Uranium-series age estimates for rock art in southwest China Paul S.C. Taçon a, * , Maxime Aubert b , Li Gang c , Yang Decong d , Liu Hong e , Sally K. May f , Stewart Fallon g , Ji Xueping d, h , Darren Curnoe i , Andy I.R. Herries j a PERAHU, School of Humanities, Gold Coast campus, Griffith University, Queensland 4222, Australia b School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong 2522, Australia c Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Cultural Relics Administration Office, Zhongdian, Yunnan, China d Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology,15-1, Chunmingli, Chunyuanxiaoqu, Kunming, Yunnan 650118, China e Yunnan Institute of Geography, Yunnan University, No. 20 Xue Fu Road, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China f Research School of Humanities and Arts, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia g Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra 0200, Australia h History Department, Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650223, China i School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, Australia j Archaeology Program, School of Historical and European Studies, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria 3086, Australia article info Article history: Received 21 May 2010 Received in revised form 30 September 2011 Accepted 6 October 2011 Keywords: China Rock art Dating U-series Radiocarbon Jinsha River abstract We report the first uranium-series age estimates for rock art in China. Calcite bracketing a paint layer was used to constrain the age of a naturalistic outline hunter-gatherer painting in the Jinsha River area of northwest Yunnan Province (southwest China). The rock paintings in this region are unique in style and content compared with other bodies of rock art in China, which are dominated by Neolithic subject matter. The minimum and maximum ages were determined using isochron techniques on multiple samples of calcite from above and beneath the paint layer. A large painted deer head was dated to between 5738 and 2050 years. This painting and underlying flowstone are superimposed on older paintings that suggest the older paintings are at least 3400 years old, if not older than 5738 years. The results indicate for the first time that Jinsha River rock art is older than other forms of rock art in the region and show that rock art likely extends back to at least the transition from the Palaeolithic to Neolithic in this part of China. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction One of the greatest challenges facing rock art research at present is the reliable application of dating methods, especially numerical (geochronological) approaches (Bednarik, 1995, 2002; Chippindale and Taçon, 1998; Pettitt and Pike, 2007). Since 1980 (see Bednarik, 1984) there has been an international push to trial various tech- niques, particularly Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) radio- carbon and uranium-series dating, sometimes with controversial results (see Pettitt et al., 2009). Most of this research has occurred in Australia (Langley and Taçon, 2010), Europe (e.g. Clottes, 1998; Pettitt and Pike, 2007), the Americas (e.g. Rowe, 2000) and, recently, South Africa (e.g. Mazel, 2009; Mazel and Watchman, 1997, 2003). There have, however, been few attempts to date the rock art of East Asia despite the apparent great density, diversity and potential significance of the record of this region. In China, the few published geochronological studies suggest that the rock paintings and engravings of this country, consisting of stylised human figures and animals, are less than 3000 years old (Bednarik, 1992; Bednarik and Li, 1991). However, in the Jinsha River region of northwest Yunnan Province rock paintings have been reported which are unlike the art found in other regions of China or neighbouring countries (Deng, 2004; Peng, 1995, 1996; Taçon et al., 2010b). Paintings in this region include naturalistic animal-outline images, superficially resembling Magdalenian paintings and engravings on portable art objects from France and Spain, as well as the rock art of some parts of India (Taçon et al., 2010a) and elsewhere. At some Jinsha River sites, paintings are sometimes encrusted with flowstone of varying thickness, partially obscuring paintings. Moreover, many Yunnan paintings show clear signs of extensive weathering hinting at their antiquity (Taçon et al., 2010b). In this paper, we present the results of dating research combining two methods ( 14 C and U-series) on flowstone for * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ61 (0) 7 55529074; fax: þ61 (0) 7 55528141. E-mail addresses: p.tacon@griffith.edu.au (P.S.C. Taçon), maubert@uow.edu.au (M. Aubert), dqwwbh@sohu.com (L. Gang), decong66@hotmail.com (Y. Decong), hongliu@ynu.edu.cn (L. Hong), sally.may@anu.edu.au (S.K. May), stewart.fallon@ anu.edu.au (S. Fallon), jxping@public.km.yn.cn (J. Xueping), d.curnoe@unsw.edu. au (D. Curnoe), a.herries@latrobe.edu.au (A.I.R. Herries). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Journal of Archaeological Science journal homepage: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jas 0305-4403/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jas.2011.10.004 Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 492e499