consisting usually of comparatively
pure calcite deposited in crystal form, the size of the
crystals and their mode of arrangement and spacing may
differ substantially (Dreybrodt 1988) in different forms of
carbonate speleothems. The crystals may be massive and
densely packed (as in stalagmites), or they may be very
small and widely spaced, rather like the minute water
crystals of snow flakes. These deposits are generally
precipitated from calcium bicarbonate solution.
The ability of water to hold carbon dioxide in solution
is related to factors such as temperature, turbulence and
pressure. Pressure changes dramatically when the
bicarbonate solution, percolating through gravity, reaches
the ceiling of a cavity. While travelling within the rock’s
interstitial spaces, the solution is subjected to the quite
considerable pressure of the closed system. The cave
space, however, experiences atmospheric pressure and
Cave Art Research 2001 – Volume 1
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Figure 1. The distribution of the four known
concentrations of cave petroglyphs in Australia.
this causes the release of surplus calcite as the solution
emerges in the cave. It will be in oxygenous isotopic
equilibrium with the water if the rate of loss of carbon
dioxide is sufficiently slow to maintain the equilibrium
between the bicarbonate ions and the aqueous carbon
dioxide. If, however, the rate of loss of carbon dioxide
from the solution is so rapid that isotopic equilibrium
cannot persist between the bicarbonate ions, the aqueous
carbon dioxide and the water, a kinetic isotopic
fractionation will occur between them and will be re-
flected as a simultaneous enrichment of 13C and 18O in the
calcite precipitated (Mills and Urey 1940; Craig 1953;
Franke and Geyh 1970; Goede et al. 1982; Hendy 1971;
Milliman 1974: 7-12).
Carbonate speleothems are sensitive palaeoclimatic
indicators (Hendy and Wilson 1968), and are important
to dating attempts where the medium of petroglyphs
happens to be a speleothem, or where rock paintings,
petroglyphs or mining evidence (cf. Bednarik 1995) in
caves have become covered by such deposits. In Europe,
the growth rates, duration of growth, and—within
limits—the age of stalagmites have long been determined
for a large number of samples by establishing the
radiocarbon contents of the precipitates. Often growth
rates can be checked by a method similar to dendro-
chronology, because some stalagmites and pearly for-
mations possess minute laminations caused by annual
variations in growth, presumably also related to climatic
oscillations (Homann 1969; Geyh and Franke 1970).
Baker et al. (1993) have shown, using high-precision
thermal-ionisation mass-spectrometry 238U-234U-230Th
dating, that the luminescence banding in speleothems is
indeed annual (cf. Schwarcz 1980; Gascoyne and
Schwarcz 1982).
However, the ratio of carbon isotopes in reprecipi-
tated carbonates is rather complex. To render the lime-
stone soluble, an excess of carbon dioxide is necessary,
causing less then fifty per cent of the bicarbonate’s car-
bon to be derived from the carbonate, and thus be prac-
tically 14C free. The method of estimating the proportion
of 14C that should have been precipitated in a stalagmite
at the time of its formation was conceived by Franke
(1951a, 1951b) only shortly after Libby et al.’s (1949)
inauguration of the radiocarbon method. Subsequent
research (Franke and Geyh 1970; Franke et al. 1958;
Geyh 1969; Hendy 1969) suggests an encouraging relia-
bility for samples from stalagmites; the duration of their
growth can be determined with great precision. Absolute
ages have been obtained of up to 45 000 years, but they
are burdened with a potential error because the initial 14C
concentration is not derived from the atmospheric 14C/12C
ratio alone. A surplus of carbon from the atmosphere is
necessary in the reaction. While this surplus may
theoretically be up to one hundred per cent (equivalent to
an error of about 5000 years!) the carbon content in
natural bicarbonate solutions ranges only from seventy to
eighty per cent, equivalent to an error of less than 1500
years. Even this can be diminished dramatically if the
14C/12C ratio in the modern vadose water is determined.
Two other methods have been used to estimate the
time of deposition of calcite speleothems related directly
to rock art (Bednarik 2001). One is uranium-thorium
analysis, which is one of a group of radiometric or iso-
topic methods, uranium-series dating. It is based on the
decay series of the uranium isotopes to lead. Uranium-
238 is by far the most abundant radioactive element in
the Earth’s crust, consequently its decay products are
widely dispersed in the lithosphere. Precipitated in sur-
face minerals it produces daughter isotopes, and where
this process occurs in a closed system, such as in the
formation of calcite crystals, it provides a good measure
of the length of time since the formation of the mineral.
