Precision dating of the Palaeolithic: A new radiocarbon chronology for the Abri Pataud (France), a key Aurignacian sequence

This paper presents a new series of AMS dates on ultrafiltered bone gelatin extracted from identified cutmarked or humanly-modified bones and teeth from the site of Abri Pataud, in the French Dordogne. The sequence of 32 new determinations provides a coherent and reliable chronology from the site’s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of human evolution 2011-11, Vol.61 (5), p.549-563
Main Authors: Higham, Thomas, Jacobi, Roger, Basell, Laura, Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Chiotti, Laurent, Nespoulet, Roland
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
AMS dating
Animals
Archaeological dating
Archaeological sites
Archaeology
Archaeology and Prehistory
Bayes Theorem
Bayesian method
Bayesian modelling
Bone and Bones
Cattle
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
Fossils
France
Geochronology
Gravettian
History, Ancient
Horses
Human remains
Humanities and Social Sciences
Humans
Isotope geochemistry. Geochronology
Marine and continental quaternary
Material culture
Paleolithic Age
Radiometric Dating - methods
Surficial geology
Tooth
Ultrafiltration
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Summary:This paper presents a new series of AMS dates on ultrafiltered bone gelatin extracted from identified cutmarked or humanly-modified bones and teeth from the site of Abri Pataud, in the French Dordogne. The sequence of 32 new determinations provides a coherent and reliable chronology from the site’s early Upper Palaeolithic levels 5–14, excavated by Hallam Movius. The results show that there were some problems with the previous series of dates, with many underestimating the real age. The new results, when calibrated and modelled using a Bayesian statistical method, allow detailed understanding of the pace of cultural changes within the Aurignacian I and II levels of the site, something not achievable before. In the future, the sequence of dates will allow wider comparison to similarly dated contexts elsewhere in Europe. High precision dating is only possible by using large suites of AMS dates from humanly-modified material within well understood archaeological sequences modelled using a Bayesian statistical method.
ISSN:0047-2484
1095-8606
DOI:10.1016/j.jhevol.2011.06.005