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Topic Name: Evidence of scarce manganese oxide mineral exchange between prehistoric peoples of the French Pyrenees
Category: Minning
Research persons: French scientists Francois Farges, Emily Chalmin, and others collaborated with Brown
Location: Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA, United States
Details
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.
About Researcher:
François Farges
Laboratoire des Géomatériaux
Université de Marne la Vallée
Cité Descartes
77454 Marne la Vallée cedex 2
France
o téléphone depuis la France : 01 49 32 90 57
telephone from inside France
o FAX depuis depuis l'étranger : +33 1 49 32 91 37
FAX from outside Franceo e-mail :
farges@univ-mlv.fr
o WWW :
http://www.univ-mlv.fr/~farges/
Fund:
Stanford University or the U.S. Department of Energy
In picture:
Researcher French scientists Francois Farges
& The Great Bull of Lascaux.
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