Radiocarbon chronology for the Early Gravettian of northern Europe: new AMS determinations for Maisières-Canal, Belgium

Abstract

The authors explore the arrival of the earliest Gravettian in north-west Europe, using new high precision radiocarbon dates for bone excavated at Maisières-Canal in Belgium to define a short-lived occupation around 33 000 years ago. The tanged points in that assemblage have parallels in British sites, including Goat's Hole (Paviland). This is the site of the famous ochred burial of a young adult male, confusingly known as the ‘Red Lady’, now dated to around 34 000 BP. The new results demonstrate that this British ‘rich burial’ and the Gravettian with tanged points may belong to two different occupation horizons separated by a cold spell.

Maisières-Canal: An Open-Air Aurignacian Workshop

“…In particular, recently obtained dates (Jacobi et al 2010) clearly situated the Maisières oscillation at around 28,000 BP and confirm the validity of the 30,780 BP date obtained for the lower humus-bearing soil at the Champ de Fouilles, which would be younger than layer NBD containing the Aurignacian workshop on the Northeast Bank. In comparison with the new climatic and chronological sequence proposed by T. van der Hammen (1995) for the fluviatile deposits of the Middle Pleniglacial in the eastern part of the Netherlands, the humus-bearing soil MD of the Champ de Fouilles and the bioturbated horizon NCB of the Northeast Bank would be correlated with the Denekamp I interstadial dating between 30,000 and 30,500 BP.…”

“…These were also visible at the Champ de Fouilles where they came between a double generation of colluvial deposits at the base of the slope. Each colluvial deposit contained a humus-bearing horizon dated by the Groningen laboratory to 27,965 BP and 30,780 BP on sediment samples (Bastin 1971;Gilot 1971;de Heinzelin 1973 (Jacobi et al 2010). …”

A discovery of possible Upper Palaeolithic Parietal art in Cathole Cave, Gower Peninsula, South Wales

“…Unfortunately it is not certain which specimens he identified, although one at least did come from McBurney's excavation, and the two given this possible identification by Garrod (1926) do not come from a stratified context, so it is not possible to assign a date to this occupation. However, Jacobi et al (2010) suggest that the British Gravettian dates to a slightly later period than the burial of the "Red Lady" from Goat's Hole, Paviland (34,000-33,300 cal BP; Jacobi, and Higham, 2008) and is separated from the latter by the cold stage of GS-6 (Andersen, et al 2006;Svensson, et al 2006). This would give a tentative date to these finds of approximately 33-32,000 cal BP.…”

The archaeology of Britain&s first modern humans

“…Flas (2008) suggests an Aurignacian presence in Belgium and north-western Germany until 28-27 000 BP, whereas Dinnis (2009) has argued that no Aurignacian assemblage post-dates c. 30 000 BP. Flas's long chronology for the Aurignacian is intriguing, not least given the 'Red Lady of Paviland' burial, now dated to c. 29 000 BP and, according to Jacobi et al (2010), older than the British Gravettian. Of course, the burial comes from the same cave which has yielded the largest assemblage of Paviland burins currently known.…”