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Over the last glacial period, the climate of the Northern Hemisphere experienced numerous abrupt variations on millennial to centennial timescales known as Dansgaard-Oeschger events. These events, characterised by rapid warming at the beginning of interstadials and gradual cooling back to stadial conditions are best documented in Greenland ice cores and North Atlantic marine records, while their propagation onto the continents and potential feedbacks are less well documented. In this context, loess palaeosol sequences in central Europe are valuable archives, often recording these climatic changes in the form of brown soils and tundra gley horizons - indicating milder interstadial conditions - intercalated with primary loess deposits reflecting cold stadial conditions.To reconstruct palaeoclimate changes at high resolution we use singular material from loess sediments: fossil earthworm calcite granules (ECG). ECGs, composed of aggregated sparite crystals formed in the calciferous earthworm glands, are secreted daily at the soil surfacemostly by Lumbricus species and experience limited vertical mixing within the loess sedimentary column. ECGs are thus an excellent terrestrial material for palaeoclimate reconstructions using stable isotopic geochemistry and radiocarbon dating. ECGs have been collected from two temporally overlapping loess-palaeosol sequences along an NNW-SSE transect in the Rhine River valley of western Germany. We present warm-season land-surface temperature and precipitation estimates at millennial timescales spanning ~ 45-22 cal kBP (late OIS 3 - OIS 2). We demonstrate that OIS 3-2 climate in the Rhine Valley was significantly cooler during the warm season and overall drier with annual precipitation reduced by up to 70%, compared to the present day. Interstadials were only slightly warmer (1-4°C) than stadial indicating strong attenuation compared to Greenland records. In combination with mesoscale wind and moisture transport modelling we can show that this region was dominated by westerlies and thereby inextricably linked to North Atlantic climate forcing.The approach combining high-resolution age-depth modelling and geochemical proxy-based climate reconstruction can be readily adopted at other loess palaeosol sequences. We envisage a widespread application of this approach that would improve our understanding of regional variability over the European continent in response to North Atlantic climate changes over millennial to centennial timescales.

For decades, the relationship of pre-modern hominins to anatomically modern humans (AMH) and the transition from mode 3 to mode 4 industries remain topics of ongoing scientific debate. Over the last 20 years, different disciplines have added new data and much detail to these questions, highlighting the demographic and social and cultural complexity underlaying these major changes or turnovers in human evolution. As with most other regions outside Africa, archaeologists faced long-lasting discussions whether or not the central European archaeological record is to be understood as a regional transition from the Middle Palaeolithic (MP) to the Upper Palaeolithic (UP) or if it is characterised by the replacement of Neanderthal MP techno-complexes by industries of overall UP character imported by modern humans. These debates have been re-fuelled by the discoveries of new sites, of new hominin fossil remains and by aDNA studies pinpointing towards the arrival of AMH in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought (Slimak et al., Science Advances,8, eabj9496, 2022; Hajdinjak et al., Nature,592, 253-257, 2021; Prüfer et al., Nature Ecology & Evolution,5, 820–825, 2021). Together with new radiometric age-estimates and detailed archaeological site studies, these developments call to recapture the present knowledge of the Late (LMP) and Final Middle Palaeolithic (FMP) of central Europe, viewed from the perspective of lithic technology and typology, raw material exploitation and land-use strategies. We will review and characterise this record as it represents the demographic and cultural substrate that AMH had met and will discuss to which degree this substrate contributed to the formation of the central European UP.

