ORCID Profile
0000-0002-0128-4119
Current Organisation
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage (CABAH)
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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)
Archaeological Science | Geology | Geochemistry | Archaeological Science | Geochronology And Isotope Geochemistry | Archaeology | Archaeology Of Hunter-Gatherer Societies (Incl. Pleistocene | Climatology (Incl. Palaeoclimatology) | Geochronology | Geochronology | Quaternary Environments | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Archaeology | Conservation And Biodiversity | Geomorphology | Surface Processes | Environmental Science and Management | Isotope Geochemistry | Ecology And Evolution Not Elsewhere Classified | Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience | Oceanography | Exploration Geochemistry | Surfacewater Hydrology | Ore Deposit Petrology | Forensic Chemistry | Heritage And Conservation | Other Chemical Sciences | Palaeoecology | Planetary Science (excl. Extraterrestrial Geology) | Global Change Biology | Biological (Physical) Anthropology | Archaeology Of Complex Societies: Asia, Africa, Oceania And The | Archaeology Of Complex Societies: Europe, The Mediterranean And | Chemical Oceanography | Ecological Impacts of Climate Change | Carbon Sequestration Science | Physical Geography | Environmental Sciences Not Elsewhere Classified |
ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)
Climate change | Earth sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in History and Archaeology | Understanding Australia's Past | Biological sciences | Environmental and resource evaluation not elsewhere classified | Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity at Regional or Larger Scales | Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage | Living resources (flora and fauna) | Integrated (ecosystem) assessment and management | National Security | Law Enforcement | Chemical sciences | Physical sciences | Climate variability | Environmental education and awareness | Climate Variability (excl. Social Impacts) | Physical and chemical conditions | Farmland, Arable Cropland and Permanent Cropland Land Management | Health Protection and/or Disaster Response
Related Links
Publications
Further evidence for small-bodied hominins from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-2005
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE04022
Abstract: Homo floresiensis was recovered from Late Pleistocene deposits on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, but has the stature, limb proportions and endocranial volume of African Pliocene Australopithecus. The holotype of the species (LB1), excavated in 2003 from Liang Bua, consisted of a partial skeleton minus the arms. Here we describe additional H. floresiensis remains excavated from the cave in 2004. These include arm bones belonging to the holotype skeleton, a second adult mandible, and postcranial material from other in iduals. We can now reconstruct the body proportions of H. floresiensis with some certainty. The finds further demonstrate that LB1 is not just an aberrant or pathological in idual, but is representative of a long-term population that was present during the interval 95-74 to 12 thousand years ago. The excavation also yielded more evidence for the depositional history of the cave and for the behavioural capabilities of H. floresiensis, including the butchery of Stegodon and use of fire.
The Nubian complex of Dhofar, Oman: An African Middle Stone Age industry in Southern Arabia
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 30-11-2011
Redating the advance of the New Zealand Franz Josef Glacier during the Last Termination: evidence for asynchronous climate change
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2007
Michael john morwood (1950—2013)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-2013
DOI: 10.1038/500401A
Assessing the time of final deposition of Youngest Toba Tuff deposits in the Middle Son Valley, northern India
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2014
Luminescence dating of rock art and past environments using mud-wasp nests in northern Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 06-1997
DOI: 10.1038/42690
A southern Indian Middle Palaeolithic occupation surface sealed by the 74 ka Toba eruption: Further evidence from Jwalapuram Locality 22
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2012
Author Correction
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 24-01-2022
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.
Late Acheulean hominins at the Marine Isotope Stage 6/5e transition in north-central India
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 05-2011
DOI: 10.1016/J.YQRES.2011.02.001
Abstract: Single-grain optically stimulated luminescence dating was applied to Late Quaternary sediments at two sites in the Middle Son Valley, Madhya Pradesh, India. Designated Bamburi 1 and Patpara, these sites contain Late Acheulean stone tool assemblages, which we associate with non-modern hominins. Age determinations of 140–120 ka place the formation of these sites at around the Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage 6–5 transition, placing them among the youngest Acheulean sites in the world. We present here the geochronology and sedimentological setting of these sites, and consider potential implications of Late Pleistocene archaic habitation in north-central India for the initial dispersal of modern humans across South Asia.
Late Pleistocene shell midden microstratigraphy indicates a complex history of human-environment interactions in the uplands of North Vietnam
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 07-03-2022
Abstract: Northern Vietnam is situated on a major route of Pleistocene hominin dispersal in East Asia, and the area's karstic caves preserve many prehistoric shell middens. Fossil and genomic evidence suggest a complex human history in this region and more widely across Southeast Asia and southern China, but related archaeological investigations are h ered by challenging site stratigraphies. Recent investigations of shell middens in other geographical settings have revealed the microstratigraphic complexity of these anthropogenic deposits. But caves promote distinctive site formation processes, while tropical climates may catalyse geomorphic and diagenetic changes. These environmental factors complicate the interpretation of northern Vietnam's shell middens and constraining their effects upon the formation, preservation and destruction of these sites is critical to understanding the archaeology of this region. We examine two archaeological cave sites, dated to the Late Pleistocene and located in the limestone uplands surrounding the Hanoi Basin. Each contains multiple shell midden layers associated with prehistoric occupation and burials. Using thin-section micromorphology (microstratigraphy), we reconstruct the depositional and post-depositional histories of these sites, presenting a geoarchaeological framework of interpretation that is applicable to shell middens in mainland Southeast Asia and tropical zones more widely. This work represents a further step towards improving our understanding of prehistoric human dispersals and adaptations in this region. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Tropical forests in the deep human past’.
Mid-Holocene age obtained for nested diamond pattern petroglyph in the Billasurgam Cave complex, Kurnool District, southern India
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2013
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’.
Bayesian analysis of De distributions in optical dating: Towards a robust method for dealing with outliers
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2022
Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 07-04-2014
Abstract: Mammalian extinction during the past several hundred thousand years has been a major focus for evolutionary biologists, geologists, and archaeologists, often being linked to climate change and human overhunting. Until relatively recently, study has been largely restricted to the Americas, Europe, and Australasia. We present the oldest well-dated sequence of mammalian faunas for the Indian subcontinent, demonstrating continuity of 20 of 21 identified mammals from at least 100,000 y ago to the present. We suggest that, although local extirpations occurred, the majority of taxa survived or adapted to substantial ecological pressures in fragmented habitats. These results complement data from Africa and elsewhere that demonstrate the necessity of a nuanced ecological understanding of such extinctions in different areas of the world.
A comprehensive database of quality-rated fossil ages for Sahul’s Quaternary vertebrates
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-07-2016
Abstract: The study of palaeo-chronologies using fossil data provides evidence for past ecological and evolutionary processes, and is therefore useful for predicting patterns and impacts of future environmental change. However, the robustness of inferences made from fossil ages relies heavily on both the quantity and quality of available data. We compiled Quaternary non-human vertebrate fossil ages from Sahul published up to 2013. This, the FosSahul database, includes 9,302 fossil records from 363 deposits, for a total of 478 species within 215 genera, of which 27 are from extinct and extant megafaunal species (2,559 records). We also provide a rating of reliability of in idual absolute age based on the dating protocols and association between the dated materials and the fossil remains. Our proposed rating system identified 2,422 records with high-quality ages (i.e., a reduction of 74%). There are many applications of the database, including disentangling the confounding influences of hypothetical extinction drivers, better spatial distribution estimates of species relative to palaeo-climates, and potentially identifying new areas for fossil discovery.
Use-polished stone flakes from Liang Bua, Indonesia: Implications for plant processing and fibrecraft in the Late Pleistocene
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2021
Evolutionary anthropology: Homo 'incendius'
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-2012
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE11195
And then there were none?
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 22-01-2010
Abstract: Direct dating of fossils of the putative last survivors of the Australian megafauna supports claims that they were extinct by 40 thousand years ago and not later.
Establishing a pIRIR procedure for De determination of composite mineral grains from volcanic terranes: A case study of sediments from Liang Bua, Indonesia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2021
Luminescence-based chronologies for Palaeolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin, northern China: First tests using newly developed optical dating procedures for potassium feldspar grains
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2015
Beyond the radiocarbon barrier in Australian prehistory
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 09-1994
DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00047116
Abstract: The team that has been dating early Australian sites by luminescence methods replies to Allen's (1994) view of the continent's human chronology, published in the June ANTIQUITY (68: 339–43). They argue the strength of the long chronology with their new optical dates.
