ORCID Profile
0000-0001-9603-3824
Current Organisation
University of Adelaide
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Research Topics
In Research Link Australia (RLA), "Research Topics" refer to ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes. These topics are either sourced from ANZSRC FOR and SEO codes listed in researchers' related grants or generated by a large language model (LLM) based on their publications.
Top 5 Research Topics
ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)
Geology | Geochronology | Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) | Quaternary Environments | Archaeological Science | Archaeological Science | Palaeoecology | Geochronology | Archaeology | Geochemistry | Ecology And Evolution Not Elsewhere Classified | Archaeology of Asia, Africa and the Americas | Archaeological science | Archaeology of Asia Africa and the Americas | Geochronology And Isotope Geochemistry | Climatology (Incl. Palaeoclimatology) | Quaternary environments | Archaeology |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Ecosystem Adaptation to Climate Change | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Earth sciences | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Effects of Climate Change and Variability on Australia (excl. Social Impacts) | Climate Change Models | Ecosystem Assessment and Management at Regional or Larger Scales | Expanding Knowledge through Studies of Human Society | Understanding Australia's Past | Biological sciences | Climate variability | Social Impacts of Climate Change and Variability |
Related Links
Publications
Statistical modelling of single grain quartz De distributions and an assessment of procedures for estimating burial dose
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2006
Portable gamma spectrometry with cerium-doped lanthanum bromide scintillators: Suitability assessments for luminescence and electron spin resonance dating applications
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2012
An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE05471
Abstract: How well the ecology, zoogeography and evolution of modern biotas is understood depends substantially on knowledge of the Pleistocene. Australia has one of the most distinctive, but least understood, Pleistocene faunas. Records from the western half of the continent are especially rare. Here we report on a erse and exceptionally well preserved middle Pleistocene vertebrate assemblage from caves beneath the arid, treeless Nullarbor plain of south-central Australia. Many taxa are represented by whole skeletons, which together serve as a template for identifying fragmentary, hitherto indeterminate, remains collected previously from Pleistocene sites across southern Australia. A remarkable eight of the 23 Nullarbor kangaroos are new, including two tree-kangaroos. The erse herbivore assemblage implies substantially greater floristic ersity than that of the modern shrub steppe, but all other faunal and stable-isotope data indicate that the climate was very similar to today. Because the 21 Nullarbor species that did not survive the Pleistocene were well adapted to dry conditions, climate change (specifically, increased aridity) is unlikely to have been significant in their extinction.
First experimental evaluation of the alpha efficiency in coarse-grained quartz for ESR dating purposes: implications for dose rate evaluation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-12-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-54688-9
Abstract: We present the first experimental evaluation of the alpha efficiency value for electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of coarse quartz grains, which is used for the evaluation of the internal and external alpha dose rate components. Based on our results, we recommend the use of an a-value of 0.07 ± 0.01 (1σ) for both the Al and Ti centres. Although we acknowledge that quartz ESR alpha efficiency may be s le dependent, and could also be impacted by other sources of uncertainty, this potential variability is presently impossible to evaluate given the absence of other experimental a-values available in the ESR dating literature. Measured radioactivity of quartz grains from the Moulouya catchment (NE Morocco) provides an internal dose rate in the range of 50–70 µGy/a when using an a-value of 0.07. The use of this empirically derived a-value for the evaluation of the internal and external alpha dose rate has a limited overall impact on the final ESR age results: they change by % and %, respectively, in comparison with those obtained with an assumed a-value. However, the large variability observed among the broader s le dataset for quartz internal radioactivity and hydrofluoric acid (HF) etching rates underscores the potential importance of undertaking experimental evaluations of alpha dose rate parameters for each dated s le.
Bedrock landscape development modeling: Calibration using field study, geochronology, and digital elevation model analysis
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1130/B25866.1
Holocene palaeofire records in a high-level, proximal valley-fill (Wilson Bog), Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date: 23-10-2009
Abstract: An elevated valley-fill peat bog (Wilson Bog) near Mount Lofty, South Australia, failed in November 2005 following a flooding event, and exposed representative sections of the sediment infill. Two distinct units were revealed: 2 m of coarse-grained, siliciclastic sand/gravel, overlain by 2 m of peat. A simple charcoal extraction technique based on floatation and skimming was developed to extract coarse charcoal from coarse-grained gravels to determine the palaeofire record at a proximal site of sedimentation. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of basal sediments revealed a minimum age of deposition of 7.02 +0.50 —0.56 ka, while the oldest charcoal peak yielded a radiocarbon age of 6000—5740 cal. yr BP. The lower half of the siliciclastic unit contains three distinct charcoal peaks suggesting there were infrequent but intense fires associated with wetter conditions during the Holocene climatic optimum 8000—5000 years ago. The period from 4000 to 2000 cal. yr BP is characterised by more frequent charcoal peaks and higher background levels of charcoal, which is consistent with more regular but less intense fires during drier, cooler conditions. The sharp transition from siliciclastic sedimentation to peat formation began ~1200 cal. yr BP, which may relate to a return to wetter conditions. However, fire frequency appears to have increased in this time suggesting augmentation by anthropogenic or ENSO-related factors. Charcoal-rich layers in the siliciclastic unit are associated with poorly sorted, bimodal sediments with high proportions of clay, silt and gravel, which supports the hypothesis that there is an association between past fire events and rapid, coarse-grained, post-fire aggradation. By analogy with active colluvial aggradation following recent fires at nearby Mount Bold, it is evident that fire plays a significant role in hillslope destabilization and subsequent sediment movement, leading to rapid valley-fill aggradation — a chain of events to which we apply the term ‘pyrocolluviation’.
Corrigendum: Coastal occupation before the “Big Swamp”: Results from excavations at John Wayne Country Rockshelter on Barrow Island: Coastal occupation before the “Big Swamp” (Archaeology in Oceania, (2018), 53, 3, (163-178), 10.1002/arco.5164)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 04-2019
DOI: 10.1002/ARCO.5178
Early human occupations in NW Iberia: The archaeological record of the Lower Miño basin during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene
Publisher: Museum National D'Histoire Naturelle
Date: 11-01-2021
Abstract: The Miño River is one of the main Atlantic basins of Iberia and preserves extensive Pleistocene deposits. However, there is presently limited information concerning the first human occupation history of this region. Existing research undertaken across the region has identified a significant number of Large Flake Acheulean (LFA) sites with African affinities. These sites are associated with former fluvial environments and are now preserved as a sequence of fluvial terraces along the Miño River, located between relative elevations of + 40 m and + 20 m, and dated to between Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 9 and 6. The chronological range and observed technological patterns are similar to those recognised in other areas of South western Europe, particularly the central Iberian Peninsula and Aquitanian region (France) during the second half of the Middle Pleistocene.
