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Smedley RK, Fenn K, Stanistreet IG, Stollhofen H, Njau JK, Schick K, Toth N. Age-depth model for uppermost Ndutu Beds constrains Middle Stone Age technology and climate-induced paleoenvironmental changes at Olduvai Gorge (Tanzania). J Hum Evol 2024; 186:103465. [PMID: 38064862 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2023.103465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Revised: 09/28/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
Olduvai Gorge in northern Tanzania is part of a globally important archeological and paleoanthropological World Heritage Site location critical to our understanding of modern human evolution. The Ndutu Beds in the upper part of the geological sequence at Olduvai Gorge represent the oldest unit to yield modern Homo sapiens skeletal material and Middle Stone Age technology. However, the timing of the deposition of the Ndutu Beds is poorly constrained at present, which limits our understanding of the paleoenvironments critical for contextualizing H. sapiens and related technologies in the Olduvai Basin. Using a suite of 15 luminescence ages of sedimentary core samples, combined with Bayesian statistics, this study provides a new higher-resolution age-depth model for the deposition of the uppermost Upper Ndutu and Naisiuiu Beds cored by the Olduvai Gorge Coring Project. The luminescence and modeled ages are presented as ±1 σ uncertainties. The Ndutu Beds intersected by the Olduvai Gorge Coring Project cores are dated to between 117.1 ± 17.9 and 45.3 ± 4.2 ka (between 125.9 ± 26.5 and 45.8 ± 8.2 ka modeled ages), while a probable overlying layer of Naisiusiu Beds dates to 23.7 ± 10.9 to 12.1 ± 1.7 ka (25.7 ± 18.9 ka and 12.0 ± 3.4 ka modeled age). Time-averaged accretion rates are derived during this time: (1) initially low rates (<5 cm ka-1) from the bottom of the core at 117.1 ± 17.9 ka up to 95.3 ± 11.1 ka (125.9 ± 26.5 to 95.5 ± 23.3 ka modeled ages); (2) the middle section spanning between 95.3 ± 11.1 and 62.7 ± 5.7 ka (95.5 ± 23.3 to 61.9 ± 10.4 ka modeled ages) with mean rates above 15 cm ka-1; and (3) the last 62.7 ± 5.7 ka (61.9 ± 10.4 ka modeled age) where the accretion rate reduces to below 5 cm ka-1. This reduction can be explained by the evolution of the gorge system that was likely driven by subsidence of the Olbalbal depression and changes in climate, particularly precipitation and resulting lake and base level changes. Older Upper Ndutu and Lower Ndutu Beds are contained within proto-gorges within the modern gorge system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel K Smedley
- Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZT, UK.
| | - Kaja Fenn
- Department of Geography and Planning, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZT, UK
| | - Ian G Stanistreet
- Department of Earth, Ocean and Ecological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZT, UK; The Stone Age Institute, 1392 W. Dittemore Rd, Gosport, Indiana, 47433, USA
| | - Harald Stollhofen
- GeoZentrum Nordbayern, Friedrich-Alexander-University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg, 91504, Germany
| | - Jackson K Njau
- The Stone Age Institute, 1392 W. Dittemore Rd, Gosport, Indiana, 47433, USA; Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, 47408, USA
| | - Kathy Schick
- The Stone Age Institute, 1392 W. Dittemore Rd, Gosport, Indiana, 47433, USA
| | - Nicholas Toth
- The Stone Age Institute, 1392 W. Dittemore Rd, Gosport, Indiana, 47433, USA
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Barbieri A, Maier A, Lauer T, Mischka C, Hattermann M, Uthmeier T. Post-LGM environments and foragers on the move: New data from the lower Altmühl Valley (Franconian Jura, SE Germany). J Hum Evol 2022; 173:103267. [PMID: 36308903 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103267] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2021] [Revised: 09/09/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
Abstract
After the Last Glacial Maximum, the Swabian and Franconian Jura (in SW and SE Germany, respectively) were repopulated by Magdalenian hunter-gatherers within the same communication network. However, while the Magdalenian settlement of the Swabian Jura dates to 17-14 ka cal BP, permanent Magdalenian occupations in the Franconian Jura date to 15-14 ka cal BP. In comparison with its western counterpart, the Franconian Jura was mostly excavated in the early days of archaeological research. Does this different chronology reflect the different history of research? Why did Magdalenian foragers establish permanent occupation in the Franconian Jura nearly 2 millennia after settling in Swabia, despite the fact these regions are only 150 km apart? To address these questions, we reinvestigated two sites in the Altmühl Valley with micromorphology and luminescence dating, namely Felsenhäusl-Kellerhöhle and Klausennische. Our data show that both sites have intact Pleistocene deposits. Among these, we identified sediments dating between 17 and 15 ka that show only rare lithic artifacts and microfeatures indicative of cold and arid conditions. Our work and published data suggest that the steady settlement of Magdalenian foragers in the Altmühl Valley starting 15 ka cal BP coincides with the end of this harsh period and the onset of cool and wetter environments. Data from the Swabian Jura demonstrated that in the Lone Valley, similar environments and Magdalenian occupations commenced earlier, starting 17 ka cal BP. Therefore, we propose that regional environments acted as a barrier against the dispersal of foragers in the Franconian Jura and determined its later Magdalenian occupation. Our research highlighted that different environments, taphonomic processes, and site uses probably coexisted across the German Jura. Therefore, it remains fundamental to expand the multisite data set proposed in this article to further test hypotheses about human/environment interaction in this region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvise Barbieri
- Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), FCHS, University of the Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.