Application of sedimentary and chronological analyses to refine the depositional context of a Late Pleistocene vertebrate deposit, Naracoorte, South Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2011
Still Bay and serrated points from Umhlatuzana Rock Shelter, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2010
Luminescence characteristics and dose distributions for quartz and feldspar grains from Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 08-01-2012
Combined organic biomarker and use-wear analyses of stone artefacts from Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-11-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-53782-2
Abstract: Organic biomarker and lithic use-wear analyses of archaeological implements manufactured and/or used by hominins in the past offers a means of assessing how prehistoric peoples utilised natural resources. Currently, most studies focus on one of these techniques, rather than using both in sequence. This study aims to assess the potential of combining both methods to analyse stone artefacts, using a set of 69 stones excavated from the cave site of Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia). Prior to chemical analysis, an initial inspection of the artefacts revealed potential use-wear traces but no visible residues. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis, including the targeting of 86 lipids, terpenes, terpenoids, alkanes and their analogues, found compounds with plant or animal origin on 27 of the 69 stones. The artefacts were subsequently cleaned, and use-wear analysis identified traces of use on 43 artefacts. Use-wear analysis confirmed traces of use on 23 of the 27 artefacts with potential use-residues that were determined by GC-MS. The GC-MS results were broadly consistent with the functional classes identified in the later use-wear analysis. This inclusive approach for stone artefact analysis strengthens the identifications made through multiple lines of enquiry. There remain conflicts and uncertainties in specific cases, suggesting the need for further refinement and analyses of the relationships between use-wear and residues.
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.
Dating techniques: Illuminating the past
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 22-04-2015
DOI: 10.1038/520438A
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
The spatio-temporal distribution of archaeological and faunal finds at Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia) in light of the revised chronology for Homo floresiensis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2018.07.001
Abstract: Liang Bua, the type site of Homo floresiensis, is a limestone cave on the Indonesian island of Flores with sedimentary deposits currently known to range in age from about 190 thousand years (ka) ago to the present. Recent revision of the stratigraphy and chronology of this depositional sequence suggests that skeletal remains of H. floresiensis are between ∼100 and 60 ka old, while cultural evidence of this taxon occurs until ∼50 ka ago. Here we examine the compositions of the faunal communities and stone artifacts, by broad taxonomic groups and raw materials, throughout the ∼190 ka time interval preserved in the sequence. Major shifts are observed in both the faunal and stone artifact assemblages that reflect marked changes in paleoecology and hominin behavior, respectively. Our results suggest that H. floresiensis and Stegodon florensis insularis, along with giant marabou stork (Leptoptilos robustus) and vulture (Trigonoceps sp.), were likely extinct by ∼50 ka ago. Moreover, an abrupt and statistically significant shift in raw material preference due to an increased use of chert occurs ∼46 thousand calibrated radiocarbon (
Dating in landscape archaeology
Publisher: Routledge
Date: 03-06-2016
Error variation in OSL palaeodose estimates from single aliquots of quartz: A factorial experiment
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2005
Criteria for assessing the quality of Middle Pleistocene to Holocene vertebrate fossil ages
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2015
Corrigendum to “Raman spectroscopy of lipid micro-residues on Middle Palaeolithic stone tools from Denisova Cave, Siberia” [J. Archaeol. Sci. 95 July 2018 52–63](S0305440318302127)(10.1016/j.jas.2018.05.001)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2018
Initial micromorphological results from Liang Bua, Flores (Indonesia): Site formation processes and hominin activities at the type locality of Homo floresiensis
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2017
Elemental δ13C at Allen's Cave, Nullarbor Plain, Australia: Assessing post-depositional disturbance and reconstructing past environments
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2001
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.633
Lack of chronological support for stepwise prehuman extinctions of Australian megafauna
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 25-07-2013
Composite grains from volcanic terranes: Internal dose rates of supposed ‘potassium-rich’ feldspar grains used for optical dating at Liang Bua, Indonesia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2021
Optical dating of quartz sediments and accelerator mass spectrometry14C dating of bone gelatin and moa eggshell: A comparison of age estimates for non‐archaeological deposits in New Zealand
Publisher: Informa UK Limited
Date: 09-2002
Generativity, hierarchical action and recursion in the technology of the acheulean to middle palaeolithic transition: A perspective from patpara, the son valley, India
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2013
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2013.03.007
Abstract: The Acheulean to Middle Palaeolithic transition is one of the most important technological changes that occurs over the course of human evolution. Here we examine stone artefact assemblages from Patpara and two other excavated sites in the Middle Son Valley, India, which show a mosaic of attributes associated with Acheulean and Middle Palaeolithic industries. The bifaces from these sites are very refined and generally small, but also highly variable in size. A strong relationship between flake scar density and biface size indicates extensive differential resharpening. There are relatively low proportions of bifaces at these sites, with more emphasis on small flake tools struck from recurrent Levallois cores. The eventual demise of large bifaces may be attributed to the curation of small prepared cores from which sharper, or more task-specific flakes were struck. Levallois technology appears to have arisen out of adapting aspects of handaxe knapping, including shaping of surfaces, the utilization of two inter-dependent surfaces, and the striking of invasive thinning flakes. The generativity, hierarchical organization of action, and recursion evident in recurrent Levallois technology may be attributed to improvements in working memory.
Optical dating in archaeology: Thirty years in retrospect and grand challenges for the future
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Deriving spatially resolved beta dose rates in sediment using the Timepix pixelated detector
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2017
New ages for Middle and Later Stone Age deposits at Mumba rockshelter, Tanzania: Optically stimulated luminescence dating of quartz and feldspar grains
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2012.02.004
Abstract: The archaeological deposits at Mumba rockshelter, northern Tanzania, have been excavated for more than 70 years, starting with Margit and Ludwig Köhl-Larsen in the 1930s. The assemblages of Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Later Stone Age (LSA) artefacts collected from this site constitute the type sequences for these cultural phases in East Africa. Despite its archaeological importance, however, the chronology of the site is poorly constrained, despite the application since the 1980s of several dating methods (radiocarbon, uranium-series and amino acid racemisation) to a variety of materials recovered from the deposits. Here, we review these previous chronologies for Mumba and report new ages obtained from optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) measurements on single grains of quartz and multi-grain aliquots of potassium (K) feldspar from the MSA and LSA deposits. Measurements of single grains of quartz allowed the rejection of unrepresentative grains and the application of appropriate statistical models to obtain the most reliable age estimates, while measurements of K-feldspars allowed the chronology to be extended to older deposits. The seven quartz ages and four K-feldspar ages provide improved temporal constraints on the archaeological sequence at Mumba. The deposits associated with the latest Kisele Industry (Bed VI-A) and the earliest Mumba Industry (Bed V) are dated to 63.4 ± 5.7 and 56.9 ± 4.8 ka (thousands of years ago), respectively, thus constraining the time of transition between these two archaeological phases to ~60 ka. An age of 49.1 ± 4.3 ka has been obtained for the latest deposits associated with the Mumba Industry, which show no evidence for post-depositional mixing and contain ostrich eggshell (OES) beads and abundant microlithics. The Nasera Industry deposits (Bed III) contain large quantities of OES beads and date to 36.8 ± 3.4 ka. We compare the luminescence ages with the previous chronologies for Mumba, and briefly discuss how the revised chronology fits in the context of existing archaeological records and palaeoclimatic reconstructions for East Africa.
