August 12, 2012

Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Kebara: 49-46 ky cal BP

The UP/MP transition and the related MSA/LSA transition in Africa seems to have occurred almost simultaneously and to have coincided with the emergence of modern behavior in other remote parts of the world, as far away as East Timor. The date from Kebara appears a little earlier than the first Aurignacian in Central Europe and Riparo Mochi, and of the LSA in South Africa in Border Cave. Whether transmission of new behavioral innovations was cultural or genetic, an origin in a crossroads region between Europe, Africa, and East Asia, would make fairly good sense.

Journal of Archaeological Science Volume 38, Issue 9, September 2011, Pages 2424–2433

New radiocarbon dating of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic in Kebara Cave, Israel

N.R. Rebollo et al.

The Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition (MP-UP transition) is considered a major technological and cultural threshold, at the time when modern humans spread “out of Africa”, expanded from the Levant into Europe and possibly into central and northern Asia. The dating of this techno-cultural transition has proved to be extremely difficult because it occurred sometime before 40,000 radiocarbon years before present (14C years BP), which is close to the end of the effective dating range of radiocarbon. Other dating methods such as Thermoluminescence (TL) or Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) are not sufficiently precise to date the recorded archaeological MP-UP transition in the Levant. Here we report a consistent set of stratified radiocarbon ages on freshly excavated charcoal from Kebara Cave, Mt. Carmel (Israel), that span the late Middle Paleolithic (MP) and Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) This study applied novel strategies to improve sample preparation techniques and data analysis to obtain high-resolution radiocarbon models. From this study it is proposed that the MP-UP transition for this site can be placed immediately after 45,200 ± 700 14C years BP and before 43,600 ± 600 14C years BP or from 49/48 to 47/46 radiocarbon calibrated years before present (years Cal BP).

Link

4 comments:

aeolius said...

Dieneke
My bet would be a psychological change. Either the awareness of an "I" or learning that this "I" could direct behavior. Thus the explosion in exploration of Art, Music etc. Aswell as curiosity about what is over the mountain.
Or more precisely, since it seems that this happened more than once, the invention of the ability to teach others how to do this.

terryt said...

"Whether transmission of new behavioral innovations was cultural or genetic"

My guess is a bit of both.

"From this study it is proposed that the MP-UP transition for this site can be placed immediately after 45,200 ± 700 14C years BP and before 43,600 ± 600 14C years BP or from 49/48 to 47/46 radiocarbon calibrated years before present (years Cal BP)".

And that is more recent than the most likely time of first arrival in Australia. So that transition can hardly be used to define 'modern human, unless we're going to exclude Australian Aborigines from that term.

aramt said...

terryt, why do we have to suppose that present-day Aborigines descend from the earliest arrivals?
And wasn't Mungo man's mt DNA considered to be unrelated to any modern humans?

terryt said...

"why do we have to suppose that present-day Aborigines descend from the earliest arrivals?"

Good point. But most scientists seem to think there was minimum contact with the outside world after the first arrival. Personally I think there were actually several waves of settlement.

"And wasn't Mungo man's mt DNA considered to be unrelated to any modern humans?"

Again true. However the finding has been questioned by many. On the other hand even if the original conclusion was correct that line of mt-DNA could have since died out. Other lines still present in Australia were found in the same study:

http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEkQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pnas.org%2Fcontent%2F98%2F2%2F537.full.pdf&ei=bMwoUJ6tD5GeiAfLooHwDQ&usg=AFQjCNH6_uizewzHi6KC7qpuFsg-JrZ76A