A04_01

The challenge of dating archaeological sites beyond ~35,000 BP: Progress and future prospects in radiocarbon dating the Palaeolithic of Eurasia

Higham T¹

¹University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

The Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic (~35-60,000 years ago), is a key period in human evolution. It witnesses the transition between a Neanderthal (and Denisovan) dominated Eurasia, to one which was exclusively occupied by Homo sapiens. Recent discoveries in archaeology, genomics, isotope geochemistry, residue analysis, dating science and more, have revolutionised our understanding of the period. We now have some answers to what were seemingly intractable big questions; did Neanderthals and Homo sapiens meet? How long was their overlap, and where did they encounter one another? But other answers remain elusive. At the heart of many of these uncertainties lies a robust chronology, so radiocarbon dating has been at the centre of many debates in the Palaeolithic.

There are many ‘legacy’ radiocarbon measurements from the Palaeolithic that are often erroneous. Over the last 10-15 years, however, there have been significant improvements in routine dating science. Three principal areas will be discussed. First, we have better measurement precision, lower backgrounds in accelerators and more accurate subtraction of laboratory derived ¹⁴C pretreatment backgrounds. Second, improvements in chemical pretreatment and sample decontamination of bone proteins and charcoal samples. Third, the application of Bayesian age modelling coupled with newer extended calibration curves, allowing the inclusion of dates from other methods and archaeological prior information.

Over the last few years >1,000 samples from more than 100 key European Palaeolithic sites have been obtained. I will discuss the results from some of these key sites across Eurasia in the wider context of the Palaeolithic.