Incorporating terpenes, monoterpenoids and alkanes into multiresidue organic biomarker analysis of archaeological stone artefacts from Liang Bua (Flores, Indonesia)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2018
Progress and pitfalls in radiocarbon dating
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 09-2006
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE05214
Turning back the clock on the extinction of megafauna in Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2010
Origin of dose distributions in fluvial sediments, and the prospect of dating single grains from fluvial deposits using optically stimulated luminescence
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-1999
Human occupation of the Kimberley coast of northwest Australia 50,000 years ago
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2022
Extending the age limit of luminescence dating using the dose-dependent sensitivity of MET-pIRIR signals from K-feldspar
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2013
A reassessment of the early archaeological record at Leang Burung 2, a Late Pleistocene rock-shelter site on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 09-08-2018
Climate change not to blame for late Quaternary megafauna extinctions in Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-01-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NCOMMS10511
Abstract: Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions impoverished mammalian ersity worldwide. The causes of these extinctions in Australia are most controversial but essential to resolve, because this continent-wide event presaged similar losses that occurred thousands of years later on other continents. Here we apply a rigorous metadata analysis and new ensemble-hindcasting approach to 659 Australian megafauna fossil ages. When coupled with analysis of several high-resolution climate records, we show that megafaunal extinctions were broadly synchronous among genera and independent of climate aridity and variability in Australia over the last 120,000 years. Our results reject climate change as the primary driver of megafauna extinctions in the world’s most controversial context, and instead estimate that the megafauna disappeared Australia-wide ∼13,500 years after human arrival, with shorter periods of coexistence in some regions. This is the first comprehensive approach to incorporate uncertainty in fossil ages, extinction timing and climatology, to quantify mechanisms of prehistorical extinctions.
The Pleistocene geoarchaeology and geochronology of Con Moong Cave, North Vietnam
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-08-2020
DOI: 10.1002/GEA.21758
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
A key to identify use-related micro-residues on prehistoric stone artefacts using Raman spectroscopy
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2020
Melting ice sheets 400,000 yr ago raised sea level by 13 m: Past analogue for future trends
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2012
An improved OSL chronology for the Still Bay layers at Blombos Cave, South Africa: further tests of single-grain dating procedures and a re-evaluation of the timing of the Still Bay industry across so
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2013
Timing of archaic hominin occupation of Denisova Cave in southern Siberia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-018-0843-2
Abstract: The Altai region of Siberia was inhabited for parts of the Pleistocene by at least two groups of archaic hominins-Denisovans and Neanderthals. Denisova Cave, uniquely, contains stratified deposits that preserve skeletal and genetic evidence of both hominins, artefacts made from stone and other materials, and a range of animal and plant remains. The previous site chronology is based largely on radiocarbon ages for fragments of bone and charcoal that are up to 50,000 years old older ages of equivocal reliability have been estimated from thermoluminescence and palaeomagnetic analyses of sediments, and genetic analyses of hominin DNA. Here we describe the stratigraphic sequences in Denisova Cave, establish a chronology for the Pleistocene deposits and associated remains from optical dating of the cave sediments, and reconstruct the environmental context of hominin occupation of the site from around 300,000 to 20,000 years ago.
pIRIR and IR-RF dating of archaeological deposits at Badahlin and Gu Myaung Caves – First luminescence ages for Myanmar
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2019
Beta dose heterogeneity in sediment samples measured using a Timepix pixelated detector and its implications for optical dating of individual mineral grains
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2022
The archaeology, chronology and stratigraphy of Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II): A site in northern Australia with early occupation
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2015
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2015.03.014
Abstract: Published ages of >50 ka for occupation at Madjedbebe (Malakunanja II) in Australia's north have kept the site prominent in discussions about the colonisation of Sahul. The site also contains one of the largest stone artefact assemblages in Sahul for this early period. However, the stone artefacts and other important archaeological components of the site have never been described in detail, leading to persistent doubts about its stratigraphic integrity. We report on our analysis of the stone artefacts and faunal and other materials recovered during the 1989 excavations, as well as the stratigraphy and depositional history recorded by the original excavators. We demonstrate that the technology and raw materials of the early assemblage are distinctive from those in the overlying layers. Silcrete and quartzite artefacts are common in the early assemblage, which also includes edge-ground axe fragments and ground haematite. The lower flaked stone assemblage is distinctive, comprising a mix of long convergent flakes, some radial flakes with faceted platforms, and many small thin silcrete flakes that we interpret as thinning flakes. Residue and use-wear analysis indicate occasional grinding of haematite and woodworking, as well as frequent abrading of platform edges on thinning flakes. We conclude that previous claims of extensive displacement of artefacts and post-depositional disturbance may have been overstated. The stone artefacts and stratigraphic details support previous claims for human occupation 50-60 ka and show that human occupation during this time differed from later periods. We discuss the implications of these new data for understanding the first human colonisation of Sahul.
Age estimates for hominin fossils and the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic at Denisova Cave
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-018-0870-Z
Abstract: Denisova Cave in the Siberian Altai (Russia) is a key site for understanding the complex relationships between hominin groups that inhabited Eurasia in the Middle and Late Pleistocene epoch. DNA sequenced from human remains found at this site has revealed the presence of a hitherto unknown hominin group, the Denisovans
On the reliability of age estimates for human remains at Lake Mungo
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2000
The chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave (Cyrenaica, northeast Libya) — Optical dating of early human occupation during Marine Isotope Stages 4, 5 and 6
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2017.01.008
Abstract: The paper presents the results of optical dating of potassium-rich feldspar grains obtained from the Haua Fteah cave in Cyrenaica, northeast Libya, focussing on the chronology of the Deep Sounding excavated by Charles McBurney in the 1950s and re-excavated recently. S les were also collected from a 1.25 m-deep trench (Trench S) excavated during the present project below the basal level of the Deep Sounding. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) data sets for multi-grain, single aliquots of quartz for s les from the Middle Trench were previously published. Re-analyses of these OSL data confirm significant variation in the dose saturation levels of the quartz signal, but allow the most robust OSL ages to be determined for comparison with previous age estimates and with those obtained in this study for potassium-rich feldspars from the Deep Sounding. The latter indicate that humans may have started to visit the cave as early as ∼150 ka ago, but that major use of the cave occurred during MIS 5, with the accumulation of the Deep Sounding sediments. Correlations between optical ages and episodes of "Pre-Aurignacian" artefact discard indicate that human use of the cave during MIS 5 was highly intermittent. The earliest phases of human activity appear to have occurred during interstadial conditions (5e and 5c), with a later phase of lithic discard associated with more stadial conditions, possibly MIS 5b. We argue that the "Pre-Aurignacian" assemblage can probably be linked with modern humans, like the succeeding "Levalloiso-Mousterian" assemblage two modern human mandibles associated with the latter are associated with a modelled age of 73-65 ka. If this attribution is correct, then the new chronology implies that modern humans using "Pre-Aurignacian" technologies were in Cyrenaica as early as modern humans equipped with "Aterian" technologies were in the Maghreb, raising new questions about variability among lithic technologies during the initial phases of modern human dispersals into North Africa.
The chronostratigraphy of the Haua Fteah cave (Cyrenaica, northeast Libya)
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2014
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2013.10.001
Abstract: The 1950s excavations by Charles McBurney in the Haua Fteah, a large karstic cave on the coast of northeast Libya, revealed a deep sequence of human occupation. Most subsequent research on North African prehistory refers to his discoveries and interpretations, but the chronology of its archaeological and geological sequences has been based on very early age determinations. This paper reports on the initial results of a comprehensive multi-method dating program undertaken as part of new work at the site, involving radiocarbon dating of charcoal, land snails and marine shell, cryptotephra investigations, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments, and electron spin resonance (ESR) dating of tooth enamel. The dating s les were collected from the newly exposed and cleaned faces of the upper 7.5 m of the ∼14.0 m-deep McBurney trench, which contain six of the seven major cultural phases that he identified. Despite problems of sediment transport and reworking, using a Bayesian statistical model the new dating program establishes a robust framework for the five major lithostratigraphic units identified in the stratigraphic succession, and for the major cultural units. The age of two anatomically modern human mandibles found by McBurney in Layer XXXIII near the base of his Levalloiso-Mousterian phase can now be estimated to between 73 and 65 ka (thousands of years ago) at the 95.4% confidence level, within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4. McBurney's Layer XXV, associated with Upper Palaeolithic Dabban blade industries, has a clear stratigraphic relationship with C anian Ignimbrite tephra. Microlithic Oranian technologies developed following the climax of the Last Glacial Maximum and the more microlithic Capsian in the Younger Dryas. Neolithic pottery and perhaps domestic livestock were used in the cave from the mid Holocene but there is no certain evidence for plant cultivation until the Graeco-Roman period.
