Bradshaw Rock Paintings - Dating

Dating

Since the mid-1990s, scientific dating methods have been employed to determine the ages of the paintings. The methods have included, Accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dating (AMS) and Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) which has been used when mud wasp nests have been built over paintings which gives a minimum age rather than an actual age of the painting. The results of this have revealed some inconsistency with Walsh’s chronology. While experimental OSL dates from a wasp nest overlaying a tassel Bradshaw figure has given a Pleistocene date of 17,000 BP, AMS dating associated with other Bradshaw sites have given age estimates of 4000 BP to as recent as 1500 BP. If both dates are correct, this may demonstrate that the Bradshaw tradition was produced for many millennia. Recent advances in dating methods may shed light on the age of the paintings and gain a more accurate result. Neuroscientist Jack Pettigrew has proposed dating the art by using DNA sequencing extracted from colonies of microorganisms which have replaced the pigment in some paintings.