This article presents the dating results recently obtained on three archaeological sites in Europe. At Orgnac?3 (Ard¨¨che, France) from where the last Homo heidelbergensis fossils are associated with the first evidence of levallois technique, two speleothem formations from the 5b??th layers were U-Th dated with MC-ICPMS, giving an age range of 319?55 ka (2¦Ò) (MIS?8?), while the volcanic ash-bearing second layer was dated by 40Ar/39Ar, obtaining a preliminary date of 308.2 ¡À 6.8 ka (2¦Ò). The combined ESR/U-Th dating of red deer enamel teeth from Lazaret cave (Alpes-Maritimes, France) attributed ages of 120?90 ka to the Acheulean and pre-Mousterian layers (MIS?6), which is in agreement with previous TIMS U-Th dates between 108 and 44 ka on calcite samples from the overlying TRA trench (MIS?5, 4, 3). At Zafarraya (Andalousie, Espagne), a number of 14C measurements on charcoal samples as well as combined ESR/U-Th dates on Capra and Equus dental enamels assigned the Mousterian artefacts and neandertalian fossils-bearing deposits an age interval between 42 and 34 ka (MIS?3).
