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The Middle to Upper Paleolithic Sequence of Buran-Kaya III (Crimea, Ukraine): New Stratigraphic, Paleoenvironmental, and Chronological Results

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Stéphane Péan ,
Simon Puaud ,
Laurent Crépin ,
Sandrine Prat ,
Anita Quiles ,
Johannes van der Plicht ,
Hélène Valladas ,
Anthony J Stuart ,
Dorothée G Drucker  and
Marylène Patou-Mathis
...Show all authors
Stéphane Péan*
Affiliation:
Département de Préhistoire/UMR 7194, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
Simon Puaud
Affiliation:
Département de Préhistoire/UMR 7194, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
Laurent Crépin
Affiliation:
Département de Préhistoire/UMR 7194, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
Sandrine Prat
Affiliation:
Département de Préhistoire/UMR 7194, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France Laboratoire Dynamique de l'évolution humaine: individus, populations, espèces, UPR 2147, CNRS, 44, rue de l'Amiral Mouchez, 75014 Paris, France
Anita Quiles
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Johannes van der Plicht
Affiliation:
Center for Isotope Research, Groningen University, Groningen/Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
Hélène Valladas
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement/IPSL, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Anthony J Stuart
Affiliation:
Durham University, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, United Kingdom
Dorothée G Drucker
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
Marylène Patou-Mathis
Affiliation:
Département de Préhistoire/UMR 7194, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, IPH, 1 rue René Panhard, 75013 Paris, France
François Lanoë
Affiliation:
School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, 1009 East South Campus Drive, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Aleksandr Yanevich
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Heroiv Stalingrada 12, 04210 Kyiv, Ukraine
*
2Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Buran-Kaya III is a rockshelter located in Crimea (Ukraine). It provides an exceptional stratigraphic sequence extending from the Middle Paleolithic to the Neolithic. Nine Paleolithic layers have been attributed to the Streletskaya or eastern Szeletian, Micoquian, Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Swiderian cultural traditions. Human remains from the richest Gravettian layer (6-1) are radiocarbon dated to 31.9 ka BP, and therefore represent, with Peştera cu Oase (Romania), one of the oldest anatomically modern humans in Europe. The aim of this study is to obtain a controlled stratigraphic sequence of Buran-Kaya III with new 14C dates from faunal and human bones, in their paleoenvironmental context. During our new excavations (2009–2011), sediments, bones, and teeth from the stratigraphical layers were sampled for sedimentological, geochemical, and 14C analyses. Fossil bones from the 2001 excavations were also analyzed. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating, including cross-dating, was performed at Groningen, Saclay/Gif-sur-Yvette, and Oxford. Biogeochemical analysis was used to test the integrity of the bone collagen. Dates were modeled using a Bayesian approach. The sedimentological, paleoenvironmental, and chronological data are mutually consistent and show that the Paleolithic human occupations at Buran-Kaya III range from the end of MIS 3 to early MIS 1. These results provide a new chronological and paleoenvironmental framework for the human settlements in eastern Europe during the late Middle and the Upper Paleolithic.

Type
Radiocarbon Dating and the Paleolithic
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 1454 - 1469
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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