Micro-scale technique helps preserve rock art legacy

 An interdisciplinary team has used a new technique known as plasma oxidation to produce radio carbon dates for paint fragments as small as 10 micrograms in width.

Archaeologist and UWA Winthrop Professor Jo McDonald, says her team spent three years documenting rock art sites along the Canning Stock Route, in the eastern Pilbara, at the request of traditional owners.
"A lot of them had had not been visited for a very long time," she says.

"The community hasn't lived on country since the 1960s – but we had a couple of traditional owners with us who had walked through those areas in the 70s."

W/Prof McDonald says the team documented several art styles at the Carnarvon, Jilakuru and Calvert Ranges with the community's permission, taking careful pigment samples.

In each case they had to tread a fine line between taking a sample big enough to be dated, and destroying the painting.

"We had about a 50 per cent success rate in collecting samples yielding enough carbon," W/Prof McDonald says.

"We used sterile scalpels and surgical gloves and sterile silver foil as part of the process. [...] phys.org  via archaeology.org / Link 2


Actualización 25-04-14: Datan pinturas rupestres australianas con una nueva técnica
Un equipo interdisciplinar ha empleado una nueva técnica conocida como oxidación de plasma para producir dataciones de radiocarbono para fragmentos de pintura de reducidas dimensiones, como unos 10 microgramos...