The journal Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences reports that it is the first time since these tombs were discovered more than a century ago, that the first date C14 of the paintings of tomb 21 of the necropolis of Les Ronces has been released, It is part of the called hypogeos of the Marne, north of the Gallic country.

Hypogeos are a set of tombs dug into the ground with ramp or stair access. They have small carved entrances to the chambers that have been excavated in the rock where the dead were deposited along with the objects that accompanied them: ornaments, vessels, polished axes, sheets and flint arrowheads. One of those objects was painted after being engraved and it is that painting, made of charcoal, that has now been dated.

The researchers say 'this discovery confirms their hypothesis that painting was part of the funeral stages throughout Europe. Inside dolmens and hypogeos, engravings, paintings and sculptures formed funeral discourses. From the 5th millennium to the monuments of the III, like this, a long tradition of beautification of the walls reveals beliefs of the ultra-tomb. These images are a way to set oral stories around death'.

In addition, thanks to the collaboration of Professor Ruth-Ann Armitage, Professor of Chemistry at Eastern Michigan University, and her team, a novel protocol has been allowed to remove the varnishes with which the painting was treated in the 1970s for conservation. The research has also been supported by the current director of the archaeological project, Rémi Martineau, of the University of Bourgogne; And Fernando Carrera Ramírez, conservation and restoration specialist at Universidad de Vigo.

Publicado en: Inglés