ESR and AMS-based 14C Dating of Mousterian Levels at Mujina Pećina, Dalmatia, Croatia

Abstract

Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum. This paper presents the first chronometric dates for sediments that contain a Mousterian industry in Dalmatia (south Croatia). Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating was conducted on two teeth from the Mousterian level E1 at the site of Mujina Pećina. Additionally five bone and one charcoal sample from five different strata of origin at this site were dated by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). Assuming 30% moisture for both the gamma and beta dose rate calculations, the mean LU ESR age estimate is 44 5 ka for level E1, which is statistically indistinguishable from the mean EU ESR age estimate of 40 7 ka. A single, uncalibrated 14 C age from the E1/E2 interface yielded an age estimate of 45,170 +2780/ 2060 years  while the mean of the five samples from overlying Mousterian levels is 39 3 ka. The true (calibrated) age of this mean is about 42 ka, which means that the entire stratigraphic profile in Mujina Pećina apparently was very rapidly deposited, and that the ESR age, regardless of uptake model is in good agreement with the calibrated 14 C mean age. Temporally, Mujina Pećina overlaps with Pontinian Mousterian sites in west-central Italy and Vindija level G3 from northwestern Croatia. However, there are notable differences between the Mousterian industry from Mujina Pećina and these other sites. Collectively, the Croatian sites yield important evidence on the adaptation of European Mousterian people.

Age of the final Middle Palaeolithic and Uluzzian levels at Fumane Cave, Northern Italy, using 14C, ESR, 234U/230Th and thermoluminescence methods

“…In the same prealpine fringe, at the Pradis high plateau, the recently discovered Rio Secco Cave provides evidence of final Middle Palaeolithic occupation dated to 37,790 AE 360 radiocarbon yr BP (Peresani and Gurioli, 2007). Further to the south-east, the dated sequence at Fumane is almost contemporaneous with layers B through E1 and E1/E2 of Mujina Peć ina, dated between 45 and 34 14 C ka BP (Rink et al, 2002) and with level G3 of Vindija cave in northwestern Croatia, which contains a Mousterian industry and Neanderthal remains (Karavanić and Smith, 1998). This latter level has been recently dated by AMS to over 42 14 C ka BP (Ahern et al, 2004).…”

“…This foreshadows the pattern of raw material use in the Vindija Upper Paleolithic, which is dominated by chert. At Mujina Pé cina a cultural sequence including Levallois artefacts in the lower levels E-D and small tools like notches and denticulates in the upper ones C and B found similarities with other sites in the same region and in Montenegro at Crvena Stijena (Rink et al, 2002).…”

Analysis of Neolithic human remains discovered in southern Italy

“…Carbon concentration was determined by comparing the values of the current levels of C12 and C13 present, as well as the computations of C14 with the values obtained from sucrose standard samples of C6 provided by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) (Rink et al, 2002).…”

Late Mousterian subsistence and cave use in Dalmatia: the zooarchaeology of Mujina Pećina, Croatia

“…The cave is about 10 m deep and 8 m wide (ca. 55 m 2 within the dripline); recent excavations by the Department of Archaeology, Zagreb University and Kaštela City Museum exposed Middle Palaeolithic deposits over approximately 19 m 2 between 1995-2000 (Rink et al, 2002). The total depth of deposit is about 150 cm and is divided into eight major stratigraphic units (from top to bottom, Levels A, B, C, D1, D2, E1, E2, E3).…”

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The faunal assemblage from Mujina Peć ina provides an initial glimpse of Late Middle Palaeolithic food procurement, management, and site use, in Dalmatia, Croatia. Radiometric dates place the entire sequence at about 42 kyr in the middle of OIS 3 (Oxygen Isotope Stage 3) (Rink et al, 2002). Mujina Peć ina is located along a potential migration corridor for hominin populations moving into Europe from western Asia.

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