Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-c4f8m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T04:58:46.678Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The first modern humans in Europe? A closer look at the dating evidence from the Swabian Jura (Germany)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2015

A. Verpoorte
A. Verpoorte*
Affiliation:
Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands. (Email: A.Verpoorte@arch.leidenuniv.nl)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The origins of anatomically modern humans, modern behaviour and the Aurignacian form one of the most dynamic fields of European research. Conard & Bolus (2003) opened a new debate by proposing that the Aurignacian arose from the migration of modern humans. Reviewing the data from the Swabian Jura, the author shows that radiocarbon dating cannot of itself presently support models of the primacy of art, industries or the arrival of modern humans at a particular place.

Keywords

early modern humansCentral EuropeAurignacianradiocarbon dating
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 79 , Issue 304 , June 2005 , pp. 269 - 279
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Beck, J.W., Richards, D.A., Edwards, R.L., Silverman, B.W., Smart, P.L., Donahue, D.J., Hererra-Osterheld, S., Burr, G.S., Calsoyas, L., Jull, A.J.T. & Biddulph, D.. 2001. Extremely large variations of atmospheric 14C concentration during the last glacial period. Science 292: 2453–8.Google Scholar
Conard, N.J. 2002. Der Stand der altsteinzeitlichen Forschung im Achtal der Schwäbischen Alb. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 11: 65–77.Google Scholar
Conard, N.J. 2003. Palaeolithic ivory sculptures from southwestern Germany and the origins of figurative art. Nature 426: 830–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conard, N.J. & Bolus, M.. 2003. Radiocarbon dating the appearance of modern humans and timing of cultural innovations in Europe: new results and new challenges. Journal of Human Evolution 44: 331–71.Google Scholar
Conard, N.J., Dippon, G. & Goldberg, P.. 2003a. Chronostratigraphy and archaeological context of the Aurignacian deposits at Geißenklösterle, in Zilhão, J. & D’Errico, F. (ed.). The chronology of the Aurignacian and of the transitional technocomplexes. Dating, stratigraphies, cultural implications: 165–76. Lisbon: Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 33).Google Scholar
Conard, N.J., Niven, L.B., Mueller, K. & Stuart, A.J.. 2003b. The chronostratigraphy of the Upper Paleolithic deposits at Vogelherd. Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 12: 73–86.Google Scholar
Conard, N.J., P.M., GROOTES & F.H., SMITH. 2004. Unexpectedly recent dates for human remains from Vogelherd. Nature 430: 198–201.Google Scholar
Davies, S.W.G. 2001. A very model of a modern human industry: new perspectives on the origins and spread of the Aurignacian in Europe. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 67: 195–217.Google Scholar
D’Errico, F., Henshilwood, C., Lawson, G., Verhaeren, M., Tillier, A.-M., Soressi, M., Bresson, F., Maureille, B., Nowell, A., Lakarra, J., Backwell, L. & Julien, M.. 2003. Archaeological evidence for the emergence of language, symbolism, and music – an alternative multidisciplinary perspective. Journal of World Prehistory 17 (1): 1–70.Google Scholar
Haesaerts, P., Damblon, F., Bachner, M. & Trnka, G.. 1996. Revised stratigraphy and chronology of the Willendorf II sequence, Lower Austria. Archeologia Austriaca 80: 25–42.Google Scholar
Hahn, J. 1988. Die Geissenklösterle-Höhle im Achtal bei Blaubeuren I: Fundhorizontbildung und Besiedlung im Mittelpaläolithikum und im Aurignacien. Stuttgart: Konrad Theiss Verlag.Google Scholar
Henshilwood, C.S. & Marean, C.W.. 2003. The origin of modern human behavior: critique of the models and their test implications. Current Anthropology 44: 627–51.Google Scholar
Jöris, O., Fernandez, E. ALVAREZ & Weninger, B.. 2003. Radiocarbon evidence of the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in southwestern Europe. Trabajos de Prehistoria 60 (2): 15–38.Google Scholar