OSL dating of the Middle Palaeolithic Hotel California site, Sierra de Atapuerca, north-central Spain
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-06-2013
Reassessing the age of Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain): new paleomagnetic results
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2013
New Luminescence Ages for the Galería Complex Archaeological Site: Resolving Chronological Uncertainties on the Acheulean Record of the Sierra de Atapuerca, Northern Spain
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 22-10-2014
Empirical insights into multi-grain averaging effects from 'pseudo' single-grain OSL measurements
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2012
Single-grain TT-OSL dating results confirm an Early Pleistocene age for the lower Moulouya River deposits (NE Morocco)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2019
Revisiting the late Quaternary fossiliferous infills of Cathedral Cave, Wellington Caves (central eastern New South Wales, Australia)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 22-01-2023
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3497
Abstract: The Wellington Caves were the first Australian locality from which Europeans collected and analysed vertebrate fossils. Within this system, Cathedral Cave contains Australia's stratigraphically deepest sequence of fossil‐bearing infill sediments, the age and depositional history of which has been poorly understood. Here we present results from a new excavation of the upper 4.2 m of the deposit, reanalysing the stratigraphy, petrography, sedimentology and geochemistry, and employing optically stimulated luminescence dating, radiocarbon dating and Bayesian age modelling to establish a robust chronology. We recognise 13 sedimentary layers and sublayers in two stratigraphic units. Unit 2 accumulated between 72 000 ± 5000 and 38 000 ± 7000 years ago as sediments and animals entered through a now‐blocked ceiling hole. Accumulation halted for around 30 000 years when the hole closed. Unit 1 accumulated when deposition was reinitiated around 7000 ± 2000 years ago, continuing through to a few hundred years ago. Our chronology refutes earlier dating of the deposit, which suggested that extinct Pleistocene megafauna taxa persisted locally until the Last Glacial Maximum. It confirms the deposit as one of the few in Australia that formed during the interval of major environmental upheaval marked by the arrival of humans, variable climate and the extinction of many megafaunal species.
The Jaramillo Subchron and the Early-Middle Pleistocene transition in continental records from a multidisciplinary perspective
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Optical dating of potassium feldspar using far-red (λ > 665 nm) IRSL emissions: A comparative study using fluvial sediments from the Loire River, France
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2003
Ancient DNA reveals late survival of mammoth and horse in interior Alaska
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 29-12-2009
Abstract: Causes of late Quaternary extinctions of large mammals (“megafauna”) continue to be debated, especially for continental losses, because spatial and temporal patterns of extinction are poorly known. Accurate latest appearance dates (LADs) for such taxa are critical for interpreting the process of extinction. The extinction of woolly mammoth and horse in northwestern North America is currently placed at 15,000–13,000 calendar years before present (yr BP), based on LADs from dating surveys of macrofossils (bones and teeth). Advantages of using macrofossils to estimate when a species became extinct are offset, however, by the improbability of finding and dating the remains of the last-surviving members of populations that were restricted in numbers or confined to refugia. Here we report an alternative approach to detect ‘ghost ranges’ of dwindling populations, based on recovery of ancient DNA from perennially frozen and securely dated sediments ( sed aDNA). In such contexts, sed aDNA can reveal the molecular presence of species that appear absent in the macrofossil record. We show that woolly mammoth and horse persisted in interior Alaska until at least 10,500 yr BP, several thousands of years later than indicated from macrofossil surveys. These results contradict claims that Holocene survival of mammoths in Beringia was restricted to ecologically isolated high-latitude islands. More importantly, our finding that mammoth and horse overlapped with humans for several millennia in the region where people initially entered the Americas challenges theories that megafaunal extinction occurred within centuries of human arrival or were due to an extraterrestrial impact in the late Pleistocene.
16th International Conference on Luminescence and Electron Spin Resonance Dating, 13–17 September 2021
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2022
Paper II - Dirt, dates and DNA: OSL and radiocarbon chronologies of perennially frozen sediments in Siberia, and their implications for sedimentary ancient DNA studies
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-10-2010
Fossil and genomic evidence constrains the timing of bison arrival in North America
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 13-03-2017
Abstract: The appearance of bison in North America is both ecologically and paleontologically significant. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA from the oldest known North American bison fossils to reveal that bison were present in northern North America by 195–135 thousand y ago, having entered from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge. After their arrival, bison quickly colonized much of the rest of the continent, where they rapidly ersified phenotypically, producing, for ex le, the giant long-horned morphotype Bison latifrons during the last interglaciation.
Landslide-dam paleolakes in the Central Pyrenees, Upper Gállego River Valley, NE Spain: timing and relationship with deglaciation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-05-2018
The Middle Paleolithic site of Cuesta de la Bajada (Teruel, Spain): a perspective on the Acheulean and Middle Paleolithic technocomplexes in Europe
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2014
Interpreting the mammal deposits of Cloggs Cave (SE Australia), GunaiKurnai Aboriginal Country, through community-led partnership research
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 21-10-2022
DOI: 10.1002/PAN3.10410
Abstract: Palaeontological animal bone deposits are rarely investigated through research partnerships where the local First Nations communities have a defining hand in both the research questions asked and the research processes. Here we report research undertaken through such a partnership approach at the iconic archaeological site of Cloggs Cave (GunaiKurnai Country, East Gippsland), in the southern foothills of SE Australia's Great Dividing Range. A new excavation was combined with detailed chronometric dating, high‐resolution 3D mapping and geomorphological studies. This allowed interpretation of a sequence of stratigraphic layers spanning from a lowermost excavated mixed layer dated to between 25,640 and 48,470 cal BP, to a dense set of uppermost, ash layers dated to between 1460 and 3360 cal BP. This long and well‐dated chronostratigraphic sequence enabled temporal trends in the abundant small mammal remains to be examined. The fossil assemblage consists of at least 31 taxa of mammals which change in proportions through time. Despite clear evidence that the Old Ancestors repeatedly carried vegetation into the cave to fuel cool fires (no visible vegetation grows in Cloggs Cave), we observed little to no evidence of cooking fires or calcined bone, suggesting that people had little involvement with the accumulation of the faunal remains. Small mammal bones were most likely deposited in the cave by large disc‐faced owls, Tyto novaehollandae (Masked Owl) or Tyto tenebricosa (Sooty Owl). Despite being well dated and largely undisturbed, the Cloggs Cave assemblage does not appear to track known Late Quaternary environmental change. Instead, the complex geomorphology of the area fostered a vegetation mosaic that supported mammals with ergent habitat preferences. The faunal deposit suggests a local ancestral landscape characterised by a resilient mosaic of habitats that persisted over thousands of years, signalling that the Old Ancestors burned landscape fires to encourage and manage patches of different vegetation types and ages within and through periods of climate change. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Examining Neanderthal and carnivore occupations of Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain) using archaeostratigraphic and intra-site spatial analysis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-02-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-021-83741-9
Abstract: Teixoneres Cave (Moià, Barcelona, Spain) is a reference site for Middle Palaeolithic studies of the Iberian Peninsula. The cave preserves an extensive stratigraphic sequence made up of eight units, which is presented in depth in this work. The main goal of this study is to undertake an initial spatial examination of Unit III, formed during Marine Isotope Stage 3, with the aim of understanding spatial organization and past activities developed by Neanderthals and carnivores (bears, hyenas and smaller carnivores). The total s le analysed includes 38,244 archaeological items and 5888 limestone blocks. The application of GIS tools allows us to clearly distinguish three geologically-defined stratigraphic subunits. Unit III has been previously interpreted as a palimpsest resulting from alternating occupation of the cave by human groups and carnivores. The distribution study shows that faunal specimens, lithic artefacts, hearths and charcoal fragments are significantly concentrated at the entrance of the cave where, it is inferred, hominins carried out different activities, while carnivores preferred the sheltered zones in the inner areas of the cave. The results obtained reveal a spatial pattern characterized by fire use related zones, and show that the site was occupied by Neanderthals in a similar and consistent way throughout the ˃ 7000 years range covered by the analysed subunits. This spatial pattern is interpreted as resulting from repeated short-term human occupations.