Several specific decay processes have been used for
dating, whose relevance and applicability depends upon
their effective time range (deter-mined by the half-life of
the decaying isotope) and sample availability. In rock art
dating we deal usually with Late Pleistocene and
Holocene ages, and in this range only 230Th/234U,
231Pa/235U, 226Ra, 231Pa/230Th and 230Th/232Th may be
relevant. The preferred materials for analysis are car-
bonates (particularly reprecipitated carbonates, such as
travertines, speleothems, corals and marl, but also
mollusc shells, bone and teeth) but other materials may
be suitable. Only one of these methods has ever been
applied to rock art, thorium-uranium dating, as noted
below.
Finally, a new development in cave art dating is the
use of thermoluminescence (TL) analysis to estimate the
ages of calcite deposits. Two applications of this expe-
rimental method have so far been reported, one in Spain
(Arias et al. 2000), the other in Piauí, Brazil. So far the
method has not been applied in Australia, but this may
only be a question of time. The term TL refers to the
release of energy by crystalline solids when heated or
exposed to light. Ionising environmental alpha, beta and
gamma radiation results in the release of electrons and
other charge carriers (‘holes’) in these materials. Elec-
trons become trapped in defects of their crystal lattice,
such as impurities or chemical substitutions. These meta-
Cave Art Research 2001 – Volume 1
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stable charge carriers accumulate over time at a known
and largely constant rate determined by the dose of the
radiation. They can be ejected from their ‘traps’ by an
input of additional energy, causing them to recombine,
which releases their excess energy as light, measurable in
photons. This energy (TL) is therefore, with some
qualifications, a function of the time since the material
was last heated (e.g. ceramics or heating stones) or, in the
case of rock art, exposed to light (e.g. crystalline mineral
grains, such as quartz, but apparently including calcite
crystals formed in the recent geological past).
Speleothems in the Mt Gambier rock art sites
In 1980 I located a sequence of calcareous speleo-
them deposits interstratified with a sequence of petro-
glyphs in Malangine Cave, in the Mt Gambier karst
region of south-eastern South Australia. The art series
commences with mondmilch finger flutings, followed by
deeply carved, apparently non-iconic motifs (Bednarik
1981a, 1984). In the southern part of the cave, the latter
generation of rock art precedes the main speleothem
deposit, itself bearing shallow line figures which were
executed shortly before the deposit matured. Digital
fluting occurs mostly in the deeper parts of both Malan-
gine Cave and nearby Koongine Cave, but fortunately for
the purpose of studying the rock art sequence, there are
some instances of superimposition by later petroglyphs.
The petroglyph generations in Malangine Cave are thus
sandwiched between laminae of speleothem deposits, as
indeed they are at several other sites: in Croze à Gontran
in the French Dordogne, and in the Australian sites
Prung-kart, Nung-kol and Kriton Caves (all in the Mt
Gambier region).
Figure 2. The sequence of sedimentation, roof fall and
rock art in Koongine Cave, South Australia.
The identification of the finger flutings as the oldest
petroglyph element present in these sites, although ade-
quately resolved by the speleothem stratigraphy, finds
support in the complete lack of finger markings on the
surfaces exposed by the ceiling collapse in Koongine
Cave (which also truncated the mondmilch panels), which
appears to provide a convenient terminus ante quem for
the petroglyph production in that cave. The collapsed
mass of rock in Koongine Cave is now buried under
some one or two metres of sediment (Figure 2), and its
lower portions may still bear traces of rock art (Bednarik
1989). If a datable occupation floor could be located
beneath the rock fall it would provide a maximum date
for the roof fall, and help in establishing the age of the
finger flutings. Other evidence relating to the minimum
age of the art are the floor sediment deposits that
sometimes conceal the lower part of the decorated areas,
or that have rendered human access to them impossible.
This can be observed in Koongine Cave (on the east
wall), as well as in other sites, such as Malangine Cave
(east wall) and Orchestra Shell Cave (Western Australia).
