ESR and ESR/U-series chronology of the Middle Pleistocene site of Tourville-la-Rivière (Normandy, France) - A multi-laboratory approach

Abstract

Tourville-la-Rivière (Normandy, France) is one of the rare Middle Pleistocene palaeoanthropological localities of Northern France. Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and combined ESR/U-series dating methods were independently applied by different teams on sediments and teeth from this site. The present work provides an overview of this multi-laboratory dating work by integrating a description and discussion of the methodologies employed and results obtained. Results confirm that the ESR/U-series analyses of the teeth are greatly dependent on the U-uptake histories of the dental tissues. Although all teeth come from the same archeological level, the samples analysed by each team display two different patterns for the U-series data. This is most likely related to the different sampling areas selected by each team and may be interpreted as the result of local variations in the geochemical conditions of the surrounding environment. Concerning the ESR dating of optically bleached quartz grains, the use of the multiple centre approach seems crucial when dating such fluvial and fluvio-lacustrine sediments. Our results also confirm the great potential of the Ti-H centre to date late Middle Pleistocene deposits. Despite some (expected) discrepancies related to the independent use of parameters and approaches by the different teams involved in this multi-laboratory study, the whole ESR and ESR/U-series data set collected from Tourville-la-Rivière locality consistently correlates stratigraphic levels D1 to I and associated human occupation to MIS7.

Dating the landscape evolution around the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave

“…Such deviation is however less important for ARD 1801 and 1802 samples which yield similar Al and Ti-Li ages within the range of 1 sigma SD. The high bleaching rates affecting all the T3 samples leads to probable age overestimation of the Al centers 27 , 48 , which makes them unreliable for dating the T3 level (See Supplementary Information, Dating section) and should be considered as maximum age estimations. Nevertheless, Ti-Li centers indicate an effective bleaching rate and can be considered reliable for dating purpose.…”

“…Because of the quartz-rich component of the Ardèche river sediments 19 , 21 , 22 , we used paleodosimetric methods (Electron Spin Resonance – ESR) to date the river deposits 23 – 27 . In cave environment, radiometric analyses (Uranium series – U-series) are used to date the speleothems growth phases 28 – 31 .…”

Dating the Paleolithic: Trapped charge methods and amino acid geochronology

“…The scatter in ages for the sandy units is thought to result from incomplete resetting of the Al center, but it seems that both the Ti-Li and Al centers for all three units were incompletely reset due to the nature of the fluvial deposition. In contrast, the Ti-H center ESR ages are in agreement with the US-ESR ages of fossil teeth, illustrating its potential for dating late Middle Pleistocene deposits ( 24 ). Unlike luminescence, where single-grain analysis can assess whether sediments have been heterogeneously bleached at deposition ( Section 2.2.1 ), ESR measurements typically need 150 to 200 mg of purified quartz per measurement, and in total, 1 to 2 g may be needed; therefore, this approach is not possible.…”

“…Nevertheless, many archaeological sites have been dated using these multiple quartz ESR signals, such as the earliest Acheulian sites across northwestern Europe ( 22 ), including the French site of Moulin Quignon at 670 to 650 ka ( 23 ). However, the complexity involved in applying ESR (with issues of incomplete resetting of the signal and signal instability) is illustrated by the work at Tourville-la-Rivière, France ( 24 ). Reproducible ages (∼330 ka) were obtained for a silty–clayey sedimentary unit, while two sandy units showed ages ranging from ∼250 ka to more than 1.2 Ma.…”

First Chronological Constraints for the High Terraces of the Upper Ebro Catchment

“…In accordance with the MC approach, ESR age results were calculated for the Al, Ti (option D), and Ti-H (option C) centers (Table 5). Indeed, recent works showed that option D can provide overall accurate results for Early to Late Middle Pleistocene fluvial deposits (e.g., [66][67][68][69][70][71]), while option C (Ti-H) is usually more appropriate over a younger time range, from the Late Middle to Late Pleistocene [58,72]. However, because we are aware of the existing variability within the community regarding how the ESR intensity of Ti centers is measured [73], we also provide the D E estimates of the Ti center derived from options A and E (Supplementary Table S1).…”