Problems with radiocarbon dating the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy

Higham, Thomas; Brock, Fiona; Peresani, Marco; Broglio, Alberto; Wood, Rachel; Douka, Katerina

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.12.018

Cited by 209 publications

(159 citation statements)

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“…In their analyses of, respectively, the stone and bone tool assemblages from the Cavallo Uluzzian, neither RielSalvatore ( 2009 ) nor d 'Errico et al ( 2012 ) spotted the presence of intrusive material in level E, and the ornament shell date of ~43.6 ka cal BP is consistent both with those published in d 'Errico et al ( 2012 ) for basal spit EIII of the site (on charcoal samples) and with age estimates for the Uluzzian elsewhere in Italy and Greece (Koumouzelis et al 2001a , b ;Higham et al 2009 ). These observations warrant the overall stratigraphic integrity of level E, but do not exclude localized movement of individual, small-sized items across its boundary with the signifi cantly disturbed level D, as suggested by the OxA-19257 result discussed above, in all likelihood an upwardly displaced sample.…”

Section: Datingsupporting

confidence: 65%

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

Zilhão

2013

Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans Volume 1

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Supporting Assimilation views of Neandertal/modern human interaction, chronostratigraphic reasoning indicates that the "transitional" industries of Europe predate modern human immigration, in agreement with their association with Neandertals in the Châtelperronian at the Grotte du Renne and St.-Césaire. Supporting the Neandertals' species separateness and less developed cognition, those industries are alternatively claimed to relate to pioneer groups of modern humans; the latter would have been the true makers of the precocious instances of symbolic material culture that, under Assimilation, are assigned to the Neandertals. However, the taxonomy of the Kent's Cavern and Grotta del Cavallo dental remains is uncertain, and their poor stratigraphic context precludes dating by association. The opposite happens at the Grotte du Renne, whose stratigraphic integrity is corroborated by both taphonomy and dating. Not questioning that the Early Ahmarian is a cultural proxy for modern humans and a source for the Protoaurignacian of Europe, its claimed emergence ~46-49 ka ago at Kebara refl ects the dating of Middle Paleolithic charcoal-to be expected, because the Early Ahmarian units at the back of the cave are made up of reworked Middle Paleolithic sediments derived from the entrance. The dating of inherited material also explains the old results for the Aurignacian of Willendorf II and Geissenklösterle. At the latter, the dates on anthropically modifi ed samples of the hunted taxa (reindeer and horse) place its Aurignacian occupations in the same time range as elsewhere in Europe, after ~40 ka ago. The hypothesis that Neandertal/modern human contact in Europe resulted in a process of assimilation in connection with the spread of the Protoaurignacian ~41.5 ka ago remains unfalsifi ed.

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Section: Datingsupporting

confidence: 65%

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

Zilhão

2013

Dynamics of Learning in Neanderthals and Modern Humans Volume 1

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“…The Protoaurignacian of the Grotte du Renne and Les Cottés is much younger that the oldest occurrence of this assemblage in northern Italy (41) and southern France (42), suggesting a later arrival of their likely modern makers in central France. The time range of the Protoaurignacian is also wider than found for this period in the southern sites and encompasses the Early Aurignacian radiocarbon dates from Les Cottés.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Radiocarbon dates from the Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire support a Neandertal origin for the Châtelperronian

Hublin

Talamo

Julien

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

205

137

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The transition from the Middle Paleolithic (MP) to Upper Paleolithic (UP) is marked by the replacement of late Neandertals by modern humans in Europe between 50,000 and 40,000 y ago. Châtelperronian (CP) artifact assemblages found in central France and northern Spain date to this time period. So far, it is the only such assemblage type that has yielded Neandertal remains directly associated with UP style artifacts. CP assemblages also include body ornaments, otherwise virtually unknown in the Neandertal world. However, it has been argued that instead of the CP being manufactured by Neandertals, site formation processes and layer admixture resulted in the chance association of Neanderthal remains, CP assemblages, and body ornaments. Here, we report a series of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates on ultrafiltered bone collagen extracted from 40 well-preserved bone fragments from the late Mousterian, CP, and Protoaurignacian layers at the Grotte du Renne site (at Arcy-sur-Cure, France). Our radiocarbon results are inconsistent with the admixture hypothesis. Further, we report a direct date on the Neandertal CP skeleton from Saint-Césaire (France). This date corroborates the assignment of CP assemblages to the latest Neandertals of western Europe. Importantly, our results establish that the production of body ornaments in the CP postdates the arrival of modern humans in neighboring regions of Europe. This new behavior could therefore have been the result of cultural diffusion from modern to Neandertal groups.

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“…This is due to the difficulty in reliably identifying a point during the ABOX-SC treatment when all contaminants are removed, but at which oxidation of the BC structure itself (and hence loss of the target material of interest for dating) has not yet commenced. Thus, there is a requirement of typically >100 mg of well-preserved charcoal for ABOX-SC pretreatment (Higham et al 2009b). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropyrolysis: Implications for Radiocarbon Pretreatment and Characterization of Black Carbon

et al. 2010

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ABSTRACT.Charcoal is the result of natural and anthropogenic burning events, when biomass is exposed to elevated temperatures under conditions of restricted oxygen. This process produces a range of materials, collectively known as pyrogenic carbon, the most inert fraction of which is known as black carbon (BC). BC degrades extremely slowly and is resistant to diagenetic alteration involving the addition of exogenous carbon, making it a useful target substance for radiocarbon dating particularly of more ancient samples, where contamination issues are critical. We present results of tests using a new method for the quantification and isolation of BC, known as hydropyrolysis (hypy). Results show controlled reductive removal of non-BC organic components in charcoal samples, including lignocellulosic and humic material. The process is reproducible and rapid, making hypy a promising new approach not only for isolation of purified BC for 14 C measurement but also in quantification of different labile and resistant sample C fractions.

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Problems with radiocarbon dating the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy

Cited by 209 publications

References 50 publications

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

Radiocarbon dates from the Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire support a Neandertal origin for the Châtelperronian

Hydropyrolysis: Implications for Radiocarbon Pretreatment and Characterization of Black Carbon

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