Dating Tom Ketchum: The Role of Chronometric Determinations in Rock Art Analysis

Abstract

Rock art analysis has been used both to provide insight into prehistoric symbolism and ceremony, and to measure prehistoric interaction and communication. But chronological control, essential to distinguishing functional or social differences from temporal differences, has been difficult to establish. No one method of dating has yet proven completely reliable or applicable. Accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon dating, at the Tom Ketchum Cave pictograph site in southeastern Arizona, provides one of the first examples of direct independent dating of rock art. The dates suggest the pictographs may have been created during a time when subsistence patterns were shifting from Archaic hunter and gatherer traditions to more agriculture-based subsistence. The Tom Ketchum Cave artists broke from the abstract style more common in the region to represent game animals and hunters, perhaps to ensure success in a disappearing way of life.

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