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
Beyond the Levant: First Evidence of a Pre-Pottery Neolithic Incursion into the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 19-07-2013
Astronomically calibrated 40Ar/39Ar age for the Toba supereruption and global synchronization of late Quaternary records
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 29-10-2012
Abstract: The Toba supereruption in Sumatra, ∼74 thousand years (ka) ago, was the largest terrestrial volcanic event of the Quaternary. Ash and sulfate aerosols were deposited in both hemispheres, forming a time-marker horizon that can be used to synchronize late Quaternary records globally. A precise numerical age for this event has proved elusive, with dating uncertainties larger than the millennial-scale climate cycles that characterized this period. We report an astronomically calibrated 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age of 73.88 ± 0.32 ka (1σ, full external errors) for sanidine crystals extracted from Toba deposits in the Lenggong Valley, Malaysia, 350 km from the eruption source and 6 km from an archaeological site with stone artifacts buried by ash. If these artifacts were made by Homo sapiens , as has been suggested, then our age indicates that modern humans had reached Southeast Asia by ∼74 ka ago. Our 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age is an order-of-magnitude more precise than previous estimates, resolving the timing of the eruption to the middle of the cold interval between Dansgaard–Oeschger events 20 and 19, when a peak in sulfate concentration occurred as registered by Greenland ice cores. This peak is followed by a ∼10 °C drop in the Greenland surface temperature over ∼150 y, revealing the possible climatic impact of the eruption. Our 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age also provides a high-precision calibration point for other ice, marine, and terrestrial archives containing Toba sulfates and ash, facilitating their global synchronization at unprecedented resolution for a critical period in Earth and human history beyond the range of 14 C dating.
Hominin Dispersal into the Nefud Desert and Middle Palaeolithic Settlement along the Jubbah Palaeolake, Northern Arabia
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 19-11-2012
The human colonisation of Australia: optical dates of 53,000 and 60,000 years bracket human arrival at Deaf Adder Gorge, Northern Territory
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 1994
Progress towards single-grain optical dating of fossil mud-wasp nests and associated rock art in northern Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2003
Timing and dynamics of Late Pleistocene mammal extinctions in southwestern Australia
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 02-12-2010
Abstract: Explaining the Late Pleistocene demise of many of the world's larger terrestrial vertebrates is arguably the most enduring and debated topic in Quaternary science. Australia lost % of its larger species by around 40 thousand years (ka) ago, but the relative importance of human impacts and increased aridity remains unclear. Resolving the debate has been h ered by a lack of sites spanning the last glacial cycle. Here we report on an exceptional faunal succession from Tight Entrance Cave, southwestern Australia, which shows persistence of a erse mammal community for at least 100 ka leading up to the earliest regional evidence of humans at 49 ka. Within 10 millennia, all larger mammals except the gray kangaroo and thylacine are lost from the regional record. Stable-isotope, charcoal, and small-mammal records reveal evidence of environmental change from 70 ka, but the extinctions occurred well in advance of the most extreme climatic phase. We conclude that the arrival of humans was probably decisive in the southwestern Australian extinctions, but that changes in climate and fire activity may have played facilitating roles. One-factor explanations for the Pleistocene extinctions in Australia are likely oversimplistic.
New ages for the Upper Palaeolithic site of Xibaimaying in the Nihewan Basin, northern China: implications for small-tool and microblade industries in north-east Asia during Marine Isotope Stages 2 an
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2017
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2949
Low temperature (LT) combustion of sediments does not necessarily provide accurate radiocarbon ages for site chronology
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2010
Distinguishing dose populations in sediment mixtures: A test of single-grain optical dating procedures using mixtures of laboratory-dosed quartz
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2000
Correction for Roberts et al., Continuity of mammalian fauna over the last 200,000 y in the Indian subcontinent
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 21-03-2016
Application of artificial neural networks in linear profile monitoring
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2011
Quaternary stratigraphy, geochronology and evolution of the Magela Creek catchment in the monsoon tropics of northern Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-1993
A dual-aliquot regenerative-dose protocol (DAP) for thermoluminescence (TL) dating of quartz sediments using the light-sensitive and isothermally stimulated red emissions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2006
New ages for human occupation and climatic change at Lake Mungo, Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2003
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE01383
Human occupation of northern India spans the Toba super-eruption ~74,000 years ago
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 25-02-2020
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-020-14668-4
Abstract: India is located at a critical geographic crossroads for understanding the dispersal of Homo sapiens out of Africa and into Asia and Oceania. Here we report evidence for long-term human occupation, spanning the last ~80 thousand years, at the site of Dhaba in the Middle Son River Valley of Central India. An unchanging stone tool industry is found at Dhaba spanning the Toba eruption of ~74 ka (i.e., the Youngest Toba Tuff, YTT) bracketed between ages of 79.6 ± 3.2 and 65.2 ± 3.1 ka, with the introduction of microlithic technology ~48 ka. The lithic industry from Dhaba strongly resembles stone tool assemblages from the African Middle Stone Age (MSA) and Arabia, and the earliest artefacts from Australia, suggesting that it is likely the product of Homo sapiens as they dispersed eastward out of Africa.
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
Establishing standardised growth curves (SGCs) for OSL signals from individual grains of quartz: A continental-scale case study
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2020
Progress in optical dating of guano-rich sediments associated with the Deep Skull, West Mouth of the Great Cave of Niah, Sarawak, Borneo
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
Neandertal and Denisovan DNA from Pleistocene sediments
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 12-05-2017
Abstract: Analysis of DNA from archaic hominids has illuminated human evolution. However, sites where thousand-year-old bones and other remains can be found are relatively rare. Slon et al. wanted to exploit any trace remains that our ancestors left behind. They looked for ancient DNA of hominids and other mammals in cave sediments, even those lacking skeletal remains. They identified mitochondrial DNA from Neandertal and Denisovan in iduals in cave sediments at multiple sites. Science , this issue p. 605
Pleistocene sediment DNA reveals hominin and faunal turnovers at Denisova Cave
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 23-06-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-021-03675-0
Abstract: Denisova Cave in southern Siberia is the type locality of the Denisovans, an archaic hominin group who were related to Neanderthals 1–4 . The dozen hominin remains recovered from the deposits also include Neanderthals 5,6 and the child of a Neanderthal and a Denisovan 7 , which suggests that Denisova Cave was a contact zone between these archaic hominins. However, uncertainties persist about the order in which these groups appeared at the site, the timing and environmental context of hominin occupation, and the association of particular hominin groups with archaeological assemblages 5,8–11 . Here we report the analysis of DNA from 728 sediment s les that were collected in a grid-like manner from layers dating to the Pleistocene epoch. We retrieved ancient faunal and hominin mitochondrial (mt)DNA from 685 and 175 s les, respectively. The earliest evidence for hominin mtDNA is of Denisovans, and is associated with early Middle Palaeolithic stone tools that were deposited approximately 250,000 to 170,000 years ago Neanderthal mtDNA first appears towards the end of this period. We detect a turnover in the mtDNA of Denisovans that coincides with changes in the composition of faunal mtDNA, and evidence that Denisovans and Neanderthals occupied the site repeatedly—possibly until, or after, the onset of the Initial Upper Palaeolithic at least 45,000 years ago, when modern human mtDNA is first recorded in the sediments.
The chronological, sedimentary and environmental context for the archaeological deposits at Blombos Cave, South Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 05-2020
Radiocarbon dating of organic- and carbonate-carbon in Genyornis and Dromaius eggshell using stepped combustion and stepped acidification
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2003
Equivalent dose distributions from single grains of quartz at Sibudu, South Africa: context, causes and consequences for optical dating of archaeological deposits
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2008
New ages for the post-Howiesons Poort, late and final Middle Stone Age at Sibudu, South Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2008
Timelines for Human Evolution and Dispersals
Publisher: Mineralogical Society of America
Date: 02-2018
Times of sand: sedimentary history and archaeology at the Sigatoka Dunes, Fiji
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 2006
DOI: 10.1002/GEA.20094
Development and application of a comprehensive analytical workflow for the quantification of non-volatile low molecular weight lipids on archaeological stone tools
Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)
Date: 2017
DOI: 10.1039/C7AY01304C
Abstract: Use-residues are identified on stone tools in the humid tropics, using GC-MS/MS and a s ling strategy that monitors environmental contamination.
