Direct radiocarbon dates for Vindija G ₁ and Velika Pećina Late Pleistocene hominid remains

Abstract

New accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates taken directly on human remains from the Late Pleistocene sites of Vindija and Velika Pećina in the Hrvatsko Zagorje of Croatia are presented. Hominid specimens from both sites have played critical roles in the development of current perspectives on modern human evolutionary emergence in Europe. Dates of Ϸ28 thousand years (ka) before the present (B.P.) and Ϸ29 ka B.P. for two specimens from Vindija G1 establish them as the most recent dated Neandertals in the Eurasian range of these archaic humans. The human frontal bone from Velika Pećina, generally considered one of the earliest representatives of modern humans in Europe, dated to Ϸ5 ka B.P., rendering it no longer pertinent to discussions of modern human origins. Apart from invalidating the only radiometrically based example of temporal overlap between late Neandertal and early modern human fossil remains from within any region of Europe, these dates raise the question of when early modern humans first dispersed into Europe and have implications for the nature and geographic patterning of biological and cultural interactions between these populations and the Neandertals.Neandertals ͉ early modern humans ͉ Croatia ͉ Europe

New discoveries and interpretations of hominid fossils and artifacts from Vindija Cave, Croatia

“…Furthermore, extensive archaeological and faunal remains were collected. Numerous publications have dealt with the findings from Vindija (Malez, 1975(Malez, , 1980Malez and Rukavina, 1979;Malez et al, 1980;Wolpoff et al, 1981;Malez and Ullrich, 1982;Smith et al, 1985Smith et al, , 1999Smith and Ahern, 1994;Karavanić, 1995;Trinkaus and Smith, 1995;Wild et al, 2001;Ahern et al, 2002).…”

“…Morphologically, these fossils are attributable to Neandertals, but many (e.g., Smith, 1982Smith, , 1984Smith, , 1994Wolpoff et al, 1981;Frayer et al, 1993;Wolpoff, 1999) have argued for their evolutionary intermediacy between earlier Neandertals, such as those from nearby Krapina, and early modern Europeans. The six specimens from level G 1 represent the latest Neandertals in Europe (Smith and Ahern, 1994;Smith et al, 1999). The ten specimens from level F are associated with an Aurignacianlike industry (Karavanić, 1995;Wolpoff et al, 1981).…”

“…Direct radiometric dating of animal and human bones has been conducted at different laboratories in the attempt to better define the chronology of the Neandertal fossil and cultural remains from Vindija Rink et al, 1999;Smith et al, 1999;Wild et al, 2001). A compilation of all 14 C data obtained for the Vindija Cave is given in the Table 1.…”

“…A compilation of all 14 C data obtained for the Vindija Cave is given in the Table 1. The direct AMS radiocarbon dating of two Neandertal specimens (Vi 207 and 208) from level G 1 yielded dates of 29,080 400 yrs BP and 28,020 360 yrs BP, respectively (Smith et al, 1999). However, nondestructive -ray spectrometry and electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of level G 1 has yielded significantly older dates Rink et al, 1999).…”

“…Also significant is the fact that Neandertal fossils dating to less than 30 ka are associated with the earliest Upper Paleolithic artifacts from the site (Smith and Ahern, 1994;Karavanić, 1995;Karavanić and Smith, 1998). Since systematic excavations at the site ended in 1986, research has focused on identification and analysis of previously overlooked hominid fossils and artifacts (e.g., Smith and Ahern, 1994), continued analysis of the fossil and archaeological samples (e.g., Trinkaus and Smith, 1995;Karavanić and Smith, 1998;Ahern et al, 2002), and the site's chronology Smith et al, 1999;Wild et al, 2001). In this paper, we report on additional fossil and archaeological discoveries and interpretations that enhance our understanding of the biology and behavior of the Vindija hominids and of the mosaic pattern of biocultural change in the Late Pleistocene of south-central Europe.…”