Dating the demise: Neandertal extinction and the establishment of modern humans in the southern Caucasus

853 8 3680 1 10185 document 3680 6. Adler et al 2008 JHE.pdf application/pdf f1d92c7347f00bfb236056d4ac4dc276 MD5 1338351 2014-02-02 11:59:28 http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/853/1/6.%20Adler%20et%20al%202008%20JHE.pdf 853 1 1 application/pdf text en public

6. Adler et al 2008 JHE.pdf

3685 2 10220 document 3685 lightbox.jpg image/png 7e2980bed37f594adb2c541c8e2ad54a MD5 55859 2014-02-02 12:39:56 http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/853/3/lightbox.jpg 853 3 3 image/png other Thumbnails conversion from text to thumbnail_lightbox ge public

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http://eprints.org/relation/isVersionOf http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/id/document/3680 http://eprints.org/relation/isVolatileVersionOf http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/id/document/3680 http://eprints.org/relation/issmallThumbnailVersionOf http://eprints.iliauni.edu.ge/id/document/3680 archive 92 disk0/00/00/08/53 2014-02-02 17:26:13 2015-04-03 08:42:33 2014-02-02 17:26:13 article show Adler Daniel daniel.adler@uconn.edu Bar-Yosef Ofer obaryos@fas.harvard.edu Belfer-Cohen Anna belferac@mscc.huji.ac.il Tushabramishvili Nikoloz nikoloz_tushabramishvili@iliauni.edu.ge Boaretto Elisabetta elisabetta.boaretto@weizmann.ac.il Mercier Norbert Norbert.-Mercier@u-bordeaux3.fr Valladas Helene helene.valladas@lsce.cnrs-gif.fr Rink Jack W. rinkwj@mcmaster.ca Dating the demise: Neandertal extinction and the establishment of modern humans in the southern Caucasus pub DS fac_eng public This paper considers the recent radiometric dating ( 14 C-AMS, TL, ESR) of 76 late Middle and early Upper Paleolithic samples from Ortvale Klde Rockshelter, located in the Republic of Georgia. We present a critical evaluation of each date based on its stratigraphic and archaeological context, its pretreatment and contamination history, and its resulting accuracy and precision, the goal being to establish a sound chronology for the site. Only by systematically identifying aberrant dates within a data set and isolating them from further analysis can we hope to understand cultural and biological phenomena on an accurate temporal scale. Based on the strict discard protocol outlined here, we omit 25% of the dated samples from the analysis. The remaining data speak to the lengthy tenure of Neandertals in the region, but also to their relatively rapid demise and the establishment of modern human populations w38–34 ka 14 CBP (42–39 ka cal BPHulu). We compare these chronometric data with those from the neighboring sites of Bronze and Dzudzuana caves, as well as Mezmaiskaya Cave, located in the northern Caucasus. While the lack of key contextual information limit our ability to subject these other data sets to the same critical evaluation procedure, they provide the first interregional temporal assessment of the Middle to Upper Paleolithic ‘‘transition,’’ the results of which suggest an initial expansion of modern humans into the southern Caucasus followed by expansion along the Black Sea coast and into the northern Caucasus. 2011 published Journal of Human Evolution 55 5 Academic Press Inc 817-833 TRUE 00472484, 10958606