Loess-Palaeosol-Sequences (LPS) are the most widespread aeolian sedimentary deposits providing climatic- and environmental records across continents. As dust sinks, they may archive information on dust source dynamics, if targeted source signals survived processes operating during production, transport, and syn- and post-depositional alteration of particles and sediments. Yet, our knowledge about such dynamics through palaeoenvironmental changes during the Upper Pleistocene remains vague. This limits our understanding of thresholds that may have (de-) activated dust sources causing major environmental changes in prevalent areas. We thus combine results of isotope- (87/86Sr, 143/144Nd) and major element (Si/Al) provenance proxies that react differently to pre-, syn- and post depositional alteration processes, with granulometry (U-ratio) and the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS). Granulometry is recognised as an indicator for wind strengths and the primary magnetic fabric of loess deposits has been successfully used to reconstruct surface near wind directions. We apply our approach on the RP1 profile of the Schwalbenberg LPS that covers the late OIS 3 and the OIS 2 in centennial-scale resolution. The site is embedded in the Middle Rhine Valley (Germany) dividing the Rhenish Massif in its western and eastern part. Consequently, the Schwalbenberg seems appropriate to trace provenance shifts as it is linked to a distal dust source via the Rhine and as it is surrounded by potential local dust sources of the Rhenish Massif. Our results indicate shifts in source areas NNE-SSW off the site, contemporary with increasing frost dynamics and aridification. Both factors seem to enhance dust inputs from the Rhine system up to a threshold where the Rhenish Massif gets activated as a dominant source. Geochemical fingerprinting and AMS at the Schwalbenberg RP1 LPS reveal insights into dust source dynamics that allow for estimating their emission potential during Upper Pleistocene palaeoenvironmental changes.

The Schwalbenberg Loess-Palaeosol-Sequences (LPS) in the Middle Rhine Valley, Germany, comprise unprecedented complete records of Upper Pleistocene terrestrial ecosystem response to global climate changes. However, direct correlation of the Schwalbenberg geochemical signals with climate archives of supra-regional northern hemispheric relevance remains complicated. This is due to the complex interplay of pre-, syn-, or post-depositional processes that left their traces in the terrestrial record. In particular, the use of different element ratios to derive weathering indices may be complicated as dust sources change through time, and as ecosystems respond to changing conditions. In this study, we decode interfering geochemical signatures and re-evaluate proxies, commonly applied, regarding their suitability and meaning for understanding the evolution of the Schwalbenberg LPS. We undertake a systematic approach, firstly dividing the 30 m long Schwalbenberg REM3 LPS according to our core description. In a second step, we integrate LOG-ratios indicative of provenance shifts, sediment reworking dynamics and weathering into multivariate analysis. We apply Principle Component Analyses (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) to datasets comprising sediments deposited under similar environmental conditions. In doing so, we sensitively quantify subordinate processes and conditions, such as the impact of varying source- and weathering-signals in all proxies. Our results show that in particularly K/Rb and Mg/Ca ratios contain a strong provenance signal in loess deposits, whereas the Ca/Ald ratio (Ald: dithionite extractable) best indicates the maturity state of Gelic Gleysols. Integration of our filtered datasets with a high-resolution age model enables direct correlation of the variability of principal components on sub-millennial scales with Atlantic-driven climate oscillations. More specifically, PC2 appears to reflect changes in mineral dust accumulation and indicates increasing dust input in response to climate cooling towards the end of interstadials, highlighting the accretionary nature of the Schwalbenberg LPS during transitional periods from interstadial to stadial depositional modes.