| | - Andreas Maier
- Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Bernhard-Feilchenfeld-Str. 11, 50969 Cologne, Germany
| | - Tobias Lauer
- Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology - Department of Human Evolution, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; Terrestrial Sedimentology, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstr. 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Carsten Mischka
- Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Kochstrasse 4/18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
| | - Merlin Hattermann
- Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Kochstrasse 4/18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
| | - Thorsten Uthmeier
- Institute for Pre- and Protohistory, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Kochstrasse 4/18, 91054 Erlangen, Germany
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Frouin M, Douka K, Dave AK, Schwenninger JL, Mercier N, Murray AS, Santaniello F, Boschian G, Grimaldi S, Higham T. A refined chronology for the Middle and early Upper Paleolithic sequence of Riparo Mochi (Liguria, Italy). J Hum Evol 2022; 169:103211. [PMID: 35753141 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2022.103211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/26/2020] [Revised: 04/22/2022] [Accepted: 04/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The Riparo Mochi rock shelter, located on the Ligurian coast of Italy, is one of the most important early Upper Paleolithic sites on the Mediterranean rim. Its ∼10-m-deep stratigraphy comprises a Mousterian sequence, followed by various development stages of the Upper Paleolithic. A series of radiometric dates on marine shells bearing traces of human modification has provided a chronological framework for the final Mousterian and the Proto-Aurignacian of the site. Based on modeling results, the end of the Mousterian was dated between 44.0 and 41.8 ka cal BP (68% probability) and the beginning of the Proto-Aurignacian between 42.7 and 41.6 ka cal BP (68% probability). However, these estimates were based on a limited number of radiocarbon ages in the Mousterian levels. Here, we report new dating of the Mochi sequence using luminescence techniques, along with new radiocarbon measurements. The combination of these results using a Bayesian modeling approach allows for the first time the establishment of a more precise timing for the Mousterian occupation at the site. We show that Mousterian groups were already present at Riparo Mochi by at least 65 ka and continued to occupy the site for another 20 ka. The transition to the earliest Upper Paleolithic at the site is centered around 44.3-41.1 ka (95.4% probability), providing our best age estimate for the beginning of the Early Upper Paleolithic and the establishment of modern human groups in the Balzi Rossi. The sequence continues upward with a more evolved Aurignacian phase and a Gravettian phase starting at ∼26 ka or earlier.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marine Frouin
- Department of Geosciences, Stony Brook University, 255 Earth and Space Sciences Building (ESS), Stony Brook, NY 11794-2100, USA; Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, 1-2 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, United Kingdom.
| | - Katerina Douka
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, Vienna, Austria; Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, A-1030, Vienna, Austria.