Finger flutings (Bednarik 1986; sillons digitales,
Drouot 1976) are a specific type of rock art occurring
only in caves, and found so far in two world regions. One
is southern France and northern Spain, the other Australia
and Papua New Guinea (Bednarik 1984, 1985, 1986,
1990; Ballard 1993). At most of the sites of finger
flutings, the former, now often ‘fossilised’ mondmilch
(montmilch, moomilk, Bergmilch, etc.; Bates and Jackson
1987; Fischer 1989) bearing markings is of the
speleothem type (i.e. reprecipitated;), but states of pre-
servation differ profoundly between different sites, and
often even within an individual site. The finger flutings,
usually occurring in sets of three or four sub-parallel
finger markings, were made by people who drew the tips
of the fingers of a hand over a then soft calcareous cave
deposit which has in most cases since become fossilised
and calcified. The original deposit is often sufficiently
well preserved to still be recognisable; it has usually been
modified by natural processes, but even then the medium
appears to have been soft and pliable at the time the
finger flutings were produced.
The relative chronological framework attempted for
the abraded or hammered petroglyphs, the finger
markings, calcite deposits, sediments and associated
lithic assemblages in Malangine Cave (Figure 3) was the
first comprehensive attempt of direct dating of rock art
(Bednarik 1981a, 1981b, 1993, 1997). As noted above,
about half of the carbon contained in carbonate speleo-
thems is derived from the atmosphere, and in most envi-
ronments from respired carbon dioxide. The 14C so
included in reprecipitated carbonates (be they speleo-
thems or pedogenetically derived accretions; Bednarik
1980) then decays at the known rate, enabling conven-
tional radiocarbon dating of such deposits.
However, there are still qualifications. The most
serious concern the infiltration of younger vadose solu-
tion and the interstitial deposition of further calcite in the
crystal lattice of the speleothem, with the resulting
alteration of isotopic ratio. This possibility was initially
appreciated by the European investigators, but as they
limited their work to dense, crystalline stalagmites, it had
little or no effect on their results. Unfortunately nearly all
of the secondary carbonate deposits that can be related to
rock art, be they speleothems or pedogenetic precipi-
tates, are decidedly porous and therefore invite such
Cave Art Research 2001 – Volume 1
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Figure 3. Schematic depiction of dating framework for Malangine Cave, South Australia.
deposition, and the rejuvenation it involves. (A possible
exception are the well-crystallised stalactites over finger
flutings in Kriton Cave, western Victoria.) In fact, we
know with certainty that many of the former mondmilch
bearing finger flutings became later fossilised through
calcification, which means that any radiocarbon age
derived from such material is effectively a minimum age,
and probably quite conservative.
Another qualification refers to the past isotopic com-
position of atmospheric carbon, considering that plant
communities have a significant effect on the 13Cvalue of
the reprecipitated carbonate: values of between -12 and -
10‰ apply to respiratory carbon dioxide derived from
C3 plants, while the 13Ccompositions of carbonate in
equilibrium with carbon dioxide respired from C4 plants
range from -3 to +1‰ (Cole and Monger 1994). C4
plants, so called because of the four-carbon acids as
which carbon dioxide is initially captured in their outer
mesophyll cells, include about half of the world’s grasses,
which have a physiological advantage over C3 plants in
low atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations
(Robinson 1994). The latter are directly related to world
climate, and were appreciably lower during the Pleisto-
cene glacials. This introduces yet another variable, the
effect of which is an unknown factor and questions the
utility of all Pleistocene radiocarbon dates.
These considerations are only some of those that
should temper our sometimes blind reliance on so-called
scientific data. In the case of radiocarbon dating, there
are others, some of which I have rehearsed elsewhere,
including those of the relevant statistical constraints
(Bednarik 1994, 1996). To test the proposition of isoto-
pic rejuvenation through calcification, and at the same
time obtain the first direct data for the age of the rock art
in Malangine Cave, two samples from that site were
analysed for their isotopic carbon composition in 1980.
