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TT-OSL dating of Longyadong Middle Paleolithic site and paleoenvironmental implications for hominin occupation in Luonan Basin (central China)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Xuefeng Sun ,
Huayu Lu ,
Shejiang Wang ,
Shuangwen Yi ,
Chen Shen  and
Wenchao Zhang
Xuefeng Sun
Affiliation:
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 21008, China
Huayu Lu*
Affiliation:
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China State Key Laboratory of Lake Science and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 21008, China
Shejiang Wang
Affiliation:
Joint Laboratory of Human Evolution and Archaeometry, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China
Shuangwen Yi
Affiliation:
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Chen Shen
Affiliation:
Joint Laboratory of Human Evolution and Archaeometry, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China Department of World Cultures, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, Canada, M5S2C6
Wenchao Zhang
Affiliation:
School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
*
*Corresponding author at: School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Institute for Climate and Global Change Research, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China. E-mail address:huayulu@nju.edu.cn (H. Lu).
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Abstract

Dating middle Pleistocene hominin occupations alongside the reconstruction of paleoenvironments in China between 700 and 100 ka has always been a challenging task. In this paper, we report thermally transferred optically stimulated luminescence (TT-OSL) dating results for a Middle Paleolithic site in the Luonan Basin, central China, which we have named Longyadong Cave. The results suggest that the age of cave infilling and the deposition of sediments outside the cave range between 389 ± 18 and 274 ± 14 ka. These deposits are stratigraphically and geochronologically correlated with the L4 loess and S3 paleosol units of the typical loess–paleosol sequence of the Chinese Loess Plateau, and with Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 10 to 9, respectively. On the basis of these new ages and the available paleoenvironmental data, it is suggested that the Longyadong hominins might have occupied the site both in glacial and interglacial periods, demonstrating that they coped well with environmental change in this mountainous region in warm/wet and cold/dry climates. The study further implies that the hominins abandoned the Longyadong Cave between 274 ± 14 and 205 ± 19 ka, when it was sealed by alluvial and slope deposits.

Keywords

SAR TT-OSL datingMiddle PaleolithicLongyadong CaveLuonan BasinPaleoenvironment
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , March 2013 , pp. 168 - 174
Copyright
University of Washington

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