PSA: That famous cave painting site in France might not be as old as they said

I went back and forth looking at before and after photos of the Chauvet Cave drawings from just 10 years ago versus today. The difference is NUTS. They originally dated those rhinos and lions to 32,000 years old based on some black charcoal samples. But new carbon dating of the same pigments shows they might only be 21,000 years old. The problem is the old team scraped off samples from the wrong layers of rock buildup. I saw a side by side comparison from a 2015 museum exhibit versus a 2024 paper and the difference in the animal shapes is clear once you know what to look for. Has anyone else noticed how much the dating of these European cave sites keeps getting REVISED downward? What do you think is really going on?

2 comments

2 Comments

blakem371mo ago

The real issue might be that early dating teams were competing for funding and fame, so they had motivation to push the oldest possible dates. Now newer methods and different labs are double checking everything and finding mistakes. Makes you wonder what other famous sites would show if someone re-ran the tests today.

the_robin1mo ago

finding mistakes" - guess my dating history is about to be peer reviewed too.