The Arabian Peninsula is a critical geographic landmass situated between Africa and the rest of Eurasia. Climatic shifts across the Pleistocene periodically produced wetter conditions in Arabia, ...dramatically altering the spatial distribution of hominins both within and between continents. This is particularly true of Acheulean hominins, who appear to have been more tethered to water sources than Middle Palaeolithic hominins. However, until recently, chrono-cultural knowledge of the Acheulean of Arabia has been limited to one dated site, which indicated a hominin presence in Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 7-6. Here, we report the first dated Acheulean site from the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia, together with palaeoecological evidence for an associated deep, probably fresh-water, lake. The site of An Nasim features varied and often finely flaked façonnage handaxes. Luminescence ages together with geomorphological and palaeoecological evidence indicates that the associated artefacts date to MIS 9. At present, An Nasim represents the oldest yet documented Acheulean sites in Arabia, and adds to a growing picture of regionally diverse stone tool assemblages used by Middle Pleistocene hominins, and likely indicative of repeated population re-entry into the peninsula in wet 'Green Arabia' phases.
The Shi'bat Dihya 1 site in western Yemen, dated by optically stimulated luminescence to 55 ka, provides insight into the Middle Paleolithic peopling of the Arabian Peninsula. The archaeological ...layer is interstratified within thick, sandy silt floodplain deposits filling a piedmont basin. Luminescence dates, lack of soil development, and gypsum precipitation indicate a high accretion rate of the floodplain during Marine Isotope Stage 3, in connection with a (semi)‐arid environment. Rapid overbank sedimentation was likely a result of the remobilization of loess material deposited on the Yemeni Great Escarpment at the periphery of the adjacent Tihama coastal sand desert or of other sources. Fabric and size analyses of the lithic artifacts, together with spatial projections, indicate site modifications by floods. Primary modifications include (1) selective accumulation of medium‐sized lithic pieces as a result of hydraulic sorting, (2) bimodal orientation of artifacts, and (3) ripple‐like arrangement of lithics and bone/tooth fragments. The overrepresentation of teeth may also be a consequence of sorting. Although floods have distorted the original site patterning, long‐distance transport of artifacts by water can be excluded, as indicated by relatively high refitting rate, close proximity of artifacts derived from the same block of raw material, and lack of abrasion of the pieces. Therefore, the site is considered “geologically” in situ because its remobilization by water occurred shortly after human abandonment. This study also stresses that the effective preservation of a site cannot be assessed without careful taphonomic study, even in a potentially favorable depositional context such as silty alluvium.
Enigmatic rock structures in the form of walls, chambers, tunnels, and cairns are common archaeological features in northeastern United States, but the age of their construction is mostly unknown. ...Debate persists as to whether they are colonial or pre-colonial in age. Luminescence dating was applied at several sites to sediments underneath the rocks or to the rocks themselves. Sediment ages obtained from potassium feldspars using IRSL place their construction in the late 16th century, just before sustained colonial settlement. Sediment ages obtained from quartz using OSL place their construction later, but the much weaker quartz signals have issues, primarily the prevalence of a slower bleaching component. These raise questions on the credibility of the quartz ages. The age from one rock, also using IRSL, supports the K-feldspar sediment ages. The evidence suggests a pre-colonial construction, by ancestors of modern native Americans.
•Luminescence dating is applied to rocks and sediments from rock structures in New England.•K-feldspars using IRSL provide more credible dates than quartz using OSL.•The rock structures appear to date to late 16th century, before sustained colonial settlement.
The oldest Oldowan tool sites, from around 2.6 million years ago, have previously been confined to Ethiopia's Afar Triangle. We describe sites at Nyayanga, Kenya, dated to 3.032 to 2.581 million ...years ago and expand this distribution by over 1300 kilometers. Furthermore, we found two hippopotamid butchery sites associated with mosaic vegetation and a C
grazer-dominated fauna. Tool flaking proficiency was comparable with that of younger Oldowan assemblages, but pounding activities were more common. Tool use-wear and bone damage indicate plant and animal tissue processing.
sp. teeth, the first from southwestern Kenya, possessed carbon isotopic values indicative of a diet rich in C
foods. We argue that the earliest Oldowan was more widespread than previously known, used to process diverse foods including megafauna, and associated with
from its onset.
