Tephra correlations and climatic events between the MIS6/5 transition and the beginning of MIS3 in Theopetra Cave, central Greece

Karkanas, Panagiotis; White, Dustin; Lane, Christine S.; Stringer, Chris; Davies, William; Cullen, Victoria L.; Smith, Vicki; Ntinou, María; Tsartsidou, Georgia; Kyparissi‐Apostolika, Nina

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.05.027

Cited by 41 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…The discovery of three cryptotephra layers in Theopetra Cave, northwest Greece (Table 1), corroborated the thermoluminescence-based chronology for the site, which was occupied as early as marine isotope stage 6 (Karkanas et al, 2013).…”

Section: Tracing Tephra Isochrons Into Archaeological Sitessupporting

confidence: 66%

Cryptotephra as a dating and correlation tool in archaeology

Lane

Cullen

White

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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a b s t r a c tA new development in archaeological chronology involves the use of far travelled volcanic ash which may form discrete but invisible layers within a site's stratigraphy. Known as cryptotephra, these horizons can provide isochrons for the precise correlation of archaeological records at single moments in time, removing, or at least significantly reducing, temporal uncertainty within inter-site comparisons. When a tephra can be dated elsewhere, its age can be imported between records, providing an independent check on other dating methods in use and valuable age estimates for difficult to date sequences. The use of cryptotephra layers to date and correlate palaeoenvironmental archives is well established and there exists a wealth of tephra compositional data and regional tephrostratigraphic frameworks from which archaeological cryptotephra studies can benefit greatly. Existing approaches to finding and analysing cryptotephra are easily adapted to archaeological sequences, so long as the often complex nature of archaeological stratigraphies and sediment taphonomy are borne in mind.

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Section: Tracing Tephra Isochrons Into Archaeological Sitessupporting

confidence: 66%

Cryptotephra as a dating and correlation tool in archaeology

Lane

Cullen

White

et al. 2014

Journal of Archaeological Science

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“…Alternatively, Pyle and Margari (2009) give c. 46 ± 5.7 ka. However, Karkanas et al (2014), present stratigraphic evidence from Theopetra Cave in Greece, which shows that the NUP pre-dates the Green Tuff (Y-6) and deduce an age which is greater than 50.4 ka cal BP. The existing ages, based mainly on radiocarbon dating close to the limits of the method, are therefore underestimates of the tephra age.…”

Section: Nisyros Upper Pumicementioning

confidence: 81%

“…Another is the use of tephra layers as widespread markers which can help to understand processes of change, such as the spread of anatomically modern humans into Europe and the regional extinction of Neanderthals (Lowe et al, 2012). Tephra horizons can also be used as an independent test of dating techniques and their associated age models (see, for example, Karkanas et al, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved age estimates for key Late Quaternary European tephra horizons in the RESET lattice

Ramsey

Albert

Blockley

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

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“…Of the 38 sites examined, around 30% contained significant amounts of cryptotephra shards (see Davies et al, 2015), some containing several discrete layers in clear superposition. The record obtained from Theopetra Cave in Greece presented in this volume (Karkanas et al, 2015) exemplifies how three discrete cryptotephra layers were detected in the sequence and assigned to known eruption events, two from Pantelleria and one from Nisyros. These tephra layers provide bracketing ages for important archaeological layers in the sediment sequence.…”

Section: Expansion Of Tephra 'Footprints'mentioning

confidence: 55%

The RESET project: constructing a European tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c. 100 ka

Lowe

Ramsey

Housley

et al. 2015

Quaternary Science Reviews

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a b s t r a c tThis paper introduces the aims and scope of the RESET project (RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions), a programme of research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) between 2008 and 2013; it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews that report some of the project's findings. RESET examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions (AETs) on the one hand, and of human dispersal and development on the other, with a focus on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The period of interest is the Last Glacial cycle and the early Holocene (c. 100e8 ka), during which time a number of pronounced AETs occurred. A long-running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Palaeolithic was shaped by these AETs, but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control. In an attempt to move the science forward, RESET examined the potential that tephra isochrons, and in particular non-visible ash layers (cryptotephras), might offer for synchronising palaeo-records with a greater degree of finesse. New tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously-established tephra frameworks for the region, and underpin a more evolved tephra 'lattice' that links palaeo-records between Greenland, the European mainland, sub-marine sequences in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume: collectively, these illustrate how the lattice was constructed, how it links with cognate tephra research in Europe and elsewhere, and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long-held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the Palaeolithic.

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Tephra correlations and climatic events between the MIS6/5 transition and the beginning of MIS3 in Theopetra Cave, central Greece

Cited by 41 publications

References 46 publications

Cryptotephra as a dating and correlation tool in archaeology

Cryptotephra as a dating and correlation tool in archaeology

Improved age estimates for key Late Quaternary European tephra horizons in the RESET lattice

The RESET project: constructing a European tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c. 100 ka

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