Ancient DNA from bulk bone reveals past genetic diversity of vertebrate fauna on Kangaroo Island, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
Modern human incursion into Neanderthal territories 54,000 years ago at Mandrin, France
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 11-02-2022
Abstract: Determining the extent of overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, is fundamental to understanding the nature of their interactions and what led to the disappearance of archaic hominins. Apart from a possible sporadic pulse recorded in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene, the first settlements of modern humans in Europe have been constrained to ~45,000 to 43,000 years ago. Here, we report hominin fossils from Grotte Mandrin in France that reveal the earliest known presence of modern humans in Europe between 56,800 and 51,700 years ago. This early modern human incursion in the Rhône Valley is associated with technologies unknown in any industry of that age outside Africa or the Levant. Mandrin documents the first alternating occupation of Neanderthals and modern humans, with a modern human fossil and associated Neronian lithic industry found stratigraphically between layers containing Neanderthal remains associated with Mousterian industries.
OSL dating of loess deposits bracketing Sheep Creek tephra beds, northwest Canada: Dim and problematic single-grain OSL characteristics and their effect on multi-grain age estimates
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2013
Low-cost technologies in a rich ecological context: Hotel California open-air site at Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-02-2023
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3501
Abstract: Hotel California is part of a network of open‐air Neanderthal sites located in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). In this study, we examine the technology of the lithic assemblages recovered from this site's archaeological levels 3 to 7, which are characterised by the use of local raw materials, non‐hierarchical centripetal exploitation systems, systematic production of flakes and few retouched items. This type of expedient technology is repeated throughout the entire sequence, which spans Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 3 to 4. Through a comparison with the technocomplexes and occupation histories of surrounding sites – including a re‐evaluation of the published chronology for the nearby site of Fuente Mudarra, which is now dated exclusively to MIS 5 – we examine whether the detected pattern is applicable to the rest of the Atapuerca Mousterian record and if this expedient behaviour has equivalents in other sites in the region. Our findings show that the lithic procurement, exploitation and configuration strategies employed at the Sierra de Atapuerca open‐air sites were constant over broad time periods spanning MIS 5 to 3, in contrast to the technological sequences observed at other nearby sites on the Northern Iberian Plateau. The recurrent settlement of these open‐air Neanderthal sites over tens of thousands of years and the consistent use of expedient technologies during different occupation periods is likely attributable to the rich ecological context of the Sierra de Atapuerca environs.
Development of a southern hemisphere subtropical wetland (Welsby Lagoon, south-east Queensland, Australia) through the last glacial cycle
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
Electron spin resonance (ESR) dating in Quaternary studies: evolution, recent advances and applications
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Single-grain TT-OSL bleaching characteristics: Insights from modern analogues and OSL dating comparisons
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2019
Last Interglacial Iberian Neandertals as fisher-hunter-gatherers
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 27-03-2020
Abstract: The origins of marine resource consumption by humans have been much debated. Zilhão et al. present evidence that, in Atlantic Iberia's coastal settings, Middle Paleolithic Neanderthals exploited marine resources at a scale on par with the modern human–associated Middle Stone Age of southern Africa (see the Perspective by Will). Excavations at the Figueira Brava site on Portugal's Atlantic coast reveal shell middens rich in the remains of mollusks, crabs, and fish, as well as terrestrial food items. Familiarity with the sea and its resources may thus have been widespread for residents there in the Middle Paleolithic. The Figueira Brava Neanderthals also exploited stone pine nuts in a way akin to that previously identified in the Holocene of Iberia. These findings add broader dimensions to our understanding of the role of aquatic resources in the subsistence of Paleolithic humans. Science , this issue p. eaaz7943 see also p. 1422
Reply to comments on Clarkson et al. (2017) ‘Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago’
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2018
Insights into the late stages of the Acheulean technocomplex of Western Iberia from the Arbo site (Galicia, Spain)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
Infrared stimulated red luminescence from Chinese loess: Basic observations
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2003
THE APPLICATION OF POLLEN RADIOCARBON DATING AND BAYESIAN AGE-DEPTH MODELING FOR DEVELOPING ROBUST GEOCHRONOLOGICAL FRAMEWORKS OF WETLAND ARCHIVES
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 04-2022
DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2022.29
Abstract: Wetland sediments are valuable archives of environmental change but can be challenging to date. Terrestrial macrofossils are often sparse, resulting in radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating of less desirable organic fractions. An alternative approach for capturing changes in atmospheric 14 C is the use of terrestrial microfossils. We 14 C date pollen microfossils from two Australian wetland sediment sequences and compare these to ages from other sediment fractions (n = 56). For the Holocene Lake Werri Berri record, pollen 14 C ages are consistent with 14 C ages on bulk sediment and humic acids (n = 14), whilst Stable Polycyclic Aromatic Carbon (SPAC) 14 C ages (n = 4) are significantly younger. For Welsby Lagoon, pollen concentrate 14 C ages (n = 21) provide a stratigraphically coherent sequence back to 50 ka BP. 14 C ages from humic acid and µm fractions (n = 13) are inconsistent, and often substantially younger than pollen ages. Our comparison of Bayesian age-depth models, developed in Oxcal, Bacon and Undatable, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the different programs for straightforward and more complex chrono-stratigraphic records. All models display broad similarities but differences in modeled age-uncertainty, particularly when age constraints are sparse. Intensive dating of wetland sequences improves the identification of outliers and generation of robust age models, regardless of program used.