Validation of the Ln Tn method for De determination in optical dating of K-feldspar and quartz
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2020
Middle Paleolithic occupation on a Marine Isotope Stage 5 lakeshore in the Nefud Desert, Saudi Arabia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2011
Reconstructing the geomorphic history of Liang Bua, Flores, Indonesia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2009.01.004
Abstract: Liang Bua, in Flores, Indonesia, was formed as a subterranean chamber over 600ka. From this time to the present, a series of geomorphic events influenced the structure of the cave and cave deposits, creating a complex stratigraphy. Within these deposits, nine main sedimentary units have been identified. The stratigraphic relationships between these units provide the evidence needed to reconstruct the geomorphic history of the cave. This history was dominated by water action, including slope wash processes, channel formation, pooling of water, and flowstone precipitation, which created waterfalls, cut-and-fill stratigraphy, large pools of water, and extensive flowstone cappings. The reconstructed sequence of events over the last 190k.yr. has been summarized by a series of time slices that demonstrate the nature of the occupational environment in Liang Bua. The earliest artifacts at the site, dated to approximately 190ka, testify to hominin presence in the area, but the reconstructions suggest that occupation of the cave itself may not have been possible until after approximately 100ka. At approximately 95ka, channel erosion of a basal unit, which displays evidence of deposition in a pond environment, created a greater relief on the cave floor, and formed remanent areas of higher ground that later became a focus for hominin occupation from 74-61ka by the west wall and in the center of the cave, and from approximately 18-17ka by the east wall. These zones have been identified according to the sloping nature of the stratigraphy and the distribution of artifacts, and their locations have implications for the archaeological interpretation of the site.
Toba supereruption: Age and impact on East African ecosystems
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 21-06-2013
Fifty thousand years of Arctic vegetation and megafaunal diet
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 02-2014
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE12921
Abstract: Although it is generally agreed that the Arctic flora is among the youngest and least erse on Earth, the processes that shaped it are poorly understood. Here we present 50 thousand years (kyr) of Arctic vegetation history, derived from the first large-scale ancient DNA metabarcoding study of circumpolar plant ersity. For this interval we also explore nematode ersity as a proxy for modelling vegetation cover and soil quality, and diets of herbivorous megafaunal mammals, many of which became extinct around 10 kyr bp (before present). For much of the period investigated, Arctic vegetation consisted of dry steppe-tundra dominated by forbs (non-graminoid herbaceous vascular plants). During the Last Glacial Maximum (25-15 kyr bp), ersity declined markedly, although forbs remained dominant. Much changed after 10 kyr bp, with the appearance of moist tundra dominated by woody plants and graminoids. Our analyses indicate that both graminoids and forbs would have featured in megafaunal diets. As such, our findings question the predominance of a Late Quaternary graminoid-dominated Arctic mammoth steppe.
The evolving landscape and climate of western Flores
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2009.01.007
Abstract: The rapidly changing landscape of the eastern Indonesian archipelago has evolved at a pace dictated by its tropical climate and its geological and tectonic history. This has produced accelerated karstification, flights of alluvial terraces, and complex, multi-level cave systems. These cave systems sometimes contain a wealth of archaeological evidence, such as the almost complete skeleton of Homo floresiensis found at the site of Liang Bua in western Flores, but this information can only be understood in the context of the geomorphic history of the cave, and the more general geological, tectonic, and environmental histories of the river valley and region. Thus, a reconstruction of the landscape history of the Wae Racang valley using speleothems, geological structure, tectonic uplift, karst, cave, and terrace development, provides the necessary evidence to determine the formation, age, evolution, and influences on the site. This evidence suggests that Liang Bua was formed as two subterranean chambers approximately 600ka, but could not be occupied until approximately 190ka when the Wae Racang wandered to the southern side of the valley, exposing the chamber and depositing alluvial deposits containing artifacts. During the next approximately 190k.yr., the chambers coalesced and evolved into a multi-level and interconnected cave that was subjected to channel erosion and pooling events by the development of sinkholes. The domed morphology of the front chamber accumulated deep sediments containing well stratified archaeological and faunal remains, but ponded water in the chamber further prevented hominin use of the cave until approximately 100ka. These chambers were periodically influenced by river inundation and volcanic activity, whereas the area outside the cave was greatly influenced by glacial phases, which changed humid forest environments into grassland environments. This combined evidence has important implications for the archaeological interpretation of the site.
Humans, megafauna and environmental change in tropical Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 10-06-2013
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2639
Unearthing Neanderthal population history using nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from cave sediments
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 07-05-2021
Abstract: Environmental DNA can identify the presence of species, even from the distant past. Surveying three cave sites in western Europe and southern Siberia, Vernot et al. identified nuclear DNA and confirmed that it is from the close relatives of anatomically modern humans—Neanderthal and Denisovan in iduals. A phylogenetic analysis and modeling show that the DNA in sediment s les from several layers corresponds to previously studied skeletal remains. These results demonstrate that environmental data can be applied to study the population genetics of the extinct Neanderthal and Denisovan lineages, identifying a turnover of Neanderthal populations ∼100,000 years ago. Science , this issue p. eabf1667
Geochronology of cave deposits at Liang Bua and of adjacent river terraces in the Wae Racang valley, western Flores, Indonesia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2009
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2009.01.003
Abstract: A robust timeframe for the extant cave deposits at Liang Bua, and for the river terraces in the adjoining Wae Racang valley, is essential to constrain the period of existence and time of extinction of Homo floresiensis and other biota that have been excavated at this hominin type locality. Reliable age control is also required for the variety of artifacts excavated from these deposits, and to assist in environmental reconstructions for this river valley and for the region more broadly. In this paper, we summarize the available geochronological information for Liang Bua and its immediate environs, obtained using seven numerical-age methods: radiocarbon, thermoluminescence, optically- and infrared-stimulated luminescence (collectively known as optical dating), uranium-series, electron spin resonance, and coupled electron spin resonance/uranium-series. We synthesize the large number of numerical age determinations reported previously and present additional age estimates germane to questions of hominin evolution and extinction.
Archaeological evidence for two separate dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 27-01-2020
Abstract: Neanderthals once inhabited Europe and western Asia, spreading as far east as the Altai Mountains in southern Siberia, but the geographical origin and time of arrival of the Altai populations remain unresolved. Excavations at Chagyrskaya Cave in the Altai foothills have yielded 90,000 stone artifacts, numerous bone tools, 74 Neanderthal fossils, and animal and plant remains recovered from 59,000- to 49,000-year-old deposits. The Chagyrskaya Neanderthals made distinctive stone tools that closely resemble Micoquian artifacts from eastern Europe, whereas other Altai sites occupied by earlier Neanderthal populations lack such artifacts. This suggests at least two dispersals of Neanderthals into southern Siberia, with the likely ancestral homeland of the Chagyrskaya toolmakers located 3,000 to 4,000 kilometers to the west, in eastern Europe.
Palaeodose underestimates caused by extended-duration preheats in the optical dating of quartz
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-1994
Earliest hominin occupation of Sulawesi, Indonesia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 13-01-2016
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE16448
Abstract: Sulawesi is the largest and oldest island within Wallacea, a vast zone of oceanic islands separating continental Asia from the Pleistocene landmass of Australia and Papua (Sahul). By one million years ago an unknown hominin lineage had colonized Flores immediately to the south, and by about 50 thousand years ago, modern humans (Homo sapiens) had crossed to Sahul. On the basis of position, oceanic currents and biogeographical context, Sulawesi probably played a pivotal part in these dispersals. Uranium-series dating of speleothem deposits associated with rock art in the limestone karst region of Maros in southwest Sulawesi has revealed that humans were living on the island at least 40 thousand years ago (ref. 5). Here we report new excavations at Talepu in the Walanae Basin northeast of Maros, where in situ stone artefacts associated with fossil remains of megafauna (Bubalus sp., Stegodon and Celebochoerus) have been recovered from stratified deposits that accumulated from before 200 thousand years ago until about 100 thousand years ago. Our findings suggest that Sulawesi, like Flores, was host to a long-established population of archaic hominins, the ancestral origins and taxonomic status of which remain elusive.