| | - Aditi Krishna Dave
- Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Schnarrenbergstrasse 94-96, 72076 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Jean-Luc Schwenninger
- Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, 1-2 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, United Kingdom
| | - Norbert Mercier
- Archéosciences Bordeaux, UMR 6034 CNRS - Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Maison de l'archéologie, 33600 Pessac, France
| | - Andrew S Murray
- The Nordic Laboratory for Luminescence Dating, Department of Geoscience, Aarhus University and DTU Physics, DTU Risø Campus, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark
| | - Fabio Santaniello
- Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Università di Trento, Trento, Italy; Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy
| | - Giovanni Boschian
- Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy; Palaeo-Research Institute, University of Johannesburg, P.O. Box 524, Auckland Park, 2006, South Africa
| | - Stefano Grimaldi
- Dipartimento di Lettere e Filosofia, Università di Trento, Trento, Italy; Istituto Italiano di Paleontologia Umana, Anagni, Italy
| | - Thomas Higham
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Vienna, Djerassiplatz 1, Vienna, Austria; Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS), University of Vienna, A-1030, Vienna, Austria; Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, 1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, United Kingdom
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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] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [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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Jacobs Z, Roberts RG. Single-grain OSL chronologies for the Still Bay and Howieson's Poort industries and the transition between them: Further analyses and statistical modelling. J Hum Evol 2017; 107:1-13. [PMID: 28526285 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2017.02.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2016] [Revised: 02/15/2017] [Accepted: 02/16/2017] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
The chronology of the Still Bay (SB) and Howieson's Poort (HP) lithic industries remains an issue of keen interest because of the central role of these two phases of technological and behavioural innovation within the Middle Stone Age of southern Africa. Several dating studies have been conducted on SB and HP sites, including a pair published by the present authors and our colleagues in 2008 and 2013. These reported the results of systematically applying single-grain optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating procedures to 10 sites in South Africa, Lesotho and Namibia to constrain the timing of the start and end of the SB and HP and reveal the existence of a gap of several millennia between them. Alternative ages for these two industries have since been proposed by others for one of these South African sites (Diepkloof Rockshelter) and some concerns have been raised about the procedures used in our earlier studies to estimate the beta dose rates for a small number of samples. Here, we provide an update on our chronology for the SB and HP and address the issues raised about the methods that we used previously to estimate the beta dose rates and their associated uncertainties. To test the sensitivity of our new SB and HP ages to different underlying assumptions, we have run the same statistical model as that used in our 2008 and 2013 studies under three different scenarios. We show that the ages for the different samples are insensitive to how we analytically process or statistically model our data, and that our earlier conclusions about timing of the start and end of the SB and the HP and the probability of a gap between them remain true for two of the three scenarios. We conclude by bringing our study into the context of additional chronometric, stratigraphic and lithic technology studies that have been conducted in the intervening decade.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zenobia Jacobs
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
| | - Richard G Roberts
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
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Bickel L, Lüthgens C, Lomax J, Fiebig M. Luminescence dating of glaciofluvial deposits linked to the penultimate glaciation in the Eastern Alps. Quat Int 2015; 357:110-124. [PMID: 25892899 PMCID: PMC4394144 DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2014.10.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/14/2023]
Abstract
During the penultimate glaciation vast areas of the Alps were glaciated, with piedmont glaciers protruding into the foreland. In the easternmost part of the northward draining valleys of the Alps, the glaciers did not reach the foreland, but formed valley glaciers confined by the mountainous terrain. This also applies to the Ybbs valley, where samples for luminescence dating out of glaciofluvial gravel accumulations were taken at three locations along the present day river course. In a highly dynamic depositional environment, such as a glacier-fed river system, incomplete resetting of the luminescence signal is possible, in particular when transport distances are short. In such cases, quartz usually is the preferred mineral over feldspar, especially if dose rates are low and may theoretically allow obtaining quartz ages beyond 150 ka. Because previous research has shown, and as corroborated within this study, quartz from the research area exhibits analytical problems in the high age range. Therefore luminescence properties of coarse grain (100-200 μm) quartz and in addition K-rich feldspar were investigated with the aim to reconstruct the chronology of the glacial processes within the Ybbs catchment area. Issues of incomplete bleaching were pIRIR225 encountered and addressed by comparing quartz OSL, fading corrected K feldspar IR50 and pIRIR225 to identify reliable ages. Depositional ages based on quartz OSL and feldspar pIRIR225 signals revealed deposition of ice marginal kame terraces and glaciofluvial foreland terraces during late to middle MIS 6. In combination with results from previous studies, we could reconstruct the valley evolution during the Riss glaciation. Newly gained luminescence ages of the deglaciation in the easternmost Alps coincide with OSL dated deglaciation events in the Western Alps, indicating that climatic change along the north side of the Alps happened simultaneously.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lukas Bickel
- Institute of Applied Geology, Department of Civil Engineering and Natural Hazards, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordan-Straße 70, 1190 Vienna, Austria
- Corresponding author.