A multidisciplinary overview of the lower Miño River terrace system (NW Iberian Peninsula): A response to comments by Viveen et al. (2020)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2020
The Middle Pleistocene site of La Cansaladeta (Tarragona, Spain): Stratigraphic and archaeological succession
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2016
Late Holocene evolution of playa lakes in the central Ebro depression based on geophysical surveys and morpho-stratigraphic analysis of lacustrine terraces
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
Extended-range luminescence chronologies suggest potentially complex bone accumulation histories at the Early-to-Middle Pleistocene palaeontological site of Huéscar-1 (Guadix-Baza basin, Spain)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Extending the record of lacustrine phases beyond the last interglacial for Lake Eyre in central Australia using luminescence dating
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2017
Application of artificial neural networks in linear profile monitoring
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2011
Refining the chronology of Acheulean deposits at Porto Maior in the River Miño basin (Galicia, Spain) using a comparative luminescence and ESR dating approach
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Climate, fire and vegetation history from subtropical North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), eastern Australia, during the last three interglacials
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 09-08-2021
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3355
Abstract: Records of Australian palaeoclimate beyond the last glacial cycle are rare, limiting detailed analysis of long‐term climate trends and associated ecosystem responses. This study analyses a discontinuous pollen and charcoal record from Fern Gully Lagoon, North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), subtropical Queensland, Australia, which covers much of the last ~210 ,000 years. Climate variation is inferred from changes in vegetation, while analysis of micro‐ and macrocharcoal is used to infer fire activity. Pollen assemblages consist of ~40% rainforest taxa during marine isotope stage (MIS) 7a–c and early MIS 5. These are inferred to result from high rainfall in the Australian subtropics, which was also evident in north‐east and central Australia. Human impact from 21 ,000 years ago likely supressed post‐MIS 2 rainforest expansion to some extent. However, the increased Holocene abundance of herbs and grasses and reduced representation of aquatic taxa suggest that the Holocene was relatively dry when compared with early MIS 5 and MIS 7a–c. Similar MIS 5 and early MIS 7a–c climates, in contrast to a notably drier Holocene, suggest that the progressive interglacial drying trend most strongly recorded in central Australia was not a major feature of subtropical eastern Australian climates.
Patterns of aeolian deposition in subtropical Australia through the last glacial and deglacial periods
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 08-02-2021
DOI: 10.1017/QUA.2020.117
Abstract: Debate about the nature of climate and the magnitude of ecological change across Australia during the last glacial maximum (LGM 26.5–19 ka) persists despite considerable research into the late Pleistocene. This is partly due to a lack of detailed paleoenvironmental records and reliable chronological frameworks. Geochemical and geochronological analyses of a 60 ka sedimentary record from Brown Lake, subtropical Queensland, are presented and considered in the context of climate-controlled environmental change. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of dune crests adjacent to prominent wetlands across North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah) returned a mean age of 119.9 ± 10.6 ka indicating relative dune stability soon after formation in Marine Isotope Stage 5. Synthesis of wetland sediment geochemistry across the island was used to identify dust accumulation and applied as an aridification proxy over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. A positive trend of dust deposition from ca. 50 ka was found with highest influx occurring leading into the LGM. Complexities of comparing sedimentary records and the need for robust age models are highlighted with local variation influencing the accumulation of exogenic material. An inter-site comparison suggests enhanced moisture stress regionally during the last glaciation and throughout the LGM, returning to a more positive moisture balance ca. 8 ka.
A new chronological framework and site formation history for Cova del Gegant (Barcelona): Implications for Neanderthal and Anatomically Modern Human occupation of NE Iberian Peninsula
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2021
Late Quaternary alluviation and offset along the eastern Big Pine fault, southern California
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2007
Optically stimulated luminescence dating of single and multiple grains of quartz from perennially frozen loess in western Yukon Territory, Canada: Comparison with radiocarbon chronologies for the late Pleistocene Dawson tephra
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2008
Early human occupation of a maritime desert, Barrow Island, North-West Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2017
Somewhere beyond the sea: Human cranial remains from the Lesser Sunda Islands (Alor Island, Indonesia) provide insights on Late Pleistocene peopling of Island Southeast Asia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2019.07.002
Abstract: The migration of anatomically modern humans (AMH) from Africa to every inhabitable continent included their dispersal through Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) to Australia. Significantly, this involved overwater dispersal through the Lesser Sunda Islands between Sunda (continental Southeast Asia) and Sahul (Australia and New Guinea). However, the timing and direction of this movement is still debated. Here, we report on human skeletal material recovered from excavations at two rockshelters, known locally as Tron Bon Lei, on Alor Island, Indonesia. The remains, dated to the Late Pleistocene, are the first anatomically modern human remains recovered in Wallacea dated to this period and are associated with cultural material demonstrating intentional burial. The human remains from Tron Bon Lei represent a population osteometrically distinct from Late Pleistocene Sunda and Sahul AMH. Instead, morphometrically, they appear more similar to Holocene populations in the Lesser Sundas. Thus, they may represent the remains of a population originally from Sunda whose Lesser Sunda Island descendants survived into the Holocene.
Australian hydroclimate during Marine Isotope Stage 3: A synthesis and review
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2019
Marine Isotope Stage 4 in Australasia: A full glacial culminating 65,000 years ago – Global connections and implications for human dispersal
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2019
Examining sediment infill dynamics at Naracoorte cave megafauna sites using multiple luminescence dating signals
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2022
50 years and worlds apart: Rethinking the Holocene occupation of Cloggs Cave (East Gippsland, SE Australia) five decades after its initial archaeological excavation and in light of GunaiKurnai world views
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 02-01-2021
Luminescence dating and palaeomagnetic age constraint on hominins from Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca, Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2013.12.001
Abstract: Establishing a reliable chronology on the extensive hominin remains at Sima de los Huesos is critical for an improved understanding of the complex evolutionary histories and phylogenetic relationships of the European Middle Pleistocene hominin record. In this study, we use a combination of 'extended-range' luminescence dating techniques and palaeomagnetism to provide new age constraint on sedimentary infills that are unambiguously associated with the Sima fossil assemblage. Post-infrared-infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IR) dating of K-feldspars and thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL) dating of in idual quartz grains provide weighted mean ages of 433 ± 15 ka (thousands of years) and 416 ± 19 ka, respectively, for allochthonous sedimentary horizons overlying the hominin-bearing clay breccia. The six replicate luminescence ages obtained for this deposit are reproducible and provide a combined minimum age estimate of 427 ± 12 ka for the underlying hominin fossils. Palaeomagnetic directions for the luminescence dated sediment horizon and underlying fossiliferous clays display exclusively normal polarities. These findings are consistent with the luminescence dating results and confirm that the hominin fossil horizon accumulated during the Brunhes Chron, i.e., within the last 780 ka. The new bracketing age constraint for the Sima hominins is in broad agreement with radiometrically dated Homo heidelbergensis fossil sites, such as Mauer and Arago, and suggests that the split of the H. neanderthalensis and H. sapiens lineages took place during the early Middle Pleistocene. More widespread numerical dating of key Early and Middle Pleistocene fossil sites across Europe is needed to test and refine competing models of hominin evolution. The new luminescence chronologies presented in this study demonstrate the versatility of TT-OSL and pIR-IR techniques and the potential role they could play in helping to refine evolutionary histories over Middle Pleistocene timescales.
A multidisciplinary overview of the lower Miño River terrace system (NW Iberian Peninsula)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2020
A marine isotope stage 11 coastal Acheulian workshop with associated wood at Amanzi Springs Area 1, South Africa
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 20-10-2022
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0273714
Abstract: Amanzi Springs is a series of inactive thermal springs located near Kariega in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Excavations in the 1960s exposed rare, stratified Acheulian-bearing deposits that were not further investigated over the next 50 years. Reanalysis of the site and its legacy collection has led to a redefined stratigraphic context for the archaeology, a confirmed direct association between Acheulian artefacts and wood, as well as the first reliable age estimates for the site. Thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence and post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence dating indicates that the Acheulian deposits from the Amanzi Springs Area 1 spring eye formed during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 at ~ 404–390 ka. At this time, higher sea levels of ~13-14m would have placed Amanzi Springs around 7 km from a ria that would have formed along what is today the Swartkops River, and which likely led to spring reactivation. This makes the Amanzi Springs Area 1 assemblage an unusual occurrence of a verified late occurring, seaward, open-air Acheulian occupation. The Acheulian levels do not contain any Middle Stone Age (MSA) elements such as blades and points that have been documented in the interior of South Africa at this time. However, a small number of stone tools from the upper layers of the artefact zone, and originally thought of as intrusive, have been dated to ~190 ka, at the transition between MIS 7 to 6, and represent the first potential MSA identified at the site.