Kitagawa, H. & Plicht, J. VAN DER. 1998. Atmospheric radiocarbon calibration to 45,000 yr B.P.: late glacial fluctuations and cosmogenic isotope production. Science 279: 1187–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kozlowski, J. 1999. The evolution of the Balkan Aurignacian, in Davies, S.W.G. & Charles, R. (ed.). Dorothy Garrod and the progress of the Palaeolithic: studies in the prehistoric archaeology of the Near East and Europe: 97–117. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Mcbrearty, S. & Brooks, A.S.. 2000. The revolution that wasn’t: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior. Journal of Human Evolution 39: 453–563.Google Scholar
Noble, W. & Davidson, I.. 1996. Human evolution, language and mind: a psychological and archaeological inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Otte, M. & Derevianko, A.. 2001. The Aurignacian in Altai. Antiquity 75: 44–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettitt, P.B. & Pike, A.W.G.. 2001. Blind in a cloud of data: problems with the chronology of Neanderthal extinction and anatomically modern human expansion. Antiquity 75: 415–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pettitt, P.B. & Bahn, P.. 2003. Current problems in dating Palaeolithic cave art: Candamo and Chauvet. Antiquity 77: 134–41.Google Scholar
Pettitt, P.B., Davies, W., Gamble, C.S. & Richards, M.B.. 2003. Palaeolithic radiocarbon chronology: quantifying our confidence beyond two half-lives. Journal of Archaeological Science 30: 1685–93.Google Scholar
Richter, D., Waiblinger, J., Rink, W.J. & Wagner, G.A.. 2000. Thermoluminescence, electron spin resonance and 14C-dating of the Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic site of Geissenklösterle cave in southern Germany. Journal of Archaeological Science 27: 71–89.Google Scholar
Scheer, A. 1986. Ein Nachweis absoluter Gleichzeitigkeit von Paläolithischen Stationen? Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 16: 383–91.Google Scholar
Sinitsyn, A.A. 2003. A Palaeolithic ‘Pompeii’ at Kostenki, Russia. Antiquity 77: 9–14.Google Scholar
Sinitsyn, A.A. & Praslov, N.D.. 1997. Radiocarbon chronology of the palaeolithic of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Problems and perspectives. Saint-Petersburg: Institute of the History of Material Culture.Google Scholar
Stapert, D. 2000. The Late Palaeolithic in the northern Netherlands, in Valentin, B., Bodu, P. & Christensen, M. (ed.). L’Europe Centrale et Septentrionale au Tardiglaciaire: confrontation des modéles régionaux de peuplement: 175–95. Nemours: A.P.R.A.I.F. (Mémoires du Museé de Préhistoire d’Ile-de-France n˚ 7).Google Scholar
Svoboda, J., Ložek, V. & Vlček, E.. 1996. Hunters between east and west. The paleolithic of Moravia. New York/London: Plenum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trinkaus, E., Moldovan, O., Milota, S., Bilgar, A., Sarcina, L., Athreya, S., Bailey, S.E., Rodrigo, R., Mircea, G., Higham, T., Ramsey, C. BRONK & Plicht, J. VAN DER. 2003. An early modern human from the Pestera cu Oase, Romania. PNAS 100 (20): 11231–6.Google Scholar
Turk, I. (ed.). 1997. Mousterian ‘bone flute’ and other finds from Divje Babe I cave site in Slovenia. Ljubljana: Znanstvenoraziskovalni Center SAZU.Google Scholar
Valladas, H. & Clottes, J.. 2003. Style, Chauvet and radiocarbon. Antiquity 77: 142–5.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H., Davies, W., Weninger, B. & Jöris, O.. 2003. Archaeological dates as proxies for the spatial and temporal human presence in Europe: a discourse on the method, in Andel, T.J. van & Davies, W. (ed.). Neanderthals and modern humans in the European landscape during the last glaciation: 21–9. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Van Der Plicht, J. 2000. Introduction: the 2000 radiocarbon varve/comparison issue. Radiocarbon 42 (3): 313–22.Google Scholar
Verpoorte, A. 2002. Radiocarbon dating the Upper Palaeolithic of Slovakia. Results, problems and prospects. Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 32: 311–25.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J. 2001. Anatomically archaic, behaviorally modern: the last Neanderthals and their destiny. Amsterdam: Stichting Nederlands Museum voor Anthropologie en Praehistorie (23rd Kroon-voordracht).Google Scholar
Zilhão, J. & D’Errico, F.. 1999. The chronology and taphonomy of the earliest Aurignacian and its implications for the understanding of Neanderthal extinction. Journal of World Prehistory 13: 1–68.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J. & D’Errico, F.. 2003. An Aurignacian ‘Garden of Eden’ in southern Germany? An alternative interpretation of the Geissenklösterle and a critique of the Kulturpumpe model. Palé o 15: 69–86.Google Scholar