(230)Th dating of flowstone from Ignatievskaya Cave, Russia: Age constraints of rock art and paleoclimate inferences

Paleolithic antiquity of parietal art in Ignatievskaya cave, Southern Ural, is supported by its subject (Late Pleistocene animals) as well as by paleontological and palynological data, and (14)C dates from cultural layers associated with artistic activity (17.8−16.3 cal ka BP; association is established by finds of ochre in these layers). However, three (14)C dates of charcoal motifs yielded younger, Holocene ages (7.4−6.0 cal ka BP). In this study, we constrain the age of parietal art in the cave by (230)Th dating of flowstone that brackets the paintings. Flowstone did not form in the cave between c. 78 and 10 ka BP, due to widespread permafrost in northern Eurasia at that time. Our (230)Th dates do not support the middle Holocene age of art in Ignatievskaya cave and are consistent with its Upper Paleolithic antiquity instead.