Cova del Rinoceront (Castelldefels, Barcelona): a terrestrial record for the Last Interglacial period (MIS 5) in the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
2000 Year-old Bogong moth (Agrotis infusa) Aboriginal food remains, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-12-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-020-79307-W
Abstract: Insects form an important source of food for many people around the world, but little is known of the deep-time history of insect harvesting from the archaeological record. In Australia, early settler writings from the 1830s to mid-1800s reported congregations of Aboriginal groups from multiple clans and language groups taking advantage of the annual migration of Bogong moths ( Agrotis infusa ) in and near the Australian Alps, the continent’s highest mountain range. The moths were targeted as a food item for their large numbers and high fat contents. Within 30 years of initial colonial contact, however, the Bogong moth festivals had ceased until their recent revival. No reliable archaeological evidence of Bogong moth exploitation or processing has ever been discovered, signalling a major gap in the archaeological history of Aboriginal groups. Here we report on microscopic remains of ground and cooked Bogong moths on a recently excavated grindstone from Cloggs Cave, in the southern foothills of the Australian Alps. These findings represent the first conclusive archaeological evidence of insect foods in Australia, and, as far as we know, of their remains on stone artefacts in the world. They provide insights into the antiquity of important Aboriginal dietary practices that have until now remained archaeologically invisible.
ESR and OSL dating of fossil-bearing deposits from Naracoorte Cave Complex palaeontological sites, south Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2022
OSL dating of individual quartz ‘supergrains’ from the Ancient Middle Palaeolithic site of Cuesta de la Bajada, Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2016
Neanderthals in a highly diverse, mediterranean-Eurosiberian forest ecotone: The pleistocene pollen record of Teixoneres Cave, northeastern Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
Palaeoenvironments of the last Neanderthals in SW Europe (MIS 3): Cova del Coll Verdaguer (Barcelona, NE of Iberian Peninsula)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2017
Optical dates from British Isles 'solifluction sheets' suggests rapid landscape response to late pleistocene climate change
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 06-2010
Late Quaternary climate change in Australia's arid interior: Evidence from Kati Thanda – Lake Eyre
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2022
Late survival of megafauna refuted for Cloggs Cave, SE Australia: Implications for the Australian Late Pleistocene megafauna extinction debate
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
Insights into subtropical Australian aridity from Welsby Lagoon, north Stradbroke Island, over the past 80,000 years
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2020
Population increase and environmental deterioration correspond with microlithic innovations in South Asia ca. 35,000 years ago
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 28-07-2009
Abstract: Genetic studies of South Asia's population history have led to postulations of a significant and early population expansion in the subcontinent, dating to sometime in the Late Pleistocene. We evaluate this argument, based on new mtDNA analyses, and find evidence for significant demographic transition in the subcontinent, dating to 35–28 ka. We then examine the paleoenvironmental and, particularly, archaeological records for this time period and note that this putative demographic event coincides with a period of ecological and technological change in South Asia. We document the development of a new diminutive stone blade (microlithic) technology beginning at 35–30 ka, the first time that the precocity of this transition has been recognized across the subcontinent. We argue that the transition to microlithic technology may relate to changes in subsistence practices, as increasingly large and probably fragmented populations exploited resources in contracting favorable ecological zones just before the onset of full glacial conditions.
Extended-range luminescence chronologies for the Middle Pleistocene units at the Sima del Elefante archaeological site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
Single-grain OSL dating of glaciofluvial quartz constrains Reid glaciation in NW Canada to MIS 6
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 03-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.YQRES.2011.11.009
Abstract: Improved chronological control on the penultimate advance of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in northwest Canada (the Reid glaciation) is required for a better understanding of late Quaternary palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental change in eastern Beringia. However, reliable dating of glaciation events beyond the last glacial maximum is commonly hindered by a lack of directly dateable material. In this study we (i) provide the first combined minimum and maximum age constraint on the Reid glaciation at Ash Bend, its reference locale in the Stewart River valley, northwestern Canadian Cordillera, using single-grain optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz and (ii) compare the timing of the Reid glaciation with other penultimate ice sheet advances in the region with the aim of establishing improved glacial reconstructions in eastern Beringia. We obtain ages of 158±18 ka and 132±18 ka for glaciofluvial sands overlying and underlying the Reid till, respectively. These ages indicate that the Reid advance, at its reference locale, occurred during MIS 6. This precludes an earlier MIS 8 age, and suggests that the Reid advance may have been synchronous with the Delta glaciation of central Alaska, and is likely correlative with the Mirror Creek glaciation in southern Yukon.
Electron spin resonance dating of optically bleached quartz grains from the Middle Palaeolithic site of Cuesta de la Bajada (Spain) using the multiple centres approach
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2017
Geomorphological context and formation history of Cloggs Cave: What was the cave like when people inhabited it?
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Reconstructing Mousterian landscapes in the southeastern Pyrenees (Roca dels Bous site, Pre-Pyrenees ranges, Spain)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 07-05-2020
DOI: 10.1017/QUA.2020.29
Abstract: Landscape evolution studies enable us to understand site formation processes affecting past hunter-gatherer settlements. This work presents a landscape reconstruction of Roca dels Bous site (RB), which is a reference site for the Late Mousterian occupation of the incised valleys of the southeastern Pyrenees. For this purpose, we combined geomorphological studies, stratigraphic descriptions, new single-grain optically stimulated luminescence datasets, statistical methods, and geophysical surveys. RB formed by gravitational processes induced by fluvial undermining of the Segre River during changing late Pleistocene climatic conditions. Geomorphological and chronological data combined with fluvial age-incision models suggest that, during Late Mousterian occupation, RB was located very near the Segre floodplain level and closer to water and raw material natural resources than at present. The accumulation of gravitational deposits associated with the archaeological levels occurred at rates of 0.16–0.44 m ka -1 , between 55 and 47 ka, coinciding with Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 (MIS3). More detailed comparison with available climatic curves suggests that the dated RB layers were potentially deposited during cold phases within MIS3. This work provides new landscape-based evidence to examine the paleoenvironmental context of Neanderthal presence in the southeastern Pre-Pyrenees, an important region in the debate regarding Neanderthal demise in Western Europe around 40 ka.
