DORDOGNE, FRANCE—Black, carbon-based drawings have been found in southwestern France’s Font-de-Gaume Cave by Ina Reiche, Yvan Coquinot, Antoine Trosseau, and Anne Maigret of the National Center for Research and Restoration in French Museums, according to an Artnet News report. The carbon-based drawings were detected with visible light and infrared photography, X-ray fluorescence, and spectroscopy underneath previously known images. The newly identified drawings depict horses, deer, and bison. The discovery could allow for precise radiocarbon dating of the artwork. Most of the Paleolithic paintings in the more than 200 caves in the region were made with iron and manganese oxides, which cannot be directly dated with radiocarbon dating technologies. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Scientific Reports. To read about an artistic shift from painting animals to etching abstract designs on pebbles, go to "Late Paleolithic Masterpieces."
