AMS 14C dating the Protoaurignacian/Early Aurignacian of Isturitz, France. Implications for Neanderthal–modern human interaction and the timing of technical and cultural innovations in Europe

Szmidt, Carolyn; Normand, Christian; Burr, George S.; Hodgins, Greg; LaMOTTA, Sarah E.

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2009.11.006

Cited by 79 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Finally, according to our results, the CP Neandertals of the Grotte du Renne, Saint-Césaire, and Les Cottés clearly postdate the earliest likely modern humans remains documented in western Europe (43) and largely overlap in time with the early Aurignacian in the Swabian area (44) and in southwestern France (42). This evidence is fully compatible with a model of stimulus diffusion (45), accounting for the emergence of behavioral novelties among the CP Neandertals (8,10).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…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: 89%

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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.

214

142

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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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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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.

214

142

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“…AH 3 shows that, at least for Central Europe, this argument is not valid. The AH 3 Early Aurignacian overlaps with the first Proto-Aurignacian assemblages (46,47) elsewhere in Europe (SI Appendix, Fig. S17).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alternatively, the differences between the Protoand Early Aurignacian could relate to the exploitation of specific foraging niches requiring different food-acquisition technologies. Future explanations of the differences between Proto-and Early Aurignacian should consider factors such as site function, occupation density, and adaptation to particular environments, e.g., seasonally different mobility of populations in the Mediterranean eco-zone and in the cold-steppe conditions at Willendorf II when explaining the differences between Proto-and Early Aurignacian (7,13,17,46).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early modern human settlement of Europe north of the Alps occurred 43,500 years ago in a cold steppe-type environment

Nigst

Haesaerts

Damblon

et al. 2014

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

177

125

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Significance Modern humans dispersed into Europe and replaced Neanderthals at least 40,000 years ago. However, the precise timing and climatic context of this dispersal are heavily debated. Therefore, a new project combining paleoenvironmental and archaeological fieldwork has been undertaken at Willendorf II (Austria), a key site for this time period. This project has concluded that modern humans producing Aurignacian stone tools occupied Central Europe about 43,500 years ago in a medium-cold steppe environment with some boreal trees along valleys. This discovery represents the oldest well-documented occurrence of behaviorally modern humans in Europe and demonstrates contemporaneity with Neanderthals in other parts of Europe, showing that behaviorally modern humans and Neanderthals shared this region longer than previously thought.

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“…These ages are older than those ranging from 33 to 30.8 kyr obtained using the same technique (Table 2) or which seemed even older when a classical technique was used on other Mousterian sites in the Haute-Loire (Rochelimagne Polignac, Le Rivaux in Espaly and the shelter of Rond-SaintArcons) which have fed the debate on the variability of the regional "recent Mousterian" (Combier, 1967(Combier, , 1990Moncel, 2003). As in southwestern France (Szmidt et al, 2010b) and Cantabrian Spain (Maroto et al, 2012;Pike et al, 2012), these results question the contemporaneity of the last Neanderthals and the first anatomically modern humans -the oldest Chauvet Cave dates fall between 33 and 29 kyr (Combier and Jouve, 2012;Valladas et al, 2005), and are contemporary with the recent Mousterian in Velay-Vivarais.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Datations SMA et nouveaux regards sur l’archéo-séquence du Rond-du-Barry (Polignac, Haute-Loire)

Raynal

Lafarge

Rémy

et al. 2014

Comptes Rendus Palevol

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International audienceA series of 36 radiocarbon AMS ages produced from separate bone fragments has prompted a new appraisal of the archaeological sequence of the Rond-du-Barry Cave (Polignac, Haute-Loire). A huge rock-fall of unknown age underlies Unit H, which which contains evidence of the oldest human occupation of the site consisting of a Middle Palaeolithic assemblage dated to between 40 and 33 kyr. The first Upper Palaeolithic occupation of the Cave occurred later. In Unit F, three Badegoulian occupation sectors can be identified that are dated to between 20 and 17.5 kyr. The uppermost units, E and D yielded Middle and Upper Magdalenian dates of between 15.4 and 12.4 kyr. Within Unit E, a tephra related layer (E6) is likely to belong to a distal southern lobe of an eruptive event that was centred in the Chaîne des Puys, 100km to the North. Unit D shows evidence of being re-worked at least during Mesolithic/Neolithic times, circa 6.5/4.9 kyr. The sum of this new evidence demonstrates the existence of a previouly unrecognised stratigraphic and spatial complexity within the Rond-du-barry archaeological deposits, which demands that new investigations be made in the cave.Trente-six dates radiocarbone par spectrométrie de masse par accélérateur, réalisées sur des restes fauniques appartenant chaque fois à un seul individu, précisent le découpage chrono-culturel de l’archéo-séquence de la grotte du Rond-du-Barry (Polignac, Haute-Loire). Reposant sur un complexe effondré dont la base n’a jamais été atteinte, l’unité archéo-stratigraphique H contenait du Paléolithique moyen récent, daté entre 40 et 33 ka BP. Le Paléolithique supérieur est représenté par l’unité archéo-stratigraphique F –avec trois secteurs d’occupation rapportés au Badegoulien et datés entre 20 etb17,5 ka BP – et par les unités archéo-stratigraphiques E et D, dont le Magdalénien moyen et supérieur est daté entre 15,4 et 12,4 ka BP. Dans l’unité E, un téphra (E6) appartient au lobe distal d’un nuage éruptif issu de la Chaîne des Puys, à plus de 100 km au sud de son origine. L’unité archéo-stratigraphique D a subi des perturbations au Mésolithique/Néolithique ancien, entre 6,5 et 4,9 ka BP. Ces résultats révèlent une complexité stratigraphique et spatiale du remplissage que les fouilles anciennes ont ignorée et renforcent l’intérêt d’entreprendre de nouveaux travaux

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AMS 14C dating the Protoaurignacian/Early Aurignacian of Isturitz, France. Implications for Neanderthal–modern human interaction and the timing of technical and cultural innovations in Europe

Cited by 79 publications

References 56 publications

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

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

Early modern human settlement of Europe north of the Alps occurred 43,500 years ago in a cold steppe-type environment

Datations SMA et nouveaux regards sur l’archéo-séquence du Rond-du-Barry (Polignac, Haute-Loire)

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