| | - Christopher Lüthgens
- Institute of Applied Geology, Department of Civil Engineering and Natural Hazards, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordan-Straße 70, 1190 Vienna, Austria
| | - Johanna Lomax
- Department of Geography, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Senckenbergstraße 1, 35390 Giessen, Germany
| | - Markus Fiebig
- Institute of Applied Geology, Department of Civil Engineering and Natural Hazards, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Peter Jordan-Straße 70, 1190 Vienna, Austria
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Kemp J, Pietsch TJ, Olley J. Digging your own grave: OSL signatures in experimental graves. J Hum Evol 2014; 76:77-82. [PMID: 24953668 DOI: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2014.05.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2013] [Revised: 05/09/2014] [Accepted: 05/09/2014] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Excavation of mock graves in sediments of aeolian and fluvial origin were conducted to test the bleaching efficiency of grave digging in materials that commonly host ancient burials in Australia. Grave-size pits were dug into Pleistocene aeolian sediments at Willandra Lakes and younger fluvial sediments on the Lachlan River, backfilled, and re-excavated. Samples for optical dating were taken from sediment infilling the mock graves and from the adjacent, undisturbed substrate, and analysed using the single aliquot-regenerative dose (SAR) protocol applied to single quartz grains. The resulting equivalent dose (De) distributions revealed that ≤1% of grains had been fully zeroed in both settings, and an additional 1-6% of poorly bleached grains were apparent in the fluvial sediments. Insufficient and heterogeneous bleaching of sediments during excavation and backfilling produced a decrease in the central dose of between 3 and 6 Gy, and an increase in over-dispersion values of between 5 and 10%. These differences were insufficient to clearly distinguish the disturbance event from the effects of bioturbation, biological mixing, or other sources of De variation. The use of the Minimum Age Model substantially over-estimated the burial age (zero years) in both depositional environments, with the degree of over-estimation increasing with the age of the host sediments. These results suggest that optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) techniques will not produce accurate ages for grave infill in a number of forensic and archaeological settings. Further study of the bleaching susceptibility of grains within grave infills, as well as the effectiveness of grave-digging as a bleaching mechanism is required. In other archaeological and geomorphological applications of OSL dating we recommend routine checks on the effective zeroing of sediments in modern equivalent situations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justine Kemp
- Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.
| | - Timothy J Pietsch
- Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.
| | - Jon Olley
- Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia.
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Starnberger R, Drescher-Schneider R, Reitner JM, Rodnight H, Reimer PJ, Spötl C. Late Pleistocene climate change and landscape dynamics in the Eastern Alps: the inner-alpine Unterangerberg record (Austria). Quat Sci Rev 2013; 68:17-42. [PMID: 23805019 PMCID: PMC3688313 DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.02.008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/02/2012] [Revised: 02/04/2013] [Accepted: 02/07/2013] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Drill cores from the inner-alpine valley terrace of Unterangerberg, located in the Eastern Alps of Austria, offer first insights into a Pleistocene sedimentary record that was not accessible so far. The succession comprises diamict, gravel, sand, lignite and thick, fine grained sediments. Additionally, cataclastic deposits originating from two paleo-landslide events are present. Multi-proxy analyses including sedimentological and palynological investigations as well as radiocarbon and luminescence data record the onset of the last glacial period (Würmian) at Unterangerberg at ∼120-110 ka. This first time period, correlated to the MIS 5d, was characterised by strong fluvial aggradation under cold climatic conditions, with only sparse vegetation cover. Furthermore, two large and quasi-synchronous landslide events occurred during this time interval. No record of the first Early Würmian interstadial (MIS 5c) is preserved. During the second Early Würmian interstadial (MIS 5a), the local vegetation was characterised by a boreal forest dominated by Picea, with few thermophilous elements. The subsequent collapse of the vegetation is recorded by sediments dated to ∼70-60 ka (i.e. MIS 4), with very low pollen concentrations and the potential presence of permafrost. Climatic conditions improved again between ∼55 and 45 ka (MIS 3) and cold-adapted trees re-appeared during interstadials, forming an open forest vegetation. MIS 3 stadials were shorter and less severe than the MIS 4 at Unterangerberg, and vegetation during these cold phases was mainly composed of shrubs, herbs and grasses, similar to what is known from today's alpine timberline. The Unterangerberg record ended at ∼45 ka and/or was truncated by ice during the Last Glacial Maximum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Reinhard Starnberger
- Institute for Geology and Palaeontology, Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Ruth Drescher-Schneider
- Institute of Plant Sciences, Karl-Franzens University of Graz, Holteigasse 6, 8010 Graz, Austria
| | | | - Helena Rodnight
- Institute for Geology and Palaeontology, Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Paula J. Reimer
- Centre for Climate, the Environment & Chronology (14CHRONO), School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
| | - Christoph Spötl
- Institute for Geology and Palaeontology, Leopold-Franzens University of Innsbruck, Innrain 52, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
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