Revised age of late Neanderthal occupation and the end of the Middle Paleolithic in the northern Caucasus

Abstract

Advances in direct radiocarbon dating of Neanderthal and anatomically modern human (AMH) fossils and the development of archaeostratigraphic chronologies now allow refined regional models for Neanderthal–AMH coexistence. In addition, they allow us to explore the issue of late Neanderthal survival in regions of Western Eurasia located within early routes of AMH expansion such as the Caucasus. Here we report the direct radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating of a late Neanderthal specimen from a Late Middle Paleolithic (LMP) layer in Mezmaiskaya Cave, northern Caucasus. Additionally, we provide a more accurate chronology for the timing of Neanderthal extinction in the region through a robust series of 16 ultrafiltered bone collagen radiocarbon dates from LMP layers and using Bayesian modeling to produce a boundary probability distribution function corresponding to the end of the LMP at Mezmaiskaya. The direct date of the fossil (39,700 ± 1,100 14 C BP) is in good agreement with the probability distribution function, indicating at a high level of probability that Neanderthals did not survive at Mezmaiskaya Cave after 39 ka cal BP ("calendrical" age in kiloannum before present, based on IntCal09 calibration curve). This challenges previous claims for late Neanderthal survival in the northern Caucasus. We see striking and largely synchronous chronometric similarities between the Bayesian age modeling for the end of the LMP at Mezmaiskaya and chronometric data from Ortvale Klde for the end of the LMP in the southern Caucasus. Our results confirm the lack of reliably dated Neanderthal fossils younger than ∼40 ka cal BP in any other region of Western Eurasia, including the Caucasus.

Neonatal postcrania from Mezmaiskaya, Russia, and Le Moustier, France, and the development of Neandertal body form

“…S1 and S2). Detailed stratigraphic assessments clearly indicate that the Mezmaiskaya 1 skeleton and level 3 were deposited at the same time, both dating to very close to or greater than the effective measurement limit of radiocarbon (∼50 ka) and likely to 70-60 ka based on electron spin resonance mean early and late uptake model determinations for level 3 (11,40,61,62).…”

Neandertal-Modern Human Contact in Western Eurasia: Issues of Dating, Taxonomy, and Cultural Associations

“…Therefore, envisaging a persistence of the Châtelperronian alongside the Protoaurignacian, with both falling in the same time interval but occupying different regions, amounts to positing an archeological impossibility, a point whose full signifi cance will become apparent below. (b) The second would be that the late dates for the last of the Belgian and Iberian Neandertals could simply be a byproduct of incomplete sample decontamination, leading to results that are too young (Pinhasi et al 2011 ;Wood et al 2013 ); therefore, such could well be also the case with the dates for Neandertal remains that place them, either directly or by stratigraphic association, in the time range of the Châtelperronian and coeval technocomplexes. However, the dates supporting the Neandertal/Châtelperronian link are, fi rstly, much older than those supporting late Neandertal persistence in Belgium and Iberia, and, secondly, fall in a period when Europe is entirely lacking in diagnostic modern human fossils; consequently, it is clear that no logical connection exists between the two propositions.…”

Testing of a single grain OSL chronology across the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition at Les Cottés (France)

“…Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating is playing a crucial role is estimating the timing of the transition from the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) to the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) in Europe (e.g., Benazzi et al, 2007;Pinhasi et al, 2011;Douka et al, 2014;Higham et al, 2014;Wood et al, 2013). In doing so, it contributes towards an improved understanding of the nature of the transition, the process of Neanderthal extinction, and the peopling of Europe by early anatomically modern humans.…”