Red Rock Cliff in Canyonlands National Park is home to art-drawn on rocks, which many people believed was created between 2,000 and 4,000 years ago. New research shows the artwork is only half that age - or less.
This study would suggest the pictures were created around the same time people in the area transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to a community centered on farming and agriculture. Religions, ancient customs and ideologies were transforming during that era, creating upheavals in the fabric of society.
The Great Gallery of Art was analyzed using cutting-edge luminescence dating techniques in order to obtain an accurate date on the rock paintings. A unique system of techniques was also employed in the study.
"Our findings reveal these paintings were likely made between 1,000 to 2,000 years ago. The most accepted hypotheses pointed to the age of these paintings as 2,000 to 4,000 years old or perhaps even 7,000 to 8,000 years old. We show it is younger than expected," Joel Pederson, geologist at Utah State University and lead author of an article announcing the study, said.
Analysis of the Red Rock Cliff drawings could also help shed light on Ancient Barrier Canyon-style paintings. Researchers know little about these artifacts. It could also assist archaeologists in understanding how the society may have co-existed with other cultures. If they were living and producing art during the first half of the Common Era, the creators of the art may have lived with the Fremont people. This pre-Columbian society produced art distinctly different from the Red Rock Cliff drawings, suggesting a culture apart from the Fremonts.
The rock paintings were analyzed in a three-fold process. The first of these studied stream deposits that proved the painting were younger than the sediment surrounding them. A rock fall at the site placed a minimum age on the artwork. The final technique used to age the findings involved measuring the length of time rock surfaces had been exposed to weather. This hat trick of dating methods could assist other researchers in future digs.
"Our study illustrates novel and widely applicable approaches for dating rock art that do not require destructive sampling, and results suggest that Barrier Canyon rock art persisted across the transition from the late Archaic into the agrarian Fremont culture in the American Southwest," researchers wrote in an article announcing their discovery.
Study of the Red Rock Cliff drawings and analysis of its age was detailed in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
