Problems with radiocarbon dating the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Italy |
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| Authors: | Thomas Higham Fiona Brock Marco Peresani Alberto Broglio Rachel Wood Katerina Douka |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, England, UK;2. Università di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Biologia ed Evoluzione, Sezione di Paleobiologia, Preistoria e Antropologia, Corso Ercole I d''Este, 32-44100 Ferrara, Italy;1. Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, OX1 3QY Oxford, United Kingdom;2. IPHES, Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, Zona Educacional 4, Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain;3. Area de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgil. Fac. de Lletres, Av. Catalunya 35, 43002 Tarragona, Spain;4. University of Tübingen, Dept. of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology, Burgsteige 11, D-72070, Tübingen, Germany;5. Tübingen-Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoecology, Schloss Hohentübingen, D-72070, Tübingen, Germany;6. Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, PO Box 872402, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-2402, USA;7. Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape 6031, South Africa;8. Service de Préhistoire, Université de Liège, 7, Place Du XX Août, Bât. A1, 4000 Liège, Belgium;9. Histoire Naturelle de L''Homme Préhistorique (HNHP, UMR 7194), Sorbonne Universités, Muséum National D''Histoire Naturelle, CNRS, Université Perpignan Via Dominica, 1 Rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France;1. Department of Cultural Heritage, University of Bologna, Via degli Ariani 1, 48121 Ravenna, Italy;2. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;3. Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA;4. Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Università di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I d''Este 32, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy;5. Department of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T 1Z1 Canada;1. Università di Ferrara, Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Corso Ercole I d''Este 32, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy;2. Soprintendenza al Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico “L. Pigorini”, Sezione di Paleontologia del Quaternario e Archeozoologia, P. le Marconi 14, Roma, Italy;1. Département de Préhistoire du Muséum National d''Histoire Naturelle, UMR 7194 Histoire Naturelle de l''Homme Préhistorique, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France;2. Laboratoire des Sciences du climat et de l''environnement (LSCE, UMR CEA/CNRS/UVSQ), Bâtiment 12, Avenue de la terrasse, Campus du CNRS, 91198 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France;4. Paléotime, 6173 rue Jean-Séraphin Achard-Picard, 38250 Villard-de-Lans, France;5. Université de Bordeaux, UMR 5199 PACEA, bâtiment B8, allée Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, CS 50023, 33615 Pessac Cedex, France;6. Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany;1. Polo Museale del Lazio, Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico “Luigi Pigorini”, Sezione di Bioarcheologia, P.zza G. Marconi 14, I-00144 Rome, Italy;2. Dipartimento di Studi Umanistici, Sezione di Scienze Preistoriche e Antropologiche, Università degli Studi di Ferrara, Corso Ercole I d''Este 32, I-44100 Ferrara, Italy;1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and Centre for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland 4870, Australia;2. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia;3. Scottish University Environmental Research Centre (SUERC), Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, Rankine Avenue, East Kilbride G75 0QF, UK;4. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK;5. EPSRC Solid-State NMR Service, Department of Chemistry, Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, UK |
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| Abstract: | Radiocarbon dating of material from Late Pleistocene archaeological sites is challenging. Small amounts of modern 14C-labelled contamination will significantly affect the reliability of dates from the period, producing erroneous results. Recent developments in sample pre-treatment chemistry have shown that problems in reliable age determination during this period are surmountable. In this paper we provide an example of one such case, from the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transitional site of the Grotta di Fumane, in northern Italy. We AMS dated two fractions of the same charcoal samples derived from a series of superimposed Mousterian, Aurignacian and Gravettian levels excavated at the site. One fraction was treated using the routine acid–base–acid (ABA) method, the other with the more rigorous acid–base-oxidation/stepped combustion (ABOx–SC) method. The latter method produced consistently older, and almost certainly more reliable, results. The eruption of the known-age Campanian Ignimbrite from the Phlegrean Fields near present-day Naples at 39.3 ka yr BP seals Ulluzzian and Proto Aurignacian levels in the south of Italy. Equivalent cultural levels are present at Fumane and the results obtained with the ABOx–SC methods are consistent with the ages inferred for sites in the south of Italy based on the presence of the Campanian Ignimbrite. New results from a sample found beneath the Campanian Ignimbrite at the Russian site of Kostenki, obtained using both the ABA and ABOx–SC, methods are also presented. They support the conclusion reached at Fumane by demonstrating that, in many cases, the ABOX–SC treatment effectively removes contamination where the ABA treatment does not. The results of the work offer a sobering examination of the problems inherent in the current radiocarbon database relating to the period, and highlight the dangers of an uncritical use of the corpus of 14C results obtained over the last few decades. Based on our results, we predict that more than 70% of the 53 previously available determinations from Fumane are erroneously young. A way forward is suggested, using these improved chemical preparation methods, applying analytical methods to characterise the material dated, and testing existing site chronologies to establish which previous determinations are liable to be inaccurate. |
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