[HN Gopher] First carbon-based cave drawings found in France
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       First carbon-based cave drawings found in France
        
       Author : isaacfrond
       Score  : 19 points
       Date   : 2023-12-28 08:57 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (news.artnet.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (news.artnet.com)
        
       | popol12 wrote:
       | So it's been discovered in 2020, and there's no carbon 14
       | datation yet ? Why ?
        
         | throwup238 wrote:
         | Radiocarbon dating isn't as simple as most people think because
         | the ratios of the various carbon isotopes varies significantly
         | by region and time period. A volcanic eruption somewhere else
         | on the continent, for example, can dump ancient C14-poor carbon
         | from underground which changes the ratio of C-14 to other
         | isotopes, making samples appear much older than they really
         | are.
         | 
         | They need to come up with a calibration standard for the
         | locality by measuring a bunch of other samples that have been
         | dated by other means to establish a control. Then they will be
         | able to actually date the cave painting. Calibration standards
         | are hard work and it might take a while.
        
       | maelito wrote:
       | > by researchers at the Center de Recherche et de Restauration
       | des Musees de France
       | 
       | French regularly confuse "er" for "re" when they write english,
       | but so do the english speaking word (center is writter centre and
       | pronounced centre).
        
         | garciansmith wrote:
         | When French write American English and when Americans write
         | about French institutions, rather. Generally it's "centre" in
         | British and Canadian English.
        
         | mysterydip wrote:
         | Sincere question from an American: can you explain why er and
         | re make different sounds at the end of a word than everywhere
         | else? like "read" or "redo" or "terror".
        
           | Tagbert wrote:
           | It is common in languages that phonemes (groups of letters
           | making a single sound) are pronounced differently depending
           | in where in a word they occur. At the start of a word, they
           | may get more emphasis and that can chance the pronunciation.
           | At the end of the word, there is a tendency to drop emphasis
           | as you prepare to speak the next word. That causes a phoneme
           | like "er" to sound like "ur" at the ends of words.
        
       | pkdpic wrote:
       | Just in case anyone else was confused by the lead image of the
       | Lascaux cave replica. This is about a cave near Lascaux, not
       | Lascaux.
       | 
       | > The Bison Cave is named after the Paleolithic drawings of
       | animals on its main gallery walls. It is considered one of the
       | best examples of ancient wall painting along with the nearby
       | Lascaux cave.
       | 
       | And not to diminish this but just for context the Chauvet cave
       | paintings (also in France) have been estimated to be 37,000 years
       | old, also using radio carbon dating.
       | 
       | > https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chauvet_Cave
       | 
       | Super interesting that most if the paintings in the Dordogne
       | region used oxide pigments (if that's what the article is
       | saying), didn't know that.
        
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       (page generated 2023-12-29 23:01 UTC)