Evaluating the suitability of extended-range luminescence dating techniques over early and Middle Pleistocene timescales: Published datasets and case studies from Atapuerca, Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2015
Field gamma dose-rate assessment in natural sedimentary contexts using LaBr3 (Ce) and NaI(Tl) probes: A comparison between the threshold and windows techniques
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.APRADISO.2012.12.006
Abstract: Results are presented for a series of replicate in situ gamma spectrometry measurements (n=20) made in natural sedimentary contexts using LaBr3(Ce) and NaI(Tl) probes. For both types of detectors, gamma dose rates were calculated using the "threshold" technique (Murray et al., 1978), and compared with results obtained previously by Arnold et al. (2012) using the "windows" technique (Aitken, 1985). Our results show that gamma dose rates obtained using these two techniques are consistent at 1σ for a given probe, and that the threshold technique yields reproducible results for the LaBr3(Ce) and NaI(Tl) probes. In comparison with the energy windows approach, the threshold approach offers an improvement in the precision with which gamma dose rates can be determined using the LaBr3(Ce) probe. The potential of an alternative threshold approach (the "energy threshold" approach of Guérin and Mercier, 2011) was also tested for both probe types, and the resultant gamma dose rates were found to be in agreement with those obtained using the standard threshold and energy windows techniques. Our results provide new insights into methods and instrumentation used for assessing in situ gamma dose rates in Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and Luminescence dating. We conclude that LaBr3(Ce) probes can reliably be used for portable gamma dosimetry in low level activity sedimentary environments (500-1500μGy/a) when using the threshold approach, provided that their non-negligible internal background activities (equivalent to ∼758μGy/a for our probe) are accurately assessed and subtracted from gamma ray spectra measured in the field. Our results also suggest that there may be some minor merit in applying an internal background-subtraction procedure to NaI(Tl) gamma ray spectra when using the threshold technique, in spite of the lower intrinsic activities of NaI(Tl) detectors.
A multi-dating approach to age-modelling long continental records: The 135 ka El Cañizar de Villarquemado sequence (NE Spain)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2019
Multiple occurrences of pathologies suggesting a common and severe bone infection in a population of the Australian Pleistocene giant, Genyornis newtoni (Aves, Dromornithidae)
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 15-12-2022
DOI: 10.1002/SPP2.1415
Abstract: Vertebrate fossils showing pathological lesions are incredibly rare, and even more so is the identification of an ailment affecting multiple in iduals in a population. However, the unique Lake Callabonna fossil deposit of South Australia has produced several such fossils from a single species of giant bird. Examination of the Lake Callabonna fossils of Genyornis newtoni , an extinct Pleistocene dromornithid, representing at least 34 in iduals, has resulted in the identification of six osseous pathologies. These lesions are typical of the bone infection osteomyelitis, and affect a sternum, a tarsometatarsus and four phalanges across four in iduals. The identification and description of osteomyelitis in these bones is the first of its kind for extinct galloanseres. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of host deposits shows that these animals were mired in lakebed sediments ranging from 54.2 to 50.4 kyr in age, probably becoming entrapped during a protracted drought phase previously identified as beginning at c . 48 ka and which would have resulted in the lakebed becoming exposed. Additional pathologies are recognized in phalanges of two other dromornithids, Dromornis stirtoni and Ilbandornis woodburnei , from the Miocene Alcoota deposit of the Northern Territory that are also interpreted as drought associated. It is possible that drought‐driven stress and consequent immunosuppressive effects may have contributed to the high frequency of lesions observed in the s led birds.
A revised burial dose estimation procedure for optical dating of youngand modern-age sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2009
Revisiting the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic archaeology of Gruta do Caldeirão (Tomar, Portugal)
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 27-10-2021
DOI: 10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0259089
Abstract: Gruta do Caldeirão features a c . 6 m-thick archaeological stratification capped by Holocene layers ABC-D and Ea, which overlie layer Eb, a deposit of Magdalenian age that underwent significant disturbance, intrusion, and component mixing caused by funerary use of the cave during the Early Neolithic. Here, we provide an updated overview of the stratigraphy and archaeological content of the underlying Pleistocene succession, whose chronology we refine using radiocarbon and single-grain optically stimulated luminescence dating. We find a high degree of stratigraphic integrity. Dating anomalies exist in association with the succession’s two major discontinuities: between layer Eb and Upper Solutrean layer Fa, and between Early Upper Palaeolithic layer K and Middle Palaeolithic layer L. Mostly, the anomalies consist of older-than-expected radiocarbon ages and can be explained by bioturbation and palimpsest-forming sedimentation hiatuses. Combined with palaeoenvironmental inferences derived from magnetic susceptibility analyses, the dating shows that sedimentation rates varied in tandem with the oscillations in global climate revealed by the Greenland oxygen isotope record. A steep increase in sedimentation rate is observed through the Last Glacial Maximum, resulting in a c . 1.5 m-thick accumulation containing conspicuous remains of occupation by people of the Solutrean technocomplex, whose traditional sub ision is corroborated: the index fossils appear in the expected stratigraphic order the diagnostics of the Protosolutrean and the Lower Solutrean predate 24,000 years ago and the constraints on the Upper Solutrean place it after Greenland Interstadial 2.2. (23,220–23,340 years ago). Human usage of the site during the Early Upper and the Middle Palaeolithic is episodic and low-intensity: stone tools are few, and the faunal remains relate to carnivore activity. The Middle Palaeolithic is found to persist beyond 39,000 years ago, at least three millennia longer than in the Franco-Cantabrian region. This conclusion is upheld by Bayesian modelling and stands even if the radiocarbon ages for the Middle Palaeolithic levels are removed from consideration (on account of observed inversions and the method’s potential for underestimation when used close to its limit of applicability). A number of localities in Spain and Portugal reveal a similar persistence pattern. The key evidence comes from high-resolution fluviatile contexts spared by the site formation issues that our study of Caldeirão brings to light—palimpsest formation, post-depositional disturbance, and erosion. These processes. are ubiquitous in the cave and rock-shelter sites of Iberia, reflecting the impact on karst archives of the variation in climate and environments that occurred through the Upper Pleistocene, and especially at two key points in time: between 37,000 and 42,000 years ago, and after the Last Glacial Maximum. Such empirical difficulties go a long way towards explaining the controversies surrounding the associated cultural transitions: from the Middle to the Upper Palaeolithic, and from the Solutrean to the Magdalenian. Alongside potential dating error caused by incomplete decontamination, proper consideration of s le association issues is required if we are ever to fully understand what happened with the human settlement of Iberia during these critical intervals, and especially so with regards to the fate of Iberia’s last Neandertal populations.
