Three Texas-based researchers have successfully radiocarbon dated ancient cave paintings in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands along the Rio Grande border between Mexico and West Texas, using a novel combination of technologies. By dating the deer bone marrow used as a paint binder—rather than the mineral pigments themselves—and employing plasma oxidation to extract carbon, the team analyzed 53 figures across 12 sites. Their findings, published in *Science Advances*, reveal that individual murals were created in single painting events, not accumulated over centuries, and that the paintings span four millennia, from about 5,760 to 1,035 years ago.
This research matters because it provides the first reliable chronology for one of the most extensive and visually striking bodies of prehistoric rock art in North America, challenging long-held assumptions about how these murals were produced. The consistent iconography and painting sequence—dark to light—also suggest a shared symbolic language that may foreshadow later Mesoamerican creation myths, reinforcing the idea of a deep cultural continuity across Indigenous societies. The study opens new avenues for understanding the social and ritual lives of ancient hunter-gatherers in the region.