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Sedimentary Dosimetry for the Saradj-Chuko Grotto: A Cave in a Lava Tube in the North-Central Caucasus, Russia. Methods Protoc 2020; 3:mps3010020. [PMID: 32111014 PMCID: PMC7189660 DOI: 10.3390/mps3010020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2019] [Revised: 01/23/2020] [Accepted: 01/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Karst caves host most European Paleolithic sites. Near the Eurasian-Arabian Plate convergence in the Caucasus’ Lower Chegem Formation, Saradj-Chuko Grotto (SCG), a lava tube, contains 16 geoarchaeologically distinct horizons yielding modern to laminar obsidian-rich Middle Paleolithic (MP) assemblages. Since electron spin resonance (ESR) can date MP teeth with 2–5% uncertainty, 40 sediment samples were analyzed by neutron activation analysis to measure volumetrically averaged sedimentary dose rates. SCG’s rhyolitic ignimbrite walls produce very acidic clay-rich conglomeratic silts that retain 16–24 wt% water today. In Layers 6A-6B, the most prolific MP layers, strongly decalcified bones hinder species identification, but large ungulates inhabited deciduous interglacial forests. Unlike in karst caves, most SCG’s layers had sedimentary U concentrations >4 ppm and Th, >12 ppm, but Layer 6B2 exceeded 20.8 ppm U, and Layer 7, >5 ppm Th. Such high concentrations emit dose rates averaging ~1.9–3.7 mGy/y, but locally up to 4.1–5.0 mGy/y. Within Layer 6, dose rate variations reflect bone occurrence, necessitating that several samples must be geochemically analyzed around each tooth to ensure age accuracy. Coupled with dentinal dose rates up to 3.7–4.5 mGy/y, SCG’s maximum datable ages likely averages ~500–800 ka.
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Fitzsimmons KE, Iovita R, Sprafke T, Glantz M, Talamo S, Horton K, Beeton T, Alipova S, Bekseitov G, Ospanov Y, Deom JM, Sala R, Taimagambetov Z. A chronological framework connecting the early Upper Palaeolithic across the Central Asian piedmont. J Hum Evol 2017; 113:107-126. [PMID: 29054162 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.07.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2016] [Revised: 07/12/2017] [Accepted: 07/13/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Central Asia has delivered significant paleoanthropological discoveries in the past few years. New genetic data indicate that at least two archaic human species met and interbred with anatomically modern humans as they arrived into northern Central Asia. However, data are limited: known archaeological sites with lithic assemblages generally lack human fossils, and consequently identifying the archaeological signatures of different human groups, and the timing of their occupation, remains elusive. Reliable chronologic data from sites in the region, crucial to our understanding of the timing and duration of interactions between different human species, are rare. Here we present chronologies for two open air Middle to Upper Palaeolithic (UP) sequences from the Tien Shan piedmont in southeast Kazakhstan, Maibulak and Valikhanova, which bridge southern and northern Central Asia. The chronologies, based on both quartz optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and polymineral post-infrared infrared luminescence (pIR-IRSL) protocols, demonstrate that technological developments at the two sites differ substantially over the ∼47-19 ka time span. Some of the innovations typically associated with the earliest UP in the Altai or other parts of northeast Asia are also present in the Tien Shan piedmont. We caution against making assumptions about the directionality of spread of these technologies until a larger, better defined database of transitional sites in the region is available. Connections between the timing of occupation of regions, living area setting and paleoenvironmental conditions, while providing hypotheses worth exploring, remain inconclusive. We cautiously suggest a trend towards increasing occupation of open air sites across the Central Asian piedmont after ∼40 ka, corresponding to more humid climatic conditions which nevertheless included pulses of dust deposition. Human occupation persisted into the Last Glacial Maximum, despite cooler, and possibly drier, conditions. Our results thus provide additional data to substantiate arguments for occupation of Central Asia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kathryn E Fitzsimmons
- Research Group for Terrestrial Palaeoclimates, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Hahn-Meitner-Weg 1, 55128 Mainz, Germany; Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Radu Iovita
- MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum, Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Leibniz Research Institute for Archaeology, Schloss Monrepos, D-56567 Neuwied, Germany; Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
| | - Tobias Sprafke
- Institute of Geography, University of Bern, Hallerstrasse 12, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
| | - Michelle Glantz
- Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1787, USA
| | - Sahra Talamo
- Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Katharine Horton
- Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1787, USA
| | - Tyler Beeton
- Department of Anthropology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1787, USA; North Central Climate Science Center, Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523-1787, USA
| | - Saya Alipova
- National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Independence Ave. 54, Astana, Kazakhstan; Faculty of History, Archeology and Ethnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave. 71, Almaty 500040, Kazakhstan
| | - Galymzhan Bekseitov
- Faculty of History, Archeology and Ethnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave. 71, Almaty 500040, Kazakhstan
| | - Yerbolat Ospanov
- Faculty of History, Archeology and Ethnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave. 71, Almaty 500040, Kazakhstan
| | - Jean-Marc Deom
- Faculty of History, Archeology and Ethnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave. 71, Almaty 500040, Kazakhstan
| | - Renato Sala
- Faculty of History, Archeology and Ethnology, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Al-Farabi Ave. 71, Almaty 500040, Kazakhstan
| | - Zhaken Taimagambetov
- National Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Independence Ave. 54, Astana, Kazakhstan
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