Combined US-ESR dating of fossil teeth from El Harhoura 2 cave (Morocco): New data about the end of the MSA in Temara region

Abstract

The study of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) in North Africa is essential to better understand the human dispersals during the Late Pleistocene. The timing of the transition from the MSA to the Later Stone Age (LSA) in the region is still debated due to the scarcity of sites and the limited chronological constraints available. Among the few existing MIS 5 to MIS 1 archaeological sites in Northwestern Africa, El Harhoura 2 cave (Morocco) has been extensively excavated during the last decade. It has provided MSA and LSA sequences from which human remains have been systematically discovered in association with faunal and lithic assemblages. The combined US-ESR method has been applied to date five teeth from layer 3 and 4A, which correspond to the most recent MSA occupations at El Harhoura 2 cave. The results suggest the disappearance of the MSA at this site to have occurred around ~ 40 ka, at the end of MIS 3, which is consistent with the palaeoenvironmental interpretation derived from the faunal remains. These new results suggest that the last MSA human occupation are ~15 ka more recent than previously showed by OSL dating. Further investigation is required to fully understand the reason of such discrepancy between the two methods.

The contribution of functional traits to the understanding of palaeoenvironmental changes

“…Moreover, they appear to be relevant indicators palaeo-environmental transitions and offer a range of opportunities to explore the impact of environmental changes on extinct organisms. used in this study (Stoetzel, 2009;Janati-Idrissi et al, 2012;Stoetzel et al, 2012a;Ben Arous et al, 2019, 2020. Three datations muscle (MP) from mandible shape.…”

“…From top to bottom, the stratigraphy of EH2 cave is structured in 11 layers. Eight of these levels are well dated and were included in this study (L1, L2, L3, L4a, L5, L6, L7, L8) Ben Arous et al, 2019, 2020. Palaeo-environmental data were deduced from faunal communities (Stoetzel, 2009;Stoetzel et al, 2011Stoetzel et al, , 2012bStoetzel et al, ,a, 2014.…”

Using Dentine as well as Enamel in ESR Dating

“…Grün [42] showed that for teeth from cave sites, p en /p den ≅ 1.0 ± 0.5 was true for most teeth, while in open air sites, p en / p den ≅ 1.0 ± 1.0 for most teeth with p < 2. While combined dating was not performed on the teeth in Table 4, p values for enamel and dentine have been published in multiple studies [e.g., [43][44][45][46][47][48][49] and can serve as a proxy for the importance of this parameter. With the exception of Payre [49], all of the ones quoted come from caves.…”

The use of paleoclimatic simulations to refine the environmental and chronological context of archaeological/paleontological sites

“…As a result, paleolandscapes of the Late Pleistocene are described as open steppe or savanna-like lands with patches of shrubs, woodlands and water bodies, the latter expanding during All of the eight studied layers have been dated (Ben Arous et al, 2020b). Three different methods were used: OSL (Optical Stimulated Luminescence) (Jacobs and Roberts, 2012;Jacobs et al, 2012), combined US-ESR (combination of uranium series and electron spin resonance methods) (Janati-Idrissi et al, 2012;Ben Arous et al, 2020a) and AMS-14 C (radiocarbon dating) (Nespoulet and El Hajraoui, 85 2012; Marquer et al, in press). However, important discrepancies appear between methods when applied to a same layer, as for the L3 dated at approximately 40 ka using combined US-ESR and at 60 ka using OSL (Fig1).…”