Loess-Palaeosol Sequences (LPS) represent the most extensive Quaternary terrestrial archives. Although researchers have long been able to identify short-lived climatic changes in LPS through stratigraphy, until recently we have lacked the tools to 1) identify how continuous loess archives may be, and to what extent short-lived, millennial-timescale climatic events were recorded in loess sediments, and to 2) quantitatively reconstruct past climate parameters from loess proxies. Stratigraphically, the impact of short-lived climatic cycles can be observed in the form of primary loess deposits reflecting cold stadial conditions, intercalated with arctic and boreal brown soils and tundra gley horizons indicating milder interstadials. Short-term establishment and subsequent degradation of an active permafrost layer can also be identified in temperate-latitude loess such as that found in the Rhine Valley of central-western Europe. Recently developed proxy methods can now be used to quantify climatic parameters such as temperature and precipitation in these regions 1,2. Associated with radiocarbon dating, these new approaches will vastly improve our understanding of continental environmental changes through the Upper Pleistocene, which can now be compared at high temporal resolution with marine and ice core records. In particular, the quantity and stable isotope ratios of crystalline calcite granules (> 0.8 mm), secreted by earthworms (Lumbricus sp.) at the soil surface, preserve climate information contemporaneous with deposition of the loess sediment.In this study, we assess the utility of the earthworm calcite granules (ECG) approach by reconstructing temperature and precipitation at high resolution between 50 and 15 ka from two temporally overlapping loess sequences, Schwalbenberg and Nussloch, situated approximately 200 km apart in the German Rhine Valley. ECG counts down the two profiles reveal millennial-timescale climatic variations; high ECG concentrations associated with pedogenetic horizons suggest milder climatic with increasing biological activity and vegetation cover. Using empirical equations based on 1) observations of modern earthworm response to temperature and 2) the linear relationship between ∆13C values of plants and precipitation, the stable oxygen and carbon isotope compositions from ECGs can be used as direct proxies for warm season temperature and annual soil moisture, respectively. We embed our climate reconstructions within Bayesian age models based on radiocarbon dating of ECG in order to establish precise correlations between the two sequences and with other climatic archives. We find that ECGs provide valuable proxies able to meaningfully quantify palaeoclimate variations from terrestrial deposits over millennial timescales. Our results further show periods of quasi-simultaneous climatic change in the Northern Hemisphere, closely linking the climatic signatures recorded in the Upper Pleistocene of Schwalbenberg and Nussloch to the Greenland ice core records.References: 1. Prud’homme, C. et al. Palaeotemperature reconstruction during the Last Glacial from δ18O of earthworm calcite granules from Nussloch loess sequence, Germany. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 442, 13–20 (2016).2. Prud’homme, C. et al. δ 13C signal of earthworm calcite granules: a new proxy for palaeoprecipitation reconstructions during the Last Glacial in Western Europe. Quat. Sci. Rev. 179, 158–166 (2018).

Over the last interglacial/glacial cycle climate variability and forcing in the northern hemisphere is best documented in high resolution from marine and ice core records. The response of land surface processes to climate over this period, however, remains poorly defined. Understanding landscape response to climate change is nevertheless of critical importance not only because as humans we live on and interact with the land, but also in order to identify potential feedbacks and forcings between land and atmosphere which cannot be ascertained from marine and ice core records. In this context, Loess-Palaeosol-Sequences (LPS) are outstanding terrestrial archives allowing detailed reconstruction of palaeoclimate and palaeo­environ­mental changes. However, regarding their complexity, LPS represent polygenetic and multiphase archives over different spatial and temporal scales. Consequently, a solid understanding of geomorphological and pedogenic processes involved in LPS formation, and the interplay with changes in ecological conditions, must be considered before LPS can be correlated with other archives.Against this background, extensive fieldwork has been carried out at the Schwalbenberg site near Remagen (Middle Rhine valley, Germany) combining geophysical exploration with Direct Push borehole geophysical measurements and sediment coring. We will present a first comprehensive data set for the Schwalbenberg key area based on a transect from up- to downslope. The integration of grain size, organic carbon and weathering indices from long sediment cores (up to 30 m) and profile sections contribute to a better understanding of processes involved in the Schwalbenberg LPS formation. These data combined with age constraints based on radiocarbon and luminescence dating lead to a first robust chronostratigraphic model of the Last Interglacial/Glacial Cycle suggesting the Schwalbenberg LPS to be a terrestrial archive of palaeoclimate variations in phase with northern hemispheric ice and marine records.

