Dating Prehistoric Art: A Major Scientific Breakthrough
For the first time, cave paintings from the Grotte de Font-de-Gaume have been dated with absolute precision. These findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, result from the work of an international research team including Ina Reiche, director of the Laboratory for Instrumental Development and Innovative Methodologies for Cultural Heritage (Chimie ParisTech-PSL / CNRS / Ministry of Culture). This breakthrough opens new perspectives for the study of Paleolithic art and the societies that created it.
A Scientific Question Unanswered since more than 125 years. The first analyses of the pigments of this cave were by the way carried out by Henri Moissan in 1902. He only found iron and manganese oxide based pigments. For decades, scientists have sought to precisely date the cave paintings found in the Dordogne region, including those in the famous Lascaux Cave. However, a major obstacle remained: black pigments were believed to consist solely of iron or manganese oxides, with no carbon content, making radiocarbon dating impossible.Yet this absence of carbon had never been experimentally confirmed. The research team therefore set out to examine the chemical composition of two black figures—a bison and a mask—in the Font-de-Gaume cave.
An Innovative Methodology to Reveal the Invisible. Scientists from the Laboratory for Instrumental Development and Innovative Methodologies for Cultural Heritage (Chimie ParisTech-PSL / CNRS / Ministry of Culture), the Laboratory for Carbon-14 Measurement (CEA / CNRS / IRD / ASNR / Ministry of Culture), the national platform attached to the Laboratory for Climate and Environmental Sciences (CEA / CNRS / University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), the Natural History of Prehistoric Humanities Laboratory (CNRS / Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle / University of Perpignan Via Domitia), the Centre des monuments nationaux and the Centre for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France used advanced analytical techniques, including Raman microspectrometry and reflectance imaging spectroscopy. These non-invasive methods revealed traces of charcoal within the black pigments. The uniform distribution of this charcoal across the drawings ruled out the possibility of modern contamination. Exceptionally authorized micro-samples then enabled radiocarbon dating.
The analyses confirm a date in the Upper Paleolithic period. The bison is estimated to have been painted between approximately around 13300 calBP years before present, while different parts of the mask may date back to nearly 16,000 years ago.
Chimie ParisTech-PSL Expertise Serving Heritage Science. These findings highlight the crucial role of physico-chemical methods in the study and understanding of cultural heritage. Within the Laboratory for Instrumental Development and Innovative Methodologies for Cultural Heritage, researchers develop innovative analytical tools to investigate ancient materials while preserving their integrity. The participation of Ina Reiche, a researcher at Chimie ParisTech-PSL and the CNRS, reflects the institution’s strong commitment to research at the intersection of chemistry, archaeology and cultural heritage.
Ina Reiche, what led you to challenge the widely accepted idea that black pigments in Paleolithic caves contained no carbon?
“Since at least the discovery of the Chauvet Cave in Ardèche in 1994, it has been demonstrated that cave art may contain figures made with carbon black, probably charcoal. The representations in the Chauvet Cave have been dated using the carbon-14 method by accelerator mass spectrometry. Charcoal, along with mineral pigments such as iron and manganese oxides, was a readily available material in the Palaeolithic era. It was obtained from fire or in hearths. There was no reason why this material should not have been used in the Dordogne, another region rich in prehistoric sites and caves.
The analytical challenge was to be able to identify it on the cave wall without taking samples and without any harm to the art works. Thanks to the new experimental devices we are developing, we can transport the ‘laboratory’ into the cave, making new discoveries such as these possible, even in deep prehistoric sites”.
What new perspectives could this methodology open for dating other cave artworks in Europe?
“As part of a collaborative multidisciplinary research programme led by prehistorian Patrick Paillet from the National Museum of Natural History, we will first continue to study all accessible of the known and recently discovered works at the Font-de-Gaume cave. We currently know of around 800 figures. We have already identified other figures in the Font-de-Gaume cave, which will enable us to establish a new 14C dating programme for other figures, if we are authorised to take micro-samples. It is important to increase the number of dates to establish a more detailed chronology of the cave’s representations and to better contextualise this data, e.g. to better understand the site’s use and the meaning of the cave art. We can then extend the new methodology to other prehistoric sites in the Dordogne, a region that is home to hundreds of caves and shelters with prehistoric representations”.
Further reading. Radiocarbon dating and chemical imaging of carbon black-based Paleolithic cave art in the Dordogne region (France). Ina Reiche, Lucile Beck, Ingrid Caffy, Yvan Coquinot, Matthias Alfeld, Anne Maigret, José Tapia, Marc Martinez, Anthony Lescale, Patrick Paillet.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, March 9, 2026. Radiocarbon dating and chemical imaging of carbon black–based Paleolithic cave art in the Dordogne region (France) | PNAS
Hyperspectral image obtained by reflectance imaging spectroscopy (RIS) of the Carrefour panel, showing a visual contrast between representations made with carbon black (in red, Cervid HB14 and Bison HB15) and those made with black manganese oxides (in green, Bison HB14). © TU Delft, Matthias Alfeld / CNRS, Ina Reiche.