ESR/U-series and IRSL dating of Middle Pleistocene site of Lunel Viel (LV I), Hérault, Southern France.

The Mas des Caves site at Lunel-Viel, Southern France, is a complex of several caves, dug in Miocene limestone, that have yielded a rich archaeo-palaeontological sequence attributed to the Middle Pleistocene with abundant vertebrates and lithic artefacts. The first caves (LV I, II and III), discovered in 1800, were excavated at the beginning of the 19th century [1] before falling into oblivion for over a century. The main cave is LV I when LV II and III are smaller subparallel galleries. In the early 1970s, research was conducted in main the gallery by E. Bonifay who discovered, as well an extension named LV IV and the natural entrance (sinkhole, doline) both completely closed now. Recently, a multidisciplinary approach has been set up (DRAC-SRA Occitanie) to contextualize the ancient collections with the recent ones and to allow a better understanding of the site formation, palaeoenvironmental and behavioural history of the animals and humans who lived there [2]. The previous chronology based on faunal elements yields important biomarkers (including new genus and species/subspecies) making Lunel-Viel a major Middle Pleistocene site in the European record. Among various dating techniques used in this study, trapped-charged methods such as combined ESR/U-Th and IRSL were applied on fossil tooth enamel and on feldspars respectively. The results obtained by both methods are in agreement and suggest a period of human occupation between 300 and 200 ka. This age range matches well with the composition of the faunal assemblage attributed to the second part of the Middle Pleistocene (biochronology) and which constrain the occupation to a cool/temperate and humid period which could be contemporaneous with the MIS9 or the beginning of MIS7 [3]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]