The Paleolithic archaeological record of the Tibetan Plateau is crucial for understanding human ecological and genetic adaptation to life in high altitudes. Recent work on the Tibetan Plateau has documented hominin occupations by Denisovans at Baishiya Karst Cave (BKC) from at least ca. 160, and again around 100 and 60 thousand years ago (ka), followed by modern human occupation at Nwya Devu (ND) around 30–40 ka. However, with the exception of these two geographically distinct sites, there are very few Paleolithic sites with secure stratigraphy and reliable dates on the Tibetan Plateau. Thus, the spatial and temporal history of Paleolithic hominin occupation of the Tibetan Plateau remains poorly understood. Here we report a newly discovered well-stratified and well-dated Paleolithic site, Jiangjunfu 01 (JJF01), from the northeastern margin of the plateau. Optical dating of sediments from cultural layers shows that the site was occupied by hominin who employed simple core-and-flake technology, during warmer interglacial environments ∼90–120 ka. To date, JJF01 is one of the three oldest archaeological sites with secure stratigraphy and reliable dating from the Tibetan Plateau, further confirming that hominins, potentially Denisovans, occupied and inhabited the highest region of our planet at least by the early Upper Pleistocene.

Bifacially backed knives (“Keilmesser”) are known from different European Middle Palaeolithic contexts. However, this specific tool type is both so characteristic of and so frequent within Central and Eastern European late Middle Palaeolithic bifacial assemblages which are generally classed together as “Micoquian” that they should more appropriately be described by the term “Keilmessergruppen” (KMG). The KMG sites of Central Europe date into late OIS 5 until mid-OIS 3.

The learning hypothesis put forth by the Replacement of Neanderthals by Modern Humans (RNMH) Project surmises the primary importance of the innate cognitive difference in learning abilities underlying RNMH processes. An overview of recent studies, supplemented by the contributions in this volume, shows that some of the available evidence is in support of this view, while another portion is not. This is perhaps because learning behaviors in human communities are conditioned by numerous factors, which include not only cognitive abilities in certain realms but also socio-cultural learning environments, as a product of historical developments. While learning undoubtedly played a significant role in the development of adaptive strategies among both Neanderthals and modern humans, a more balanced model seems more appropriate to explain the advantage of modern human lifeways resulting from newer and more effective learning strategies.

The calibration of radiocarbon measurements is based on a number of mathematical assumptions that are rarely considered by users of the various available calibration programs. As 14C ages take on mathematical properties best known from quantum physics, a quantum theoretical approach provides a useful basis to evaluate the reliability of processes of calibration and Bayesian modelling of radiocarbon datasets. We undertake such an evaluation here through a consideration of the mathematics of calibration, the normalization process, and through an archaeological case study. We demonstrate that the normalization function deemed necessary for 14C histogram shape-correction is identical to the default prior widely used in Bayesian calibration. We highlight flaws in default Bayesian calibration algorithms which may affect archaeological studies that are overly reliant on high calibration precision, especially when based on relatively small (N

Mit dem Begriff Menschwerdung ist der lange evolutionare Prozess gemeint, der den Menschen zu dem machte, was er heute ist: ein sozio-biologisches wie auch sozio-kulturelles Wesen – das Produkt einer langen Entwicklung, im Zuge derer sich der Mensch immer mehr von der Natur emanzipierte und trotzdem Teil dieser blieb. Dabei gibt es im Tierreich eine Reihe von Parallelen zu bestimmten „menschlichen Eigenheiten“, die belegen, wie „gewohnlich“ der Mensch doch ist.

Among the earliest Homo sapiens societies in Eurasia, the Aurignacian phase of the Early Upper Paleolithic, approximately 40 000-30 000 years ago, mammoth ivory assumed great social and economic significance, and was used to create hundreds of personal ornaments as well as the earliest known works of three-dimensional figurative art in the world. This paper reports on the results of micro-PIXE/PIGE analyses of mammoth-ivory artifacts and debris from five major sites of Aurignacian ivory use. Patterns of variable fluorine content indicate regionally distinctive strategies of ivory procurement that correspond to apparent differences in human-mammoth interactions. Preserved trace elements (Br, Sr, Zn) indicate that differences at the regional level are applicable to sourcing Paleolithic ivory at the regional scale.