Changing ideas on the identity and stratigraphic significance of the Sheep Creek tephra beds in Alaska and the Yukon Territory, northwestern North America
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2008
A late Quaternary vertebrate deposit in Kudjal Yolgah Cave, south‐western Australia: refining regional late Pleistocene extinctions
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 05-2016
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.2877
Minimum founding populations for the first peopling of Sahul
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 17-06-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41559-019-0902-6
Abstract: The timing, context and nature of the first people to enter Sahul is still poorly understood owing to a fragmented archaeological record. However, quantifying the plausible demographic context of this founding population is essential to determine how and why the initial peopling of Sahul occurred. We developed a stochastic, age-structured model using demographic rates from hunter-gatherer societies, and relative carrying capacity hindcasted with LOVECLIM's net primary productivity for northern Sahul. We projected these populations to determine the resilience and minimum sizes required to avoid extinction. A census founding population of between 1,300 and 1,550 in iduals was necessary to maintain a quasi-extinction threshold of ≲0.1. This minimum founding population could have arrived at a single point in time, or through multiple voyages of ≥130 people over ~700-900 years. This result shows that substantial population amalgamation in Sunda and Wallacea in Marine Isotope Stages 3-4 provided the conditions for the successful, large-scale and probably planned peopling of Sahul.
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.
A reassessment of the early archaeological record at Leang Burung 2, a Late Pleistocene rock-shelter site on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi
Publisher: Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Date: 11-04-2018
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.
Afromontane foragers of the Late Pleistocene: Site formation, chronology and occupational pulsing at Melikane Rockshelter, Lesotho
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2012
Optical dating of rock art
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Date: 06-03-2017
DOI: 10.1093/OXFORDHB/9780190607357.013.32
Abstract: This article describes the principles of optical dating—an umbrella term for a family of related techniques based on the storage of radiation energy in light-sensitive traps in natural minerals—and its application to rock art. Optical dating has been applied predominantly to sand- and silt-sized grains of quartz (optically stimulated luminescence, OSL) and feldspar (infrared stimulated luminescence, IRSL) that were exposed to sunlight prior to deposition, where the age represents the time elapsed since the grains were last bleached by the sun’s rays. Only a few studies have used OSL or IRSL dating to constrain the age of rock paintings and engravings, and these applications can be grouped under two broad headings: dating of associated sediments and dating of rock surfaces. These studies are briefly reviewed in this chapter, together with some comments on future directions and challenges for OSL and IRSL dating of rock art.
Luminescence ages for three ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ sites in the Nihewan Basin, northern China, and their archaeological and palaeoenvironmental implications
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 05-2016
DOI: 10.1016/J.YQRES.2016.03.002
Abstract: The Nihewan Basin is a key region for studying the Palaeolithic archaeology of East Asia. However, because of the lack of suitable dating methods and representative lithic technologies in this region, the ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ sites in this basin have been designated based mainly on stratigraphic correlation, which may be unreliable. In this study, three Palaeolithic sites, Motianling, Queergou and Banjingzi, which have been assigned previously to the ‘Middle Palaeolithic’, are dated based on luminescence dating of K-feldspar grains. Our results show that the cultural layers at Motianling, Queergou and Banjingzi have ages of 315 ± 13, 268 ± 13 and 86 ± 4 ka (corresponding to Marine Isotope Stages 9, 8 and 5), respectively, suggesting that Motianling and Queergou should be assigned to the Lower Palaeolithic, while the age of Banjingzi is consistent with a Middle Palaeolithic attribution. Our results suggest that reassessing the age of ‘Middle Palaeolithic’ sites in the Nihewan Basin, and elsewhere in North China, is crucial for understanding the presence or absence of the Middle Palaeolithic phase in China. Our dating results also indicate that the Sanggan River developed sometime between about 270 and 86 ka ago.
Investigation of the applicability of standardised growth curves for OSL dating of quartz from Haua Fteah cave, Libya
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2016
A pardon for the dingo
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 10-01-2014
Abstract: The extinction of the thylacine and devil on mainland Australia is best explained not by the arrival of the dingo but by human population growth and climate change. [Also see Review by Ripple et al. ]
Variability in quartz OSL signals caused by measurement uncertainties: Problems and solutions
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2017
Optical dating of deep-sea sediments using single grains of quartz: A comparison with radiocarbon
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2004
Extending the age range of optical dating using single `supergrains' of quartz
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2000
Testing a model of alluvial deposition in the Middle Son Valley, Madhya Pradesh, India — IRSL dating of terraced alluvial sediments and implications for archaeological surveys and palaeoclimatic recon
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2014
Advances in optically stimulated luminescence dating of individual grains of quartz from archeological deposits
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 19-12-2007
DOI: 10.1002/EVAN.20150
Pleistocene glacial history of the New Zealand subantarctic islands
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 14-03-2019
Abstract: Abstract. The New Zealand subantarctic islands of Auckland and C bell, situated between the subtropical front and the Antarctic Convergence in the Pacific sector of the Southern Ocean, provide valuable terrestrial records from a globally important climatic region. Whilst the islands show clear evidence of past glaciation, the timing and mechanisms behind Pleistocene environmental and climate changes remain uncertain. Here we present a multidisciplinary study of the islands – including marine and terrestrial geomorphological surveys, extensive analyses of sedimentary sequences, a comprehensive dating programme, and glacier flow line modelling – to investigate multiple phases of glaciation across the islands. We find evidence that the Auckland Islands hosted a small ice cap 384 000 ± 26 000 years ago (384±26 ka), most likely during Marine Isotope Stage 10, a period when the subtropical front was reportedly north of its present-day latitude by several degrees, and consistent with hemispheric-wide glacial expansion. Flow line modelling constrained by field evidence suggests a more restricted glacial period prior to the LGM that formed substantial valley glaciers on the C bell and Auckland Islands around 72–62 ka. Despite previous interpretations that suggest the maximum glacial extent occurred in the form of valley glaciation at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM ∼21 ka), our combined approach suggests minimal LGM glaciation across the New Zealand subantarctic islands and that no glaciers were present during the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR ∼15–13 ka). Instead, modelling implies that despite a regional mean annual air temperature depression of ∼5 ∘C during the LGM, a combination of high seasonality and low precipitation left the islands incapable of sustaining significant glaciation. We suggest that northwards expansion of winter sea ice during the LGM and subsequent ACR led to precipitation starvation across the middle to high latitudes of the Southern Ocean, resulting in restricted glaciation of the subantarctic islands.
A revised burial dose estimation procedure for optical dating of youngand modern-age sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2009
Late-surviving megafauna in Tasmania, Australia, implicate human involvement in their extinction
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 26-08-2008
Abstract: Establishing the cause of past extinctions is critical if we are to understand better what might trigger future occurrences and how to prevent them. The mechanisms of continental late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction, however, are still fiercely contested. Potential factors contributing to their demise include climatic change, human impact, or some combination. On the Australian mainland, 90% of the megafauna became extinct by ≈46 thousand years (ka) ago, soon after the first archaeological evidence for human colonization of the continent. Yet, on the neighboring island of Tasmania (which was connected to the mainland when sea levels were lower), megafaunal extinction appears to have taken place before the initial human arrival between 43 and 40 ka, which would seem to exonerate people as a contributing factor in the extirpation of the island megafauna. Age estimates for the last megafauna, however, are poorly constrained. Here, we show, by direct dating of fossil remains and their associated sediments, that some Tasmanian megafauna survived until at least 41 ka (i.e., after their extinction on the Australian mainland) and thus overlapped with humans. Furthermore, a vegetation record for Tasmania spanning the last 130 ka shows that no significant regional climatic or environmental change occurred between 43 and 37 ka, when a land bridge existed between Tasmania and the mainland. Our results are consistent with a model of human-induced extinction for the Tasmanian megafauna, most probably driven by hunting, and they reaffirm the value of islands adjacent to continental landmasses as tests of competing hypotheses for late Quaternary megafaunal extinctions.