One was from the laminated and comparatively dense
ceiling deposit that separates the two basic art traditions
present near that site’s entrance (Figure 4). It yielded an
adjusted age of 5550 ± 55 years BP (Hv-10241) which
might best be described as a highly conservative mini-
mum mean age for the entire lamina. Cutaneous
speleothems of this type require substantial time spans for
their formation. It may be relevant that radiocarbon ages
for several occupation deposits in the coastal region of
south-eastern South Australia are from the early
Holocene (Tindale 1957: 110; Luebbers 1978: 113-34),
and therefore coincide in their magnitude with the
implied age of the pre-lamina petroglyphs in Malangine
Cave. Also pertinent are the results of a later excavation
of Koongine Cave, just 105 metres to the west of
Malangine, which yielded a series of radiocarbon dates
from sedimentary charcoal that is thought to have been
introduced by human occupation (Frankel 1986). There is
a concentration of early Holocene dates evident, and
while this may not reflect archaeological reality or even
relate to the human presence demonstrated by the rock
art, there is a possibility that some of the art of the two
caves was created during that apparent occupation phase.
It is, however, squarely contradicted by uranium-thorium
analyses of the same deposits (see below).
The second sample processed was from the
stratigraphically older, pearly deposit in the deep part of
Malangine Cave, which clearly predates the deep petro-
glyphs and the laminated deposit formed over them but
postdates the finger flutings. The radiocarbon age of
4425 ± 75 years BP (Hv-10240) does not contradict the
result just cited, it confirms the proposition that rejuve-
Cave Art Research 2001 – Volume 1
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Figure 4. Composite photograph of part of the Malangine Cave ceiling petroglyphs that had been concealed under a
thick reprecipitated calcite skin which had subsequently become exfoliated.
nation can significantly affect the isotopic composition of
the speleothem. The highly porous fossil mondmilch and
the hard excrescence covering it have in all probability
remained moist for most of their existence; the
subcutaneous stratum has retained a significant content of
water to the present time. The absence of any exfoliation
suggests that full dehydration may have, in fact, not
occurred at all. Greater moistness is apparent even in the
recent past, for instance in inscriptions of only eighty
years ago. Present hydrological conditions may have been
influenced by the effects of pastoral land clearing, which
would have led to reduced moisture conservation and
lower carbon dioxide production.
In addition to carbon isotope analysis, these two
samples from Malangine Cave have also been subjected
to uranium series dating in the form of 230Th/234U analy-
sis. A split from sample Hv-10241 yielded a date of
28 000 ± 2000 years BP, and one of sample Hv-10240
produced 4300 ± 500 years. The second value is very
similar to the radiocarbon age from the same sample,
4425 ± 75 BP, overlapping most comfortably even at one
sigma. The first sample, however, seems to be around
five times as old as the radiocarbon age would imply.
Unless another explanation can be found, these results
would seem to suggest that extensive rejuvenation of the
sample has occurred, and possibly also actual
contamination (e.g. by organic acids). These results
remain inconclusive and are in need of further investi-
gation.
More recently, another site, about 31 km from Ma-
langine Cave, was subjected to a similar study. In Prung-
kart Cave, finger flutings have been preserved under a
laminar speleothem (a calcareous, laminated skin of
reprecipitated carbonate in a cave) of 15 to 20 mm
thickness (Figure 5). After the natural exfoliation of
almost one square metre of this deposit, caused by the
fine rootlets of an exotic tree species (Pinus radiata), it
was found that the cutaneous deposit consists of over a
dozen distinctive laminae in section. They are alternati-
vely white and grey layered and it was hoped that the
darker layers had been caused by the deposition of
organic matter during periods of higher aquifer levels.
Since the finger flutings are sandwiched within this
laminar deposit, it was separated into inner (older) and
outer (younger) layers, and isotopic carbon was deter-
mined. The outermost portion of the speleothem skin
produced a radiocarbon age of 1150 ± 80 years BP
(ANU-6963B), the innermost was 2590 ± 80 BP (ANU-
6963A). The dark substance, unfortunately, did not
contain adequate organic matter for conventional
radiocarbon dating, and accelerator mass spectrometry
dating was not attempted.