Highlights • Previous age estimates of the Laacher See Eruptions (LSE) around 12,900 years are still diverging and imprecise. • The combination of dendrochronology, wood anatomy, and 14C measurements holds the potential to establish a precise LSE date. • An absolute calendric date of the LSE would improve the synchronization of European Late Glacial to Holocene archives. Abstract The precise date of the Laacher See eruption (LSE), central Europe’s largest Late Pleistocene volcanic event that occurred around 13,000 years ago, is still unknown. Here, we outline the potential of combined high-resolution dendrochronological, wood anatomical and radiocarbon (14C) measurements, to refine the age of this major Plinian eruption. Based on excavated, subfossil trees that were killed during the explosive LSE and buried under its pyroclastic deposits, we describe how a firm date of the eruption might be achieved, and how the resulting temporal precision would further advance our understanding of the environmental and societal impacts of this event. Moreover, we discuss the relevance of an accurate LSE date for improving the synchronization of European terrestrial and lacustrine Late Glacial to Holocene archives.

The German Rhineland covers a relatively large area, traversing a region extending from the foreland of the Alps to the western part of the Northern European Plain. Within this narrow but diverse region, relatively few diagnostic sites can be assigned to the Magdalenian. This study reviews evidence for Magdalenian presence in the German Rhineland, much of it in the form of exclusively lithic material, and presents an overview of current information on the chronology, environmental background, material culture and lifeways of these late Last Glacial people in the region. The study focuses on the two major Central Rhineland settlements Andernach–Martinsberg and Gonnersdorf, which provide the most detailed insights into the western German Magdalenian. Comprehensive analyses of these sites have addressed Magdalenian technology subsistence, group mobility in the landscape, social manifestations such as ornament and artistic expression, and site-internal spatial organisation.

In this paper we explore the impact of Rapid Climate Change (RCC) on prehistoric communities in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Early and Middle Holocene. Our focus is on the social implications of the four major climate cold anomalies that have recently been identified as key time-windows for global RCC (Mayewski et al. 2004). These cooling anomalies are well-dated, with Greenland ice-core resolution, due to synchronicity between warm/cold foraminifera ratios in Mediterranean core LC21 as a proxy for surface water temperature, and Greenland GISP2 non sea-salt (nss) [K+] ions as a proxy for the intensification of the Siberian High and for polar air outbreaks in the northeast Mediterranean (Rohling et al. 2002). Building on these synchronisms, the GISP2 agemodel supplies the following precise time-intervals for archaeological RCC research: (i) 8.6–8.0 ka, (ii) 6.0–5.2 ka, (iii) 4.2–4.0 ka and (iv) 3.1–2.9 ka calBP. For each of these RCC time intervals, based on detailed 14C-based chronological studies, we investigate contemporaneous cultural developments. From our studies it follows that RCC-related climatic deterioration is a major factor underlying social change, although always at work within a wide spectrum of social, cultural, economic and religious factors.

The dynamics of change underlying the demographic processes that led to the replacement of Neandertals by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) and the emergence of what are recognized as Upper Paleolithic technologies and behavior can only be understood with reference to the underlying chronological framework. This paper examines the European chronometric (mainly radiocarbon-based) record for the period between ca. 40 and 30 ka 14 C BP and proposes a relatively rapid transition within some 2,500 years. This can be summarized in the following falsifiable hypotheses: (1) final Middle Paleolithic (FMP) “transitional” industries (Uluzzian, Chatelperronian, leaf-point industries) were made by Neandertals and date predominantly to between ca. 41 and 38 ka 14 C BP, but not younger than 35/34 ka 14 C BP; (2) initial (IUP) and early (EUP) Upper Paleolithic “transitional” industries (Bachokirian, Bohunician, Protoaurignacian, Kostenki 14) will date to between ca. 39/38 and 35 ka 14 C BP and document the appearance of AMH in Europe; (3) the earliest Aurignacian (I) appears throughout Europe quasi simultaneously at ca. 35 ka 14 C BP. The earliest appearance of figurative art is documented only for a later phase ca. 33.0/32.5 – 29.2 ka 14 C BP. Taken together, the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition appears to be a cumulative process involving the acquisition of different elements of “behavioral modernity” through several “stages of innovation.”

