Mughr el-Hamamah

Early Upper Paleolithic chronology in the Levant: new ABOx-SC accelerator mass spectrometry results from the Mughr el-Hamamah Site, Jordan

“…We note that MHM-6 (Aeon 1028) exhibited evidence of excellent wood charcoal preservation. However, a portion of the specimen had been used for preliminary (ABA-pretreated) 14 C AMS dating (see SOM; Stutz et al, 2012), and the remaining material from MHM-6 was judged too small a priori to risk subjecting it to ABOx pretreatment. The ABA-pretreated material from MHM-6 yielded 56% CO 2 , released during the combustion step at 625 C, typical of intact hardwood charcoal (Rebollo et al, 2008).…”

“…More specifically, JJS's ongoing analysis highlights two main additions to the field observations made by AJS and LNS, reported in Stutz et al (2012). The first is a strikingly high occurrence of scaled pieces, when compared with known Levantine EUP assemblages.…”

“…Previously, we obtained initial AMS 14 C ages from a portion of MHM-6 and three other samples (MHM-2, 4 and 5), which were all pretreated using the standard acid-base-acid (ABA) protocol (Stutz et al, 2012). The resulting ages, which ranged from ca.…”

“…We have presented an earlier report on the 2010 test excavations (Stutz et al, 2012), including: initial field-lab assessment of the lithic assemblage (estimated to include ca. 20,000 flint artifacts, including cores, debitage, debris, and formal tools); the substantial macrofaunal assemblage (preliminary NISP count ¼ 11,127); the microfaunal assemblage; special finds, including fragments of burnished bone artifacts and a possible marine shell bead, and abundant red and yellow ochre nodules; and a small number of possible human teeth (n ¼ 2) and one human post-cranial element (an atlas fragment).…”

“…This study presents new acid-base-wet oxidation-stepped combustion (ABOx-SC) pretreated accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C dates on charcoal from the recently discovered EUP cave site of Mughr el-Hamamah, Jordan (Caves of the Doves, hereafter MHM). Test excavations and preliminary analyses at MHM have revealed a diagnostic EUP lithic assemblage associated with a single prehistoric archaeological layer (Stutz et al, 2012). With preservation of a large archaeofaunal assemblage, abundant charred botanical remains, stratified combustion features, bone tools, and a small number of in situ isolated hominin remains, the EUP archaeology of MHM has potential to shed new light on the biocultural and environmental factors connecting the Levantine Middle-Upper Paleolithic transition to the wider western Eurasian development of anatomically modern human-Neandertal biological turnover in the 50e30 ka timeframe.…”