The age of ANU-6963A was recalculated as ANU-
6963, at 2660 ± 70 BP, by basing the calculation on a
measured 13C of -0.8 ± 0.1‰, not the estimate normally
used in routine calculations (-5.0 ± 2.0‰). A further
sample from the inner strata then yielded a date of 2950 ±
70 BP, 13C being -1.1 ± 0.1‰ this time (ANU-8457).
The measured deviations of 13C from that of standard
marine limestone carbon are lower than was estimated,
and much lower than in atmospheric carbon dioxide. This
could suggest that the carbon active in the speleothem
skin formation derives almost entirely from inorganic
sources (gaseous volcanic emissions), or alternatively
from C4 plants. The Mt Gambier region has been
subjected to much recent volcanic activity, peaking
apparently during the mid-Holocene (Blackburn 1966;
Sheard 1983; Prescott 1994), and its Oligocene and lower
Miocene limestones are highly porous (Bednarik 1991
reports up to 50.8% porosity by volume from Paroong
Cave). The retention of gaseous cave deposits may well
be facilitated by the aquifer level of the region which is
frequently close to the surface (Holmes and Waterhouse
Cave Art Research 2001 – Volume 1
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Figure 5. Finger flutings on fossil (inactive) mondmilch in Prung-kart Cave, South Australia.
1983). For comparison, the measured 13C of the two
samples of speleothem in Malangine Cave was +0.2‰
(Hv-10240) and -4.8‰ (Hv-10241) (Bednarik 1981a),
which suggests considerable fluctuation in the region.
The Prung-kart speleothems remain so porous that,
without independent calibration (e.g. through organic
matter deposited in the layers, or by uranium-thorium
dating), it remains unknown how much of the deposit’s
crystal lattice actually predates the rock art. While the
layers found above the art must postdate it entirely, a
certain proportion of the deposit beneath the art may still
be younger than the art. Hence radiocarbon analysis
would provide only minimum values of real age, from
both deposits. On the other hand, if a part of the carbon
dioxide in the solution process was not of atmospheric,
but of volcanic origin, as may be the case, then the dating
results are likely to overestimate the age of the calcite
formation by an unknown factor. In reality, the carbon
dioxide may have been derived from both sources
(volcanic and biological), and during deposition the
relative proportions may have fluctuated through time in
accordance with such factors as volcanic activity, aquifer
level, ambient climate, vegetation regimes and so forth.
Conclusion
These considerations show us how unlikely it is that
reliable dating of such reprecipitated calcareous deposits
can be obtained by simple radiocarbon determination
alone. Similarly, oxygen isotope analysis is not a secure
means of determining formation temperature, because the
level of 18O in the calcite precipitated is not a function of
temperature alone; it can be influenced by kinetic
isotopic fractionation (Hendy 1971). Nevertheless, both
the results obtained from radiocarbon dating of
reprecipitated calcite and the heuristic developments it
facilitates are a significant help in attaining a better
understanding of the complex world of carbonate
speleothems. They may not provide us with finite
answers concerning the rock art such phenomena may
spatially be associated with, but they certainly help us
better to focus on the issues and complex interrelation-
ships. They also open up new avenues of future research
in this complex area. For instance, the mechanisms
determining the interrelationships between atmospheric
carbon dioxide levels and temperatures, vegetation pat-
terns, isotopic fractionation (and thus radiocarbon ages)
and past climates can now be subjected to new scrutiny.
If, as the Antarctic ice cores (Morgan 1993) suggest,
there is a solid correlation between climate and carbon
dioxide level, and another between carbon dioxide level
and respired 13C, by way of favoured plant communities,
how does this affect uncalibrated radiocarbon dates? And
Cave Art Research 2001 – Volume 1
7
how much influence could plant communities have on
atmospheric temperature? These are contentious issues.
To clarify the extent of carbon rejuvenation of
reprecipitated cave carbonates it is recommended to
subject the samples from Malangine Cave to TL
analysis;
attempt both TL and uranium-thorium dating of the
numerous available samples from Prung-kart Cave;
conduct radiocarbon, uranium series and thermolu-
minescence analyses of the stalactitic deposits con-
cealing a set of finger flutings in Kriton Cave.
This strategy would not only clarify the extent of reju-
venation effects on the speleothems, it would also iden-
tify the effects of morphological differences of such
deposits, and it would provide more secure age estimates
for Australian cave petroglyphs than what is presently
available.
Acknowledgments
The help of Professor M. A. Geyh, Dr Andrée Rosenfeld,
Dr M. John Head, Geoffrey D. Aslin and Elfriede K. Bednarik
is gratefully acknowledged.
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