Here we present spatial–temporal patterns for European late Quaternary red deer (Cervus elaphus), based on radiocarbon-supported evidence derived mainly from archaeological sites. This is followed by an overview of the recent phylogeography of this species using haplogroup studies of recent molecular data. The implications of the synthesis of palaeontological and genetic data are discussed and we propose that present day European red deer haplogroup distributions are best explained against the history of late Quaternary population contractions into and expansions from glacial refugia. Around 800 records of Cervus elaphus were assigned to the period covering the later part of the Last Glacial and the Early to Middle Holocene. Red deer becomes increasingly visible in faunal assemblages dated to late OIS-3 (

We explore the hypothesis that the abrupt drainage of Laurentide lakes and associated rapid switch of the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation 8200 yr ago had a catastrophic influence on Neolithic civilisation in large parts of southeastern Europe, Anatolia, Cyprus, and the Near East. The event at 8200 cal yr BP is observed in a large number of high-resolution climate proxies in the Northern Hemisphere, and in many cases corresponds to markedly cold and arid conditions. We identify the relevant archaeological levels of major Neolithic settlements in Central Anatolia, Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria, and examine published stratigraphic, architectural, cultural and geoarchaeological studies for these sites. The specific archaeological events and processes we observe at a number of these sites during the study interval 8400–8000 cal yr BP lead us to refine some previously established Neolithisation models. The introduction of farming to South-East Europe occurs in all study regions (Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Bulgaria) near 8200 cal yr BP. We observe major disruptions of Neolithic cultures in the Levant, North Syria, South-East Anatolia, Central Anatolia and Cyprus, at the same time. We conclude that the 8200 cal yr BP aridity event triggered the spread of early farmers, by different routes, out of West Asia and the Near East into Greece and Bulgaria. © 2006 University of Washington. All rights reserved.

Within a period of a few weeks toward the end of the Allerød Interstadial, the major Plinian eruption of the Laacher See volcano produced some 20 km3 of eruptiva, covering and preserving the late-glacial landscape in the German Central Rhineland over an area of more than 1000 km2. Correlation of terrestrial archives with the Greenland ice-core records and improved calibration of the radiocarbon timescale permit a precise, accurate age determination of the Laacher See event some 200 yr before the onset of the Younger Dryas cold episode. Carbonized trees and botanical macrofossils preserved by Laacher See Tephra permit detailed regional paleoenvironmental reconstruction and show that open woodland were typical for the cool and humid hemiboreal climatic conditions during the late Allerød. This woodland provided the habitat for a large variety of animal species, documented at both paleontological and Final Paleolithic archeological sites preserved below Laacher See deposits. Of special interest are numerous animal tracks intercalated in Middle Laacher See deposits at the south of the Neuwied Basin. This knowledge may help to evaluate possible supraregional impacts of this volcanic event on northern hemispheric environment and climate during the late Allerød.

