Britain And France In Dispute Over Cave Art

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 10-16-2003 | Philip Delves

[blam]

Britain and France in dispute over cave art By Philip Delves Broughton in Paris
(Filed: 16/10/2003)

The age of the cave paintings at Chauvet, the Sistine Chapel of palaeolithic art in south eastern France, has become the subject of a war of words between British and French archaeologists.

The British claim the French may have exaggerated their age by 18,000 years under official pressure to promote them as the oldest cave paintings in the world.

In its final report on the paintings, released this week, a French culture ministry rejected the allegations and called the British dating methods "too slow and expensive" to bother with.

Paul Pettitt, an archaeologist at the University of Sheffield, accused the French yesterday of "not being honest and open" about the real age of the paintings.

The French have dated the paintings to 33,000 BC, which would make them the oldest paintings in the world.

Mr Pettitt and Paul Bahn, an independent archaeologist, published a paper this year which said the style of the paintings suggested a date of about 15,000 BC. "If the French are right, it would be as if they had found a Renaissance painting from the early Middle Ages," said Mr Pettitt.

The French allowed only a single French laboratory to analyse the carbon in the charcoal used in the drawings and refused to send comparable samples to other facilities around the world for dating.

[blam]

Ping.

[what's up]

My bet's on the English.

The French are most likely exagerrating the age of the paintings to boost sagging tourism...or some other nefarious motive.

[Luke]

The French have dated the paintings to 33,000 BC, which would make them the oldest paintings in the world.

Not possible since Biblical documentation only puts the earth at about 7 or 8 thousands years old.

[ellery]

I sent this article to Mr. Ellery; thought I'd share his response:

well the difference in the styles -- it is obviously something to do with the advance. the artists, they were more advance. the french cave painting, it was very avante-garde. the british are still painting the caves? yes?

[subterfuge]

The British and the French are arguing?

Shocking!! Whats next, dogs hate cats?

[farmfriend]

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[SunkenCiv]

‘Stone age art’ in Upper Franconian cave not an archaeological sensation after all
May 12, 2016
http://phys.org/news/2016-05-stone-age-art-upper-franconian.html