Determining the extent of overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, is fundamental to understanding the nature of their interactions and what ...led to the disappearance of archaic hominins. Apart from a possible sporadic pulse recorded in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene, the first settlements of modern humans in Europe have been constrained to ~45,000 to 43,000 years ago. Here, we report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal the earliest known presence of modern humans in Europe between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. This early modern human incursion in the Rhône Valley is associated with technologies unknown in any industry of that age outside Africa or the Levant. Mandrin documents the first alternating occupation of Neanderthals and modern humans, with a modern human fossil and associated Neronian lithic industry found stratigraphically between layers containing Neanderthal remains associated with Mousterian industries.
An optimal lighting setting for the darkroom laboratory is fundamental for the accuracy of luminescence dating results. Here, we present the lighting setting implemented in the new Luminescence ...Dating Research Laboratory at Stony Brook University, USA. In this study, we performed spectral measurements on different light sources and filters. Then, we measured the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) signal of quartz and the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) at 50 ∘ C (IR 50 ) as well as post-IR IRSL at 290 ∘ C (pIR-IR 290 ) signal of potassium (K)-rich feldspar samples exposed to various light sources and durations. Our ambient lighting is provided by ceiling fixtures, each equipped with a single orange light-emitted diode (LED). In addition, our task-oriented lighting, mounted below each wall-mounted cabinet and inside the fume hoods, is equipped with a dimmable orange LED stripline. The ambient lighting, delivering 0.4 lx at the sample position, induced a loss of less than 5 % (on average) in the quartz OSL dose after 24 h of exposure and up to 5 % (on average) in the IR 50 dose for the K-rich feldspar samples, with no measurable effect on their pIR-IR 290 dose. The fume hood lighting, delivering 1.1 lx at the sample position, induced a dose loss of less than 5 % in quartz OSL and K-rich feldspar IR 50 doses after 24 h of exposure, with no measurable effect on their pIR-IR 290 dose. As light exposure during sample preparation is usually less than 24 h, we conclude that our lighting setting is suitable for luminescence dating darkrooms; it is simple, inexpensive to build, and durable.
Luminescence dating methods on natural minerals such as quartz and feldspars are indispensable for establishing chronologies in Quaternary Science. Commonly applied sediment dating methods are ...optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL). In 1999, Trautmann et al. (1999a, b) proposed a new related technique called infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF). IR-RF denotes the infrared luminescence signal of feldspar resulting from exposure to ionizing radiation and potentially offers a significant methodological advance compared to OSL and IRSL regarding luminescence signal stability, dating range and required measurement time. The method has rarely been applied due to a lack of commercially available measurement equipment but experienced a revival during the last years. The present article provides a state-of-the-art overview of the physical background of IR-RF, its challenges, applications and the potential as a dating method. The paper particularly addresses practical considerations for applying IR-RF dating, including signal bleachability and saturation behaviour, and summarizes proposed solutions.
The site of La Quina Amont, located in the Charente region, is one of the most important sites in southwestern France for studying major changes in human behaviors from the Middle Paleolithic (MP) to ...the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP). Extensively excavated over the past 50 years, numerous dating studies have been focused on the Upper Paleolithic deposits using radiocarbon on bone collagen and thermoluminescence (TL) on heated flints; however, the Mousterian levels remain undated due to the scarcity of suitable materials. Our investigations aimed to provide for the first time a chronological framework for the site using luminescence dating methods on different minerals contained in the sediments. Coarse grains of quartz were dated using the optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) technique, and polymineral fine grains were dated using both infrared (IRSL) and post-infrared (pIR-IRSL) stimulated luminescence signals. OSL, IRSL and pIR-IRSL results were combined with available TL and radiocarbon data sets to propose a chronology for the site. The agreement between these methods provides key insights into the sedimentological processes involved in the site formation and into the chronology of the human occupations. In particular, it shows that the sequence spans almost ∼20,000 years (20 ka). Moreover, the new chronological framework suggests that the makers of the Quina lithic technocomplex (LTC), who were reindeer hunters, inhabited the site from the end of marine isotope stage (MIS) 4 to the beginning of MIS 3. We also show that Levallois and Discoidal industries occurred successively under temperate paleoclimatic conditions, during MIS 3 but not after ∼40 ka. Finally, we compare the Quina LTC dataset with other sites in southern France in order to shed light upon the variability in Mousterian industries of this region.
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