Resume Grâce a des conditions exceptionnelles de conservation sous les depots du volcan du Laacher See, la Rhenanie centrale, a la charniere geographique entre la grande plaine de l’Allemagne du Nord et la region meridionale de moyenne montagne permet d’avoir un apercu detaille de l’histoire de l’environnement et de la vegetation au cours de l’Allerod. Elle nous offre les bases de la reconstitution du mode de vie des groupes des chasseurs-cueilleurs d’alors. Le site de Bad Breisig, datant de la derniere partie de l’Allerod, recemment fouille, fournit le premier temoignage du sejour de l’homme du Tardiglaciaire dans la region du bassin Moyen du Rhin, apres les changements devastateurs dus a l’eruption du volcan du Laacher See. Tant du point de vue chronostratigraphique que formel le site nous fournit une cle essentielle pour la comprehension de l’evolution culturelle de la fin du Paleolithique en Europe centrale.

An early assemblage of obsidian artifacts Levallois technology is the name for the stone knapping technique used to create tools thousands of years ago. The technique appeared in the archeological record across Eurasia 200 to 300 thousand years ago (ka) and appeared earlier in Africa. Adler et al. challenge the hypothesis that the technique's appearance in Eurasia was the result of the expansion of hominins from Africa. Levallois obsidian artifacts in the southern Caucasus, dated at 335 to 325 ka, are the oldest in Eurasia. This suggests that Levallois technology may have evolved independently in different hominin populations. Stone technology cannot thus be used as a reliable indicator of Paleolithic human population change and expansion. Science , this issue p. 1609

During the past decade research into the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic has experienced an important revival. One clear sign of this renewed interest in the periods are the annual meetings of the “Arbeitsgruppe Mesolithikum” (Mesolithic Working Group) which have taken place every spring since 1992. At these meetings, which take place at changing venues, topical themes of Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic interest are presented by informal lectures and it is also possible to study regional collections (artifacts, raw materials) at first hand. Numerous contributions were subsequently published together in one volume (Conard and Kind (1998) Aktuelle Forschungen zum Mesolithikum/Current Mesolithic Research, Mo Vince, Tubingen). The present paper intends to complement that collection of papers with a synthesis of developments and perspectives and to present recent research highlights in the German Final Paleolithic and Mesolithic, together with a comprehensive bibliography, to a wider international audience.

Archaeological excavations at the site of Dmanisi in the Republic of Georgia have uncovered two partial early Pleistocene hominid crania. The new fossils consist of a relatively complete cranium and a second relatively complete calvaria from the same site and stratigraphic unit that yielded a hominid mandible in 1991. In contrast with the uncertain taxonomic affinity of the mandible, the new fossils are comparable in size and morphology with Homo ergaster from Koobi Fora, Kenya. Paleontological, archaeological, geochronological, and paleomagnetic data from Dmanisi all indicate an earliest Pleistocene age of about 1.7 million years ago, supporting correlation of the new specimens with the Koobi Fora fossils. The Dmanisi fossils, in contrast with Pleistocene hominids from Western Europe and Eastern Asia, show clear African affinity and may represent the species that first migrated out of Africa.

For a better understanding of pre-Holocene cultural history, archaeologists are in need of an absolute time scale that can be confirmed and duplicated by different dating methods. Proxy data available from archaeological sites do not, in themselves, allow much reflection on absolute age. Even when founded on supporting radiocarbon data, Paleolithic chronologies that are beyond the actual limits of 14C calibration still remain relative ones, and thus are often quite tentative. Lacking the possibility of calibration for the Paleolithic, archaeologists often attempt to correlate their data with different time scales from different archives that are thought to be absolute or calendric. The main result of this paper is that the GISP2 and U/Th chronologies duplicate each other over their entire range of data overlap, while other time scales (i.e., GRIP, most varve sites) differ significantly. The context-derived 14C calibration curve provides a large potential to correlate the various climate archives as recorded in ice cores and deep ocean drillings with terrestrial sequences.