Monitoring the extent of vertical and lateral movement of human decomposition products through sediment using cholesterol as a biomarker
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2018
DOI: 10.1016/J.FORSCIINT.2018.01.026
Abstract: Due to the lack of human decomposition research facilities available in different geographical regions, the extent of movement of human decomposition products from a cadaver into various sedimentary environments, in different climates, has not been able to be studied in detail. In our study, a human cadaver was placed on the surface of a designated plot at the Australian Facility for Taphonomic Experimental Research (AFTER), the only human decomposition facility in Australia, where the natural process of decomposition was allowed to progress over 14days in the Australian summer. Sediment columns (approximately 1m deep) were collected at lateral distances of 0.25m, 0.5m, 1.0m and 2.5m in each of four directions from the centre of the torso. Plot elevation and weather data were also collected. Each sediment column was sub ided, dried and homogenised. A s le was isolated from each sediment sub ision, extracted with hexane, and the hexane extract cleaned with citrate buffer (pH 3), filtered and spiked with cholesterol-D
Hominin and animal activities in the microstratigraphic record from Denisova Cave (Altai Mountains, Russia)
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 26-09-2019
DOI: 10.1038/S41598-019-49930-3
Abstract: Denisova Cave in southern Siberia uniquely contains evidence of occupation by a recently discovered group of archaic hominins, the Denisovans, starting from the middle of the Middle Pleistocene. Artefacts, ancient DNA and a range of animal and plant remains have been recovered from the sedimentary deposits, along with a few fragmentary fossils of Denisovans, Neanderthals and a first-generation Neanderthal–Denisovan offspring. The deposits also contain microscopic traces of hominin and animal activities that can provide insights into the use of the cave over the last 300,000 years. Here we report the results of a micromorphological study of intact sediment blocks collected from the Pleistocene deposits in the Main and East Chambers of Denisova Cave. The presence of charcoal attests to the use of fire by hominins, but other evidence of their activities preserved in the microstratigraphic record are few. The ubiquitous occurrence of coprolites, which we attribute primarily to hyenas, indicates that the site was visited for much of its depositional history by cave-dwelling carnivores. Microscopic traces of post-depositional diagenesis, bioturbation and incipient cryoturbation are observed in only a few regions of the deposit examined here. Micromorphology can help identify areas of sedimentary deposit that are most conducive to ancient DNA preservation and could be usefully integrated with DNA analyses of sediments at archaeological sites to illuminate features of their human and environmental history that are invisible to the naked eye.
Natural variations in the properties of TL and IRSL emissions from metamorphic and volcanic K-feldspars from East Africa: Assessing their reliability for dating
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2012
Stochastic models support rapid peopling of Late Pleistocene Sahul
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 29-04-2021
DOI: 10.1038/S41467-021-21551-3
Abstract: The peopling of Sahul (the combined continent of Australia and New Guinea) represents the earliest continental migration and settlement event of solely anatomically modern humans, but its patterns and ecological drivers remain largely conceptual in the current literature. We present an advanced stochastic-ecological model to test the relative support for scenarios describing where and when the first humans entered Sahul, and their most probable routes of early settlement. The model supports a dominant entry via the northwest Sahul Shelf first, potentially followed by a second entry through New Guinea, with initial entry most consistent with 50,000 or 75,000 years ago based on comparison with bias-corrected archaeological map layers. The model’s emergent properties predict that peopling of the entire continent occurred rapidly across all ecological environments within 156–208 human generations (4368–5599 years) and at a plausible rate of 0.71–0.92 km year −1 . More broadly, our methods and approaches can readily inform other global migration debates, with results supporting an exit of anatomically modern humans from Africa 63,000–90,000 years ago, and the peopling of Eurasia in as little as 12,000–15,000 years via inland routes.
Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene archaeology and stratigraphy of the southern Nejd, Oman
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2015
Stochastic modelling of multi-grain equivalent dose (De ) distributions: Implications for OSL dating of sediment mixtures
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2009
Genetic insights into the social organization of Neanderthals
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 19-10-2022
DOI: 10.1038/S41586-022-05283-Y
Abstract: Genomic analyses of Neanderthals have previously provided insights into their population history and relationship to modern humans 1–8 , but the social organization of Neanderthal communities remains poorly understood. Here we present genetic data for 13 Neanderthals from two Middle Palaeolithic sites in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia: 11 from Chagyrskaya Cave 9,10 and 2 from Okladnikov Cave 11 —making this one of the largest genetic studies of a Neanderthal population to date. We used hybridization capture to obtain genome-wide nuclear data, as well as mitochondrial and Y-chromosome sequences. Some Chagyrskaya in iduals were closely related, including a father–daughter pair and a pair of second-degree relatives, indicating that at least some of the in iduals lived at the same time. Up to one-third of these in iduals’ genomes had long segments of homozygosity, suggesting that the Chagyrskaya Neanderthals were part of a small community. In addition, the Y-chromosome ersity is an order of magnitude lower than the mitochondrial ersity, a pattern that we found is best explained by female migration between communities. Thus, the genetic data presented here provide a detailed documentation of the social organization of an isolated Neanderthal community at the easternmost extent of their known range.
Optical Dating of Quartz: A Comment on Stokes and Gaylord (1993)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Date: 07-1994
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.
Human History Written in Stone and Blood
Publisher: Sigma Xi
Date: 2009
DOI: 10.1511/2009.79.302
Age and biostratigraphic significance of the Punung Rainforest Fauna, East Java, Indonesia, and implications for Pongo and Homo
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2007.06.002
Abstract: The Punung Fauna is a key component in the biostratigraphic sequence of Java. It represents the most significant faunal turnover on the island in the last 1.5 million years, when Stegodon and other archaic mammal species characteristic of earlier Faunal stages were replaced by a fully modern fauna that included rainforest-dependent species such as Pongo pygmaeus (orangutan). Here, we report the first numerical ages for the Punung Fauna obtained by luminescence and uranium-series dating of the fossil-bearing deposits and associated flowstones. The Punung Fauna contained in the dated breccia is of early Last Interglacial age (between 128+/-15 and 118+/-3 ka). This result has implications for the age of the preceding Ngandong Fauna, including Homo erectus remains found in the Ngandong Terrace, and for the timing of Homo sapiens arrival in Southeast Asia, in view of claims for a modern human tooth associated with the Punung breccia.
Review and assessment of the potential of post-IR IRSL dating methods to circumvent the problem of anomalous fading in feldspar luminescence
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH
Date: 22-06-2014
DOI: 10.2478/S13386-013-0160-3
Abstract: Quartz has been the main mineral used for optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments over the last decade. The quartz OSL signal, however, has been shown to saturate at relatively low doses of ∼200–400 Gy, making it difficult to be used for dating beyond about 200 thou-sand years (ka), unless the environmental dose rate is low. The infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) from feldspars has been shown to continue to grow to higher dose levels than quartz OSL. The application of IRSL dating of feldspars, however, has long been h ered by the anomalous fading effect. Recent progress in understanding anomalous fading of the infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signals in potassium-feldspar has led to the development of post-IR IRSL (pIRIR) protocols and also a multiple elevated temperature (MET) stimulation (MET-pIRIR) protocol. These procedures have raised the prospect of isolating a non-fading IRSL component for dating Quaternary deposits containing feldspars. In this study, we review the recent progress made on (1) overcoming anomalous fading of feldspar, and (2) the development of pIRIR dating techniques for feldspar. The potential and problems associated with these methods are discussed.
Discovering the “Hobbit”
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 15-07-2022
Abstract: A paleoanthropologist unpacks the curious tale of the diminutive hominin Homo floresiensis
An improved single grain OSL chronology for the sedimentary deposits from Diepkloof Rockshelter, Western Cape, South Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 11-2015
Initial speleothem results from western Flores and eastern Java, Indonesia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2007
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.1122
Would the Australian megafauna have become extinct if humans had never colonised the continent? Comments on 'A review of the evidence for a human role in the extinction of Australian megafauna and an alternative explanation' by S. Wroe and J. Field
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2007
Single-grain dating of potassium-rich feldspar grains: Towards a global standardised growth curve for the post-IR IRSL signal
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2018
Raman spectroscopy of lipid micro-residues on Middle Palaeolithic stone tools from Denisova Cave, Siberia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 07-2018
Single-grain OSL chronologies for the Still Bay and Howieson's Poort industries and the transition between them: Further analyses and statistical modelling
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2017
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2017.02.004
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 s les. 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 s les 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.
