Radiocarbon chronology of Manot Cave, Israel and Upper Paleolithic dispersals

Bridget Alex; Omry Barzilai; Israel Hershkovitz; Ofer Marder; Francesco Berna; Valentina Caracuta; Talia Abulafia; Lauren Davis; Mae Goder-Goldberger; Ron Lavi; Eugenia Mintz; Lior Regev; Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer; Jose-Miguel Tejero; Reuven Yeshurun; Avner Ayalon; Mira Bar-Matthews; Gal Yasur; Amos Frumkin; Bruce Latimer; Mark G. Hans; Elisabetta Boaretto

doi:10.1126/sciadv.1701450

Radiocarbon chronology of Manot Cave, Israel and Upper Paleolithic dispersals

Bridget Alex^*, Omry Barzilai, Israel Hershkovitz, Ofer Marder, Francesco Berna, Valentina Caracuta, Talia Abulafia, Lauren Davis, Mae Goder-Goldberger, Ron Lavi, Eugenia Mintz, Lior Regev, Daniella Bar-Yosef Mayer, Jose-Miguel Tejero, Reuven Yeshurun, Avner Ayalon, Mira Bar-Matthews, Gal Yasur, Amos Frumkin, Bruce LatimerMark G. Hans, Elisabetta Boaretto

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

67 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The timing of archeological industries in the Levant is central for understanding the spread of modern humans with Upper Paleolithic traditions. We report a high-resolution radiocarbon chronology for Early Upper Paleolithic industries (Early Ahmarian and Levantine Aurignacian) from the newly excavated site of Manot Cave, Israel. The dates confirm that the Early Ahmarian industry was present by 46,000 calibrated years before the present (cal BP), and the Levantine Aurignacian occurred at least between 38,000 and 34,000 cal BP. This timing is consistent with proposed migrations or technological diffusions between the Near East and Europe. Specifically, the Ahmarian could have led to the development of the Protoaurignacian in Europe, and the Aurignacian in Europe could have spread back to the Near East as the Levantine Aurignacian.

Original language	English
Article number	1701450
Number of pages	9
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	3
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701450
Publication status	Published - Nov 2017

Funding

We thank S. Weiner and M. Thibodeau for the microarcheology work; C. Klöcker, J. Kakayuk, and P. Sathyanarayan for carrying out the sediment heating experiment; and three anonymous reviewers as well as D. Pilbeam, O. Bar-Yosef, and C. Tryon for their comments on this paper. Funding: Analytical work was funded by NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (1334615), Fulbright Student Scholarship from the U.S.-Israel Educational Foundation, and NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program Award (DGE-1144152) to B.A. Radiocarbon dates were funded by the Exilarch’s Foundation, D-REAMS, and the Max Planck-Weizmann Center for Integrative Archaeology and Anthropology awards to E.B. Paleobotanical analysis was supported by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, Israel, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation General Directorate for Political Affairs & Security, Italian Republic (IMOS 3-13329) awards to E.B. and V.C. Manot Cave excavation is funded by the Dan David Foundation, the Israel Antiquities Authority, Case Western Reserve University, the Leakey Foundation, the Irene Levi Sala CARE Archaeological Foundation, the Keren Kayemet L’Israel, and the Binational Science Foundation (2015303) to I.H., B.L., O.B., and O.M. and by the the Israel Science Foundation (338/14) to I.H., O.M., and O.B. Geoarcheological work was supported by awards to F.B. from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (award no. 430-2013-000546) and the Bertha and Louis Weinstein Research Fund, and research was supported by the Kimmel Center for Archaeological Science.

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Alex, B., Barzilai, O., Hershkovitz, I., Marder, O., Berna, F., Caracuta, V., Abulafia, T., Davis, L., Goder-Goldberger, M., Lavi, R., Mintz, E., Regev, L., Mayer, D. B.-Y., Tejero, J.-M., Yeshurun, R., Ayalon, A., Bar-Matthews, M., Yasur, G., Frumkin, A., ... Boaretto, E. (2017). Radiocarbon chronology of Manot Cave, Israel and Upper Paleolithic dispersals. Science Advances, 3(11), Article 1701450. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701450

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title = "Radiocarbon chronology of Manot Cave, Israel and Upper Paleolithic dispersals",

abstract = "The timing of archeological industries in the Levant is central for understanding the spread of modern humans with Upper Paleolithic traditions. We report a high-resolution radiocarbon chronology for Early Upper Paleolithic industries (Early Ahmarian and Levantine Aurignacian) from the newly excavated site of Manot Cave, Israel. The dates confirm that the Early Ahmarian industry was present by 46,000 calibrated years before the present (cal BP), and the Levantine Aurignacian occurred at least between 38,000 and 34,000 cal BP. This timing is consistent with proposed migrations or technological diffusions between the Near East and Europe. Specifically, the Ahmarian could have led to the development of the Protoaurignacian in Europe, and the Aurignacian in Europe could have spread back to the Near East as the Levantine Aurignacian.",

author = "Bridget Alex and Omry Barzilai and Israel Hershkovitz and Ofer Marder and Francesco Berna and Valentina Caracuta and Talia Abulafia and Lauren Davis and Mae Goder-Goldberger and Ron Lavi and Eugenia Mintz and Lior Regev and Mayer, \{Daniella Bar-Yosef\} and Jose-Miguel Tejero and Reuven Yeshurun and Avner Ayalon and Mira Bar-Matthews and Gal Yasur and Amos Frumkin and Bruce Latimer and Hans, \{Mark G.\} and Elisabetta Boaretto",

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Alex, B, Barzilai, O, Hershkovitz, I, Marder, O, Berna, F, Caracuta, V, Abulafia, T, Davis, L, Goder-Goldberger, M, Lavi, R, Mintz, E, Regev, L, Mayer, DB-Y, Tejero, J-M, Yeshurun, R, Ayalon, A, Bar-Matthews, M, Yasur, G, Frumkin, A, Latimer, B, Hans, MG & Boaretto, E 2017, 'Radiocarbon chronology of Manot Cave, Israel and Upper Paleolithic dispersals', Science Advances, vol. 3, no. 11, 1701450. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1701450

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AU - Lavi, Ron

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AU - Regev, Lior

AU - Mayer, Daniella Bar-Yosef

AU - Tejero, Jose-Miguel

AU - Yeshurun, Reuven

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AB - The timing of archeological industries in the Levant is central for understanding the spread of modern humans with Upper Paleolithic traditions. We report a high-resolution radiocarbon chronology for Early Upper Paleolithic industries (Early Ahmarian and Levantine Aurignacian) from the newly excavated site of Manot Cave, Israel. The dates confirm that the Early Ahmarian industry was present by 46,000 calibrated years before the present (cal BP), and the Levantine Aurignacian occurred at least between 38,000 and 34,000 cal BP. This timing is consistent with proposed migrations or technological diffusions between the Near East and Europe. Specifically, the Ahmarian could have led to the development of the Protoaurignacian in Europe, and the Aurignacian in Europe could have spread back to the Near East as the Levantine Aurignacian.

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Radiocarbon chronology of Manot Cave, Israel and Upper Paleolithic dispersals

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