Only a precise chronological/stratigraphical framework can enable an understanding of the dynamics of change underlying the replacement of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans and the emergence of what are recognized as Upper Palaeolithic technologies and behaviour. This paper therefore examines the European radiocarbon-based chronometric record for the period between ca. 40.0 and 30.0 ka 14C BP with reference to the stratigraphic evidence. The following testable hypotheses are proposed

This paper combines the data sets available today for 14C-age calibration of the last 60 ka. By stepwise synchronization of paleoclimate signatures, each of these sets of 14C-ages is compared with the U/Th-dated Chinese Hulu Cave speleothem records, which shows global paleoclimate change in high temporal resolution. By this synchronization we have established an absolute-dated Greenland-Hulu chronological framework, against which global paleoclimate data can be referenced, extending the 14C-age calibration curve back to the limits of the radiocarbon method. Based on this new, U/Th-based Greenland(Hulu) chronology, we confirm that the radiocarbon timescale underestimates calendar ages by several thousand years during most of Oxygen Isotope Stage 3. Major atmospheric 14C variations are observed for the period of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition, which has significant implications for dating the demise of the last Neandertals. The early part of "the transition" (with 14C ages > 35.0 ka 14C BP) coincides with the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion. This period is characterized by highly-elevated atmospheric 14C levels. The following period ca. 35.0-32.5 ka 14C BP shows a series of distinct large-scale 14C age inversions and extended plateaus. In consequence, individual archaeological 14C dates older than 35.0 ka 14C BP can be age-calibrated with relatively high precision, while individual dates in the interval 35.0-32.5 ka 14C BP are subject to large systematic age-'distortions,' and chronologies based on large data sets will show apparent age-overlaps of up to ca. 5,000 cal years. Nevertheless, the observed variations in past 14C levels are not as extreme as previously proposed ("Middle to Upper Paleolithic dating anomaly"), and the new chronological framework leaves ample room for application of radiocarbon dating in the age-range 45.0-25.0 ka 14C BP at high temporal resolution.

In the present paper we systematically evaluate the radiometric database underlying the Middle to Upper Palaeolithc transition in southwestern Europe.The different models which attempt to explain the demographical processes underlying this transition rely to a large degree on radiocarbon chronology. We observe that: 1) with increasing age, dates on bone samples show large offsets against those on charcoal, often underestimating these for several thousand years BP and; 2) there is no proof for a persistence of Middle Palaeolithic industries into the time of the earliest Aurignacian in SW Europe. These data contradict the “Ebro- Frontier” model that distinguishes Late Middle Palaeolithic industries in the SW of the Iberian Peninsula from early Aurignacian ones in the NE. On the contrary, our data 3) imply a model of interregional shifts of populations contracting during severe cold and arid phases and expanding under warmer, interstadial conditions, raising ideas on a regional in situ development of the SW European Aurignacian out of Latest Middle Palaeolithic industries made by Neanderthals some 40.0 kyr cal BC.Se presenta un estudio sistemático sobre la información radiometrica disponible para la transición Paleolítico Medio-Paleolítico Superior en el Suroeste de Europa. Los diferentes modelos para explicar el proceso demográfico que subyace en esta transición dependen en gran medida de la cronología radiocarbónica. Se observa que: 1) a mayor antiguedad las fechas sobre hueso muestran una mayor desvisación frente a las muestras sobre carbón, a menudo infravalorando estas varios miles de años BP y 2) que no hay pruebas de perduración de industrias de Paleolítico Medio durante las fases tempranas del Auriñaciense en el SW de Europa. Estos datos contradicen el modelo de “frontera del Ebro” que distingue industrias de Paleolítico Medio Tardío en el SW de la Península Ibérica de las industrias del Auriñaciense temprano en el NE. Por el contrario, 3) nuestros datos implican un modelo de cambios de población interregional que se contrae durante las fases aridas y de frío severo y que se expande durante las fases más calidas de los interestadios, surgiendo la idea de un desarrollo regional del Auriñaciense del SW europeo a partir de las industrias del Paleolítico Medio Tardío realizadas por los Neanderthales hace 40 kyr cal BC.