A single-aliquot luminescence dating procedure for K-feldspar based on the dose-dependent MET-pIRIR signal sensitivity
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2014
A high-resolution record of vegetation and climate through the last glacial cycle from Caledonia Fen, southeastern highlands of Australia
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2007
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.1127
Sources of overdispersion in a K-rich feldspar sample from north-central India: Insights from De, K content and IRSL age distributions for individual grains
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 09-2012
New ages for the last Australian megafauna: Continent-wide extinction about 46,000 years ago
Publisher: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Date: 08-06-2001
Abstract: All Australian land mammals, reptiles, and birds weighing more than 100 kilograms, and six of the seven genera with a body mass of 45 to 100 kilograms, perished in the late Quaternary. The timing and causes of these extinctions remain uncertain. We report burial ages for megafauna from 28 sites and infer extinction across the continent around 46,400 years ago (95% confidence interval, 51,200 to 39,800 years ago). Our results rule out extreme aridity at the Last Glacial Maximum as the cause of extinction, but not other climatic impacts a “blitzkrieg” model of human-induced extinction or an extended period of anthropogenic ecosystem disruption.
The effects of disequilibria in the uranium and thorium decay chains on burial dose rates in fluvial sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 1996
Single-grain optical dating of grave-infill associated with human burials at Lake Mungo, Australia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2006
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
Homo floresiensis and the late Pleistocene environments of eastern Indonesia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2009
Construction of a ‘global standardised growth curve’ (gSGC) for infrared stimulated luminescence dating of K-feldspar
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Potential of establishing a ‘global standardised growth curve’ (gSGC) for optical dating of quartz from sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2015
Optical dating of Holocene sediments from a variety of geomorphic settings using single grains of quartz
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2004
Establishing the time of initial human occupation of Liang Bua, western Flores, Indonesia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 2007
New Excavations of Middle Stone Age Deposits at Apollo 11 Rockshelter, Namibia: Stratigraphy, Archaeology, Chronology and Past Environments
Publisher: Brill
Date: 12-2010
Multidisciplinary Studies of Chagyrskaya Cave – A Middle Paleolithic Site in Altai
Publisher: IAET SB RAS Publishing
Date: 2018
Optical dating of perennially frozen deposits associated with preserved ancient plant and animal DNA in north-central Siberia
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2008
What caused extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna of Sahul?
Publisher: The Royal Society
Date: 10-02-2016
Abstract: During the Pleistocene, Australia and New Guinea supported a rich assemblage of large vertebrates. Why these animals disappeared has been debated for more than a century and remains controversial. Previous synthetic reviews of this problem have typically focused heavily on particular types of evidence, such as the dating of extinction and human arrival, and have frequently ignored uncertainties and biases that can lead to misinterpretation of this evidence. Here, we review erse evidence bearing on this issue and conclude that, although many knowledge gaps remain, multiple independent lines of evidence point to direct human impact as the most likely cause of extinction.
Sediment mixing at Nonda Rock: Investigations of stratigraphic integrity at an early archaeological site in northern Australia and implications for the human colonisation of the continent
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 06-2007
DOI: 10.1002/JQS.1136
Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in Southeastern Australia
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Date: 2007
DOI: 10.1130/G23070A.1
Early human symbolic behavior in the Late Pleistocene of Wallacea
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 03-04-2017
Abstract: We present evidence from the Late Pleistocene of Sulawesi, Indonesia, where an unusually rich and unique symbolic complex was excavated from archaeological deposits spanning 30,000 to 22,000 y ago. Including previously unknown practices of self-ornamentation, used ochre, pigmented artifacts, and portable art, these findings advance our knowledge of the cultural repertoires of modern humans in Pleistocene Wallacea, including the nonparietal artworks and symbolic material culture of some of the world’s earliest known “cave artists.”
Viability of Raman microscopy to identify micro‐residues related to tool‐use and modern contaminants on prehistoric stone artefacts
Publisher: Wiley
Date: 02-08-2017
DOI: 10.1002/JRS.5202
Development of the SAR TT-OSL procedure for dating Middle Pleistocene dune and shallow marine deposits along the southern Cape coast of South Africa
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 04-2011
Statistical aspects of equivalent dose and error calculation and display in OSL dating: An overview and some recommendations
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 08-2012
Optical and radiocarbon dating at Jinmium rock shelter in northern Australia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 05-1998
DOI: 10.1038/30718
Microstratigraphic preservation of ancient faunal and hominin DNA in Pleistocene cave sediments
Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Date: 27-12-2021
Abstract: DNA preserved in sediments has emerged as an important source of information about past ecosystems, independent of the discovery of skeletal remains. However, little is known about the sources of sediment DNA, the factors affecting its long-term preservation, and the extent to which it may be translocated after deposition. Here, we show that impregnated blocks of intact sediment are excellent archives of DNA. DNA distribution is highly heterogeneous at the microscale in the cave sediment we studied, suggesting that postdepositional movement of DNA is unlikely to be a common phenomenon in cases where the stratigraphy is undisturbed. Combining micromorphological analysis with microstratigraphic retrieval of ancient DNA therefore allows genetic information to be associated with the detailed archaeological and ecological record preserved in sediments.
Single-grain OSL chronologies for Middle Palaeolithic deposits at El Mnasra and El Harhoura 2, Morocco: Implications for Late Pleistocene human–environment interactions along the Atlantic coast of nor
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2012
DOI: 10.1016/J.JHEVOL.2011.12.001
Abstract: Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) measurements were made on in idual, sand-sized grains of quartz from Middle Palaeolithic deposits at two cave sites (El Harhoura 2 and El Mnasra) on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. We were able to calculate OSL ages for 32 of the 33 s les collected from the Middle Palaeolithic deposits, including the earliest and latest Aterian levels at both sites. These ages reveal periods of occupation between about 110 and 95 ka (thousands of years ago), and at ~75 ka. A late Middle Palaeolithic occupation of El Harhoura 2 is also recorded at ~55 ka. Our single-grain OSL chronologies largely support previous age estimates from El Mnasra and other sites along the Atlantic coast of Morocco, but are generally more precise, reproducible and stratigraphically more coherent (i.e., fewer age reversals). We compare the single-grain ages for El Harhoura 2 and El Mnasra with those obtained from single- and multi-grain OSL dating of Middle Palaeolithic deposits in the nearby sites of Contrebandiers and Dar es-Soltan 1 and 2, and with records of past regional environments preserved in sediment cores collected from off the coast of northwest Africa. A conspicuous feature of the new chronologies is the close correspondence between the three identified episodes of human occupation and periods of wetter climate and expanded grassland habitat. Owing to the precision of the single-grain OSL ages, we are able to discern gaps in occupation during Marine Isotope Stages 5 and 4, which may represent drier periods with reduced vegetation cover. We propose that these climatic conditions can be correlated with events in the North Atlantic Ocean that exert a major control on abrupt, millennial-scale fluctuations between wet and dry periods in northwest and central North Africa.
Dating the Quaternary: progress in luminescence dating of sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 10-2006
Archaeology and age of a new hominin from Flores in eastern Indonesia
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 10-2004
DOI: 10.1038/NATURE02956
Abstract: Excavations at Liang Bua, a large limestone cave on the island of Flores in eastern Indonesia, have yielded evidence for a population of tiny hominins, sufficiently distinct anatomically to be assigned to a new species, Homo floresiensis. The finds comprise the cranial and some post-cranial remains of one in idual, as well as a premolar from another in idual in older deposits. Here we describe their context, implications and the remaining archaeological uncertainties. Dating by radiocarbon (14C), luminescence, uranium-series and electron spin resonance (ESR) methods indicates that H. floresiensis existed from before 38,000 years ago (kyr) until at least 18 kyr. Associated deposits contain stone artefacts and animal remains, including Komodo dragon and an endemic, dwarfed species of Stegodon. H. floresiensis originated from an early dispersal of Homo erectus (including specimens referred to as Homo ergaster and Homo georgicus) that reached Flores, and then survived on this island refuge until relatively recently. It overlapped significantly in time with Homo sapiens in the region, but we do not know if or how the two species interacted.
Single-grain OSL dating at La Grotte des Contrebandiers (‘Smugglers’ Cave’), Morocco: improved age constraints for the Middle Paleolithic levels
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 12-2011
On the dose dependency of the bleachable and non-bleachable components of IRSL from K-feldspar: Improved procedures for luminescence dating of Quaternary sediments
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 06-2013
Related Organisations
Australian Research Council Centre Of Excellence For Australian Biodiversity And Heritage (CABAH)
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