Rare Minerals Illuminate 17,000-year old Questions
March 16, 2007 By Alison Drain
The Great Bull of Lascaux. Credit: SLAC
Scientists learned it straight from the bull's muzzle: cave painting shows evidence of ancient trade. In collaboration with French museums and research facilities, Stanford researchers have found evidence of scarce manganese oxide mineral exchange between prehistoric peoples of the French Pyrenees.
The results of their study, concerning the mineral composition of the 17,000-year old "Great Bull of Lascaux" lithograph in Dordogne, France, were published in the November 2006 edition of the 13th International Conference on X-Ray Absorption Fine Structure.
"This cave painting is among the world's oldest and most exquisite," said collaborator and Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) researcher and Faculty Chair Gordon Brown. "Archeologists have been concerned about the interpretation of this rock art and its pigments since it was discovered."
To minimize damage to the celebrated art, the researchers obtained microscopic black pigment samples collected by archeologists: one from the bull's ears and another from his muzzle. They then used an X-ray absorption method at SSRL Beamline 11-2 and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility to identify manganese oxide minerals in the samples. Absorption spectra revealed an "unanticipated" variety of manganese oxide minerals, including a rare occurrence of hausmannite (Mn3O4), never before encountered in prehistoric pigments.
Learning the mineral composition reveals its geographic origin, and may expose bits about the culture of early humans who made it. Finding hausmannite in the southwest region of Europe could mean that the area's manganese oxide source has been exhausted or forgotten—or, as the researchers propose, that prehistoric humans traded among each other, supplying the cave artists with ores imported from elsewhere in the region.
French scientists Francois Farges, Emily Chalmin, and others collaborated with Brown on this research.
Source: SLAC
-
Shaken, not heated: The ideal recipe for manipulating magnetism
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.8 / 5 (4) |
0
-
Quasicrystal is extraterrestrial in origin
Jan 13, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (37) |
7
-
Development of positive electrode materials for low-cost and high-performance lithium-ion secondary batteries
Jan 13, 2012 |
5 / 5 (2) |
1
-
Colossal magnetoresistance occurs when nanoclusters form at specific temperatures
Dec 12, 2011 |
4.1 / 5 (8) |
0
-
SLAC invention measures stroke damage in the brain
Sep 28, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (31) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Stem cell question.
1 hour ago
-
Protease cleavage
7 hours ago
-
Pertubance in a model
14 hours ago
-
Cancer drugs and Alzheimer's, Oh my!
22 hours ago
-
Squishing cells
23 hours ago
-
Any books/articles for evolutionary stable strategy models in humans?
Feb 09, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - Biology
More news stories
Employers feel no love for unscrupulous practice of 'service sweethearting'
A new study led by two Florida State University marketing professors finds that some frontline service employees who are rewarded for hikes in customer loyalty and satisfaction also may engage in "service ...
Other Sciences / Economics & Business
8 hours ago |
4 / 5 (1) |
4
A frank discussion of the power law and linking correlation to causation
(PhysOrg.com) -- Michael Stumpf a mathematics professor at Imperial College in London, and Mason Porter a lecturer at Oxford have teamed together to write and publish a perspective piece in Science regarding the in ...
The question of life in the ancient world
Theres a general feeling that we dont get the Greeks ancient or modern. Many, including heads of state like Angela Merkel, visibly shake their head in exasperation, rightly or wrongly, at ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
13 hours ago |
1.3 / 5 (3) |
4
Sonic Cradle lands spot in TED exhibition
A Simon Fraser University graduate student project that melds music, meditation and modern technology has landed a rare spot as an exhibit at TEDActive 2012 in Palm Springs, California this month.
10 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Chilean miners' rescue capsule on show in London
The capsule used to rescue Chilean miners trapped underground for two months goes on display Saturday at the Science Museum in London -- the first time it has been seen in Europe.
12 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Google users warned of threat to smartphone wallets
Users of Google smartphone wallets were being warned on Friday that there is a way to crack pass codes intended to thwart thieves from going on illicit shopping sprees.
Anonymous knocks CIA website offline (Update)
The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was inaccessible on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline.
Complex wiring of the nervous system may rely on a just a handful of genes and proteins
Researchers at the Salk Institute have discovered a startling feature of early brain development that helps to explain how complex neuron wiring patterns are programmed using just a handful of critical genes. ...
New error-correcting codes guarantee the fastest possible rate of data transmission
Error-correcting codes are one of the triumphs of the digital age. Theyre a way of encoding information so that it can be transmitted across a communication channel such as an optical fiber o ...
The power of estrogen -- male snakes attract other males
A new study has shown that boosting the estrogen levels of male garter snakes causes them to secrete the same pheromones that females use to attract suitors, and turned the males into just about the sexiest ...
Humans may have helped the decline of African rainforests 3000 years ago
(PhysOrg.com) -- Large areas of rainforests in Central Africa mysteriously disappeared over three thousand years ago, to be replaced by savannas. The prevailing theory has been that the cause was a change ...