Late Neanderthal subsistence strategies and cultural traditions in the northern Iberia Peninsula: Insights from Prado Vargas, Burgos, Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2021
Insights into the relationship between luminescence and ESR dating signals from Spanish sedimentary quartz samples of different geologic origins
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
The Acheulean Technocomplex of the Iberian Atlantic Margin as an Example of Technology Continuity Through the Middle Pleistocene
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-05-2020
Headwater channel dynamics in semiarid rangelands, Colorado high plains, USA
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Date: 30-06-2006
DOI: 10.1130/B25928.1
Neandertal roots: Cranial and chronological evidence from Sima de los Huesos
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 20-06-2014
Abstract: The Sima de los Huesos site in Atapuerca, northern Spain, is a rich source of fossil hominin specimens. The site has now yielded further skull specimens that illuminate patterns of human evolution in Europe nearly half a million years ago. Arsuaga et al. studied 17 crania, including 7 that are new specimens and 6 that are more complete than before (see the Perspective by Hublin). This assemblage of specimens reveals the cranial, facial, and dental features of the Atapuerca hominins, which allows more precise evolutionary positioning of these Neandertal ancestors. Science , this issue p. 1358 see also p. 1338
San Quirce (Palencia, Spain): new chronologies for the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic transition of south-west Europe
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 18-07-2023
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.3460
Abstract: San Quirce is an open‐air archaeological site situated on a fluvial terrace in the Duero basin (Palencia, northern Iberia). This paper presents new and consistent chronologies obtained for the sedimentary sequence using post‐infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR‐IR) dating of K‐feldspars and single‐grain thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT‐OSL) dating of quartz. The new dating results indicate that the sequence is older than ~200 000 years and place San Quirce Level III within marine isotope stages (MIS) 8 and 7, between 274 ± 13 ka and 238 ± 13 ka. The main lithic assemblage at San Quirce comes from Level III. The predominant tool types found in this level are hammerstones, manuports and flakes, with a small proportion of cores and a significant presence of denticulates. Adaptation to local environmental conditions resulted in distinctive cultural habits, which were embedded in the cultural tradition of hominins occupying the site during the final third of the Middle Pleistocene. San Quirce preserves a simple cultural tradition that was employed by local hominins to engage in a erse array of activities, and highlights the cultural ersity that appears to have been a characteristic feature of the Lower to Middle Palaeolithic transition 300–200 ka.
Stochastic modelling of multi-grain equivalent dose (De ) distributions: Implications for OSL dating of sediment mixtures
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2009
Human occupation of northern Australia by 65,000 years ago
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 07-2017
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE22968
Abstract: The time of arrival of people in Australia is an unresolved question. It is relevant to debates about when modern humans first dispersed out of Africa and when their descendants incorporated genetic material from Neanderthals, Denisovans and possibly other hominins. Humans have also been implicated in the extinction of Australia's megafauna. Here we report the results of new excavations conducted at Madjedbebe, a rock shelter in northern Australia. Artefacts in primary depositional context are concentrated in three dense bands, with the stratigraphic integrity of the deposit demonstrated by artefact refits and by optical dating and other analyses of the sediments. Human occupation began around 65,000 years ago, with a distinctive stone tool assemblage including grinding stones, ground ochres, reflective additives and ground-edge hatchet heads. This evidence sets a new minimum age for the arrival of humans in Australia, the dispersal of modern humans out of Africa, and the subsequent interactions of modern humans with Neanderthals and Denisovans.
New bracketing luminescence ages constrain the Sima de los Huesos hominin fossils (Atapuerca, Spain) to MIS 12
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2019
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2018.12.003
Abstract: Recent chronological studies of the Sima de los Huesos (SH) hominin fossil site, Atapuerca, Spain, have established a close minimum age of at least 430 ka for sedimentary material immediately overlying the human remains. However, a firm maximum age limit still needs to be established for the SH fossils in order to better constrain the timing for the onset of Neandertal speciation. In the present study, we address this important chronological gap at SH by providing direct ages for the sediment deposits that host, and immediately underlie, the hominin fossils. Depositional ages were obtained using single-grain thermally-transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL), a technique that has yielded reliable 'extended-range' luminescence chronologies at several independently dated Atapuerca sites. Four single-grain TT-OSL depositional ages of 453 ± 56 ka, 437 ± 38 ka, 457 ± 41 ka and 460 ± 39 ka were obtained for the red clay lithostratigraphic units (LU-5 and LU-6) found underlying and encasing the SH hominin bones. A Bayesian age-depth model was constructed using previously published chronologies, as well as the new single-grain TT-OSL ages for LU-5 and LU-6, in order to derive combined age estimates for in idual lithostratigraphic units preserved at SH. The combined modeled ranges reveal that the hominin-bearing layer (LU-6) was deposited between 455 ± 17 ka and 440 ± 15 ka (mean lower and upper boundary 68.2% probability range ± 1σ uncertainty, respectively), with a mean age of 448 ± 15 ka. These new bracketing ages suggest that the hominin fossils at SH were most likely deposited within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 12, enabling more precise temporal constraint on the early evolution of the Neandertal lineage. The SH fossils represent the oldest reliably dated hominin remains displaying Neandertal features across Eurasia. These Neandertal features are first observed in the facial skeleton, including the mandible and teeth, as well as the temporomandibular joint, and appear consistently across the SH collection. Our chronological findings suggest that the appearance of these Neandertal traits may have been associated with the climatic demise of MIS 12 and the ecological changes that occurred in Iberia during this period. Other Middle Pleistocene hominin fossils from Europe dated to MIS 12-11, or later, show different morphological trends, with some lacking Neandertal specializations. The latest SH dating results enable improved temporal correlations with these contrasting hominin records from Europe, and suggest a complex picture for hominin evolution during the Middle Pleistocene.
Climate change triggered sedimentation and progressive tectonic uplift in a coupled piedmont-axial system: Cuyama Valley, California, USA
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2008
DOI: 10.1002/ESP.1600
New chronological constraints for the lowermost stratigraphic unit of Atapuerca Gran Dolina (Burgos, N Spain)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2022
Single-grain OSL dating of the Middle Palaeolithic site of Galería de las Estatuas, Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2019
Late holocene alluvial history of the Cuyama River, California, USA
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Date: 08-08-2011
DOI: 10.1130/B30312.1
A revised, Last Interglacial chronology for the Middle Palaeolithic sequence of Gruta da Oliveira (Almonda karst system, Torres Novas, Portugal)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2021
Extinction of eastern Sahul megafauna coincides with sustained environmental deterioration
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-05-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-15785-W
Abstract: Explanations for the Upper Pleistocene extinction of megafauna from Sahul (Australia and New Guinea) remain unresolved. Extinction hypotheses have advanced climate or human-driven scenarios, in spite of over three quarters of Sahul lacking reliable biogeographic or chronologic data. Here we present new megafauna from north-eastern Australia that suffered extinction sometime after 40,100 (±1700) years ago. Megafauna fossils preserved alongside leaves, seeds, pollen and insects, indicate a sclerophyllous forest with heathy understorey that was home to aquatic and terrestrial carnivorous reptiles and megaherbivores, including the world’s largest kangaroo. Megafauna species ersity is greater compared to southern sites of similar age, which is contrary to expectations if extinctions followed proposed migration routes for people across Sahul. Our results do not support rapid or synchronous human-mediated continental-wide extinction, or the proposed timing of peak extinction events. Instead, megafauna extinctions coincide with regionally staggered spatio-temporal deterioration in hydroclimate coupled with sustained environmental change.
