Data on the 14C date obtained from the charcoal figure “Black fox” in Shulgan-Tash (Kapova) cave, Southern Ural, Russia

Abstract

Shulgan-Tash (Kapova) cave in southern Ural, Russia, is the easternmost European site hosting Late Paleolithic cave art. Most of the 195+ drawings catalogued in the cave are made with red natural pigment (ochre), and only a handful of drawings are made with charcoal, see “Catalogue of images” [4], “Höhlenmalerei im Ural: Kapova und Ignatievka; die altsteinzeitlichen Bilderhöhlen im sudlichen Ural,” [5]. “Constraining the ages of the Late Palaeolithic cave paintings in the Shulgan-Tash cave, Southern Urals, Russia” [6]. None of the charcoal drawings were directly dated by 14C method so far.Black lines delineating a figure similar to the outline of a fox are known in the cave. Here we present data on the 14C AMS date of charcoal with which the lines were drawn. Calibration of the data was performed using the Bomb13NH1 dataset, see “Atmospheric radiocarbon for the period 1950–2010” [7] and the IntCal13 dataset, see “IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP” [8]. The calibrated age distribution has maximum probability density (65.3%) between 1877 and 1918. Keywords: Shulgan-Tash cave, Radiocarbon, Cave art