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

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.

Late Palaeolithic cave art and permafrost in the Southern Ural.

Shulgan-Tash (also known as Kapova) cave located on the western slope of the Ural Mountains (Russia) is the easternmost European cave art monument of late Palaeolithic age. Radiocarbon dates from cultural layers in the cave suggest an age of about 16.3 to 19.6 ka (cal BP), but dates directly on the paintings were not obtained. In order to constrain the age of this art using an independent method, we performed detailed 230Th-U dating of calcite flowstone underlying and overgrowing the paintings at 22 sites in three halls of the cave. The youngest age for the underlying calcite (i.e., the maximum age of the cave art) is 36.4 ± 0.1 ka, and the oldest overlying calcite (constraining the minimum age of the cave art) is 14.5 ± 0.04 ka. The ca. 21.9 ka-long hiatus in calcite deposition during which the paintings were made is attributed to regional permafrost conditions and sub-zero temperatures inside the cave during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2. This is supported by samples of cryogenic cave calcite, which document seven episodes of freezing and thawing of permafrost associated with stadials and interstadials of MIS 3, respectively.