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Age Determination of Fossil Bones from the Vindija Neanderthal Site in Croatia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Eva Maria Wild ,
Maja Paunovic ,
Gernot Rabeder ,
Ilse Steffan  and
Peter Steier
Eva Maria Wild*
Affiliation:
Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), Institut für Isotopenforschung und Kernphysik, Universität Wien, Währinger Strasse 17, A–1090 Wien, Austria
Maja Paunovic
Affiliation:
Institute of Quaternary Paleontology and Geology, Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, A. Kovacica 5/II, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Gernot Rabeder
Affiliation:
Institut für Paläontologie der Universität Wien, Althanstr. 14, A–1090 Wien, Austria
Ilse Steffan
Affiliation:
Institut für Analytische Chemie der Universität Wien, Währingerstr. 38, A–1090 Wien, Austria
Peter Steier
Affiliation:
Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), Institut für Isotopenforschung und Kernphysik, Universität Wien, Währinger Strasse 17, A–1090 Wien, Austria
*
Corresponding author. Email: Eva.Maria.Wild@univie.ac.at.
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Abstract

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Vindija cave in Croatia is famous for the Neanderthal bones found in layer G of its sediment profile. Radiocarbon dating has been performed mainly on this layer due to the great interest in its fossils. In addition to Neanderthal remains, the sediment in layer G contains bones from the cave bear. Cave bear bones are found also in other layers of the sediment profile and offer the possibility of studying the bears' evolutionary mode. Therefore, we tried to determine the time span covered by the entire profile. The U/Th age determination method was applied to cave bear bones from different layers of the profile. For the younger part of the profile, the U/Th ages were compared with the results of the 14C and the amino-acid racemization method. The agreement of the different methods indicates that closed-system behavior can be assumed for the fossil bones from Vindija cave. From this finding it may be deduced that bones from the lower sediment layers are also closed systems and that the U/Th ages of these layers are reliable. This conclusion is corroborated by the stratigraphy of the cave profile.

Type
II. Our ‘Wet’ Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 43 , Issue 2B: Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 3), Conference Editors: Israel Carmi, Elisabetta Boaretto , 2001 , pp. 1021 - 1028
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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