Combined ESR/U-series chronology of Acheulian hominid-bearing layers at Trinchera Galer¨ªa site, Atapuerca, Spain

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• 作者：Christophe Falgu¨¨res ; Jean-Jacques Bahain ; James L. Bischoff ; Alfredo P¨¦rez-Gonz¨¢lez ; Ana Isabel Ortega ; Andreu Oll¨¦ ; Anita Quiles ; Bassam Ghaleb ; Davinia Moreno ; Jean-Michel Dolo ; Qingfeng Shao ; Josep Vallverd¨² ; Eudald Carbonell ; Jose Mar¨ªa Berm¨²dez de Castro ; Juan Luis Arsuaga
• 关键词：Middle Pleistocene ; Eurasia ; Gran Dolina ; Luminescence ; Bayesian analysis ; Homo antecessor
• 刊名：Journal of Human Evolution
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：August, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：65
• 期：2
• 页码：168-184
• 全文大小：4989 K

文摘

The Sierra de Atapuerca, northern Spain, is known from many prehistoric and palaeontological sites documenting human prehistory in Europe. Three major sites, Gran Dolina, Galer¨ªa and Sima del Elefante, range in age from the oldest hominin of Western Europe dated to 1.1 to 1.3?Ma (millions of years ago) at Sima del Elefante to c.a. 0.2?Ma on the top of the Galer¨ªa archaeological sequence. Recently, a chronology based on luminescence methods (Thermoluminescence [TL] and Infrared Stimulated Luminescence [IRSL]) applied to cave sediments was published for the Gran Dolina and Galer¨ªa sites. The authors proposed for Galer¨ªa an age of 450?ka (thousands of years ago) for the units lower GIII and GII, suggesting that the human occupation there is younger than the hominid remains of Sima de los Huesos (>530?ka) around 1?km away.

In this paper, we present new results obtained by combined Electron Spin Resonance/Uranium-series (ESR/U-series) dating on 20 herbivorous teeth from different levels at the Galer¨ªa site. They are in agreement with the TL results for the upper part of the stratigraphic sequence (GIV and GIIIb), in the range of between 200 and 250?ka. But for the GIIIa to GIIb levels, the TL ages become abruptly older by 200 ka while ESR ages remain relatively constant. Finally, the TL and ESR data agree in the lowest part of the section (GIIa); both fall in the range of around 350-450?ka. Our results suggest a different interpretation for the GII, GIII and GIV units of Galer¨ªa and the upper part of Gran Dolina (TD10 and TD11) than obtained by TL. The ESR/U-series results are supported by a Bayesian analysis, which allows a better integration between stratigraphic information and radiometric data.