Insights into TT-OSL signal stability from single-grain analyses of known-age deposits at Atapuerca, Spain
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
A multi-technique dating study of two Lower Palaeolithic sites from the Cher Valley (Middle Loire Catchment, France): Lunery-la Terre-des-Sablons and Brinay-la Noira
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2020
The Acheulean of the Upper Guadiana River Basin (Central Spain). Morphostratigraphic Context and Chronology
Publisher: Frontiers Media SA
Date: 24-06-2022
DOI: 10.3389/FEART.2022.912007
Abstract: In the upper basin of the Guadiana River, especially in the sectors drained by its right-bank tributaries, the Bullaque and Becea rivers, important concentrations of Acheulean and Mousterian industries can be found in a superficial position. These industries have provided series containing tens of thousands of pieces. Deposits in stratigraphic position have also been identified, related to the fluvial terraces of the Guadiana and Jabalón rivers and some tributaries. Within the sector studied, in the province of Ciudad Real, the position of these deposits is related to alluvial fans developed on the slopes of the immediate reliefs. These fans, mainly composed of Lower and Middle Ordovician quartzite gravel, were eroded in their distal positions by the Bullaque and Becea rivers, forming very low terraces on which large concentrations of Acheulean and Mousterian lithic industry can be found. El Sotillo, the only known stratigraphic site in the area, was excavated in 2017–2019 and consists of several levels with Mousterian and Acheulean industry. We present the technological characteristics of the main Acheulean assemblage recognised at this site, for which numerical dates have been obtained placing its chronology in the second half of the Middle Pleistocene. The location of these sites, in surficial position and El Sotillo, allows us to recognise a territorial space with specific geographic characteristics and a very significant human impact.
First evidence of an extensive Acheulean large cutting tool accumulation in Europe from Porto Maior (Galicia, Spain)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-02-2018
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-018-21320-1
Abstract: We describe a European Acheulean site characterised by an extensive accumulation of large cutting tools (LCT). This type of Lower Paleolithic assemblage, with dense LCT accumulations, has only been found on the African continent and in the Near East until now. The identification of a site with large accumulations of LCTs favours the hypothesis of an African origin for the Acheulean of Southwest Europe. The lithic tool-bearing deposits date back to 293–205 thousand years ago. Our chronological findings confirm temporal overlap between sites with clear “African” Acheulean affinities and Early Middle Paleolithic sites found elsewhere in the region. These complex technological patterns could be consistent with the potential coexistence of different human species in south-western Europe during the Middle Pleistocene.
Paper I - Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of perennially frozen deposits in north-central Siberia: OSL characteristics of quartz grains and methodological considerations regarding their suitability for dating
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 28-04-2011
Reconstructing the sedimentary history of Lezetxiki II cave (Basque Country, northern Iberian Peninsula) using micromorphological analysis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2018
Climates of the last three interglacials in subtropical eastern Australia inferred from wetland sediment geochemistry
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2020
Optically stimulated luminescence dating using quartz
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 28-10-2021
Statistical treatment of fluvial dose distributions from southern Colorado arroyo deposits
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic interpretation of the stratigraphic sequence of Lezetxiki II Cave (Basque Country, Iberian Peninsula) inferred from small vertebrate assemblages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 25-04-2018
DOI: 10.1017/QUA.2018.17
Abstract: We present a paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic reconstruction based on microfaunal assemblages preserved at Lezetxiki II Cave (Arrasate, Basque Country, Iberian Peninsula) and synthesize previously published and new chronological work from the cave to better understand the environmental history of the region. The stratigraphic sequence of this short gallery ranges from the end of the middle Pleistocene to the middle Holocene and has great micropaleontological relevance for the Iberian Peninsula, especially because it contains the most ancient small vertebrate remains found in the Cantabrian region, likely deposited during Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 7–6. Thirty-two small vertebrate taxa, including two extinct species, were identified. Environmental reconstruction based on small vertebrates suggests an open landscape at the base of the sequence (three lower levels) that progressively changed to woodland in the upper levels. Other paleoenvironmental data suggest a similar interpretation of the environmental history of the region, and although some uncertainty in the environmental reconstruction and chronology still exists, our data provide a richly detailed record of small vertebrates from an area that likely represented an important late Quaternary migration corridor for species traveling between the Iberian Peninsula and European continent.
Optical dating of perennially frozen deposits associated with preserved ancient plant and animal DNA in north-central Siberia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2008
Dating alluvial deposits with optically stimulated luminescence, AMS 14C and cosmogenic techniques, western Transverse Ranges, California, USA
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
Persistence of wetlands on North Stradbroke Island (south-east Queensland, Australia) during the last glacial cycle: implications for Quaternary science and biogeography
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 08-2017
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2981
New views on an old move: Hominin migration into Eurasia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2013
Publisher Correction: First experimental evaluation of the alpha efficiency in coarse-grained quartz for ESR dating purposes: implications for dose rate evaluation
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 18-03-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-020-62007-W
Abstract: An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
Cultural innovation and megafauna interaction in the early settlement of arid Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 11-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE20125
Abstract: Elucidating the material culture of early people in arid Australia and the nature of their environmental interactions is essential for understanding the adaptability of populations and the potential causes of megafaunal extinctions 50-40 thousand years ago (ka). Humans colonized the continent by 50 ka, but an apparent lack of cultural innovations compared to people in Europe and Africa has been deemed a barrier to early settlement in the extensive arid zone. Here we present evidence from Warratyi rock shelter in the southern interior that shows that humans occupied arid Australia by around 49 ka, 10 thousand years (kyr) earlier than previously reported. The site preserves the only reliably dated, stratified evidence of extinct Australian megafauna, including the giant marsupial Diprotodon optatum, alongside artefacts more than 46 kyr old. We also report on the earliest-known use of ochre in Australia and Southeast Asia (at or before 49-46 ka), gypsum pigment (40-33 ka), bone tools (40-38 ka), hafted tools (38-35 ka), and backed artefacts (30-24 ka), each up to 10 kyr older than any other known occurrence. Thus, our evidence shows that people not only settled in the arid interior within a few millennia of entering the continent, but also developed key technologies much earlier than previously recorded for Australia and Southeast Asia.
A marine isotope stage 13 Acheulian sequence from the Amanzi Springs Area 2 Deep Sounding excavation, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2023
Vertebrate Trace Fossils from the Late Pleistocene of Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 11-07-2018
Related Organisations
University Of Oxford
Location: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Centro Nacional De Investigación Sobre La Evolución Humana (CENIEH)
Location: Spain
Related Funding Activities
Discovery Projects - Grant ID: DP200100194
Start Date: 05-2021
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $408,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityARC Future Fellowships - Grant ID: FT130100195
Start Date: 12-2013
End Date: 04-2018
Amount: $755,320.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP180101913
Start Date: 2018
End Date: 12-2022
Amount: $416,584.00
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View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP0878604
Start Date: 03-2008
End Date: 08-2011
Amount: $338,000.00
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View Funded ActivityDiscovery Projects - Grant ID: DP230100152
Start Date: 2023
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $347,437.00
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View Funded ActivityLinkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100177
Start Date: 2017
End Date: 12-2018
Amount: $290,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP210200704
Start Date: 12-2022
End Date: 12-2025
Amount: $260,820.00
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View Funded ActivityLinkage Projects - Grant ID: LP160101249
Start Date: 05-2018
End Date: 12-2024
Amount: $669,000.00
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View Funded ActivityLinkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0989067
Start Date: 2009
End Date: 06-2010
Amount: $950,000.00
Funder: Australian Research Council
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