Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-fscjk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:59:09.211Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Franchthi Cave revisited: the age of the Aurignacian in south-eastern Europe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2011

K. Douka ,
C. Perlès ,
H. Valladas ,
M. Vanhaeren  and
R.E.M. Hedges
K. Douka*
Affiliation:
1Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
C. Perlès
Affiliation:
2Université Paris Ouest, Maison de l'Archéologie et de l'Ethnologie, Préhistoire et Technologie, 21 Allée de l'Université, 92023, Nanterre Cedex, France
H. Valladas
Affiliation:
3Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE/IPSL), CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Bâtiment 12, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198, Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
M. Vanhaeren
Affiliation:
4CNRS UMR 5199 PACEA, Préhistoire, Paléoenvironment, Patrimoine, Université Bordeaux 1, CNRS, Bât. B18, Avenue des Facultés, 33405, Talence, France
R.E.M. Hedges
Affiliation:
1Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Aurignacian, traditionally regarded as marking the beginnings of Sapiens in Europe, is notoriously hard to date, being almost out of reach of radiocarbon. Here the authors return to the stratified sequence in the Franchthi Cave, chronicle its lithic and shell ornament industries and, by dating humanly-modified material, show that Franchthi was occupied either side of the Campagnian Ignimbrite super-eruption around 40000 years ago. Along with other results, this means that groups of Early Upper Palaeolithic people were active outside the Danube corridor and Western Europe, and probably in contact with each other over long distances.

Keywords

GreeceAurignacianUpper Palaeolithicradiocarbonshell ornamentslithics
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 330 , December 2011 , pp. 1131 - 1150
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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

Accorsi, C.A., Aiello, E., Bartolini, C., Castelletti, L., Rodolfi, G. & Ronchitelli, A.. 1979. Il giacimento Paleolitico di Serino (Avellino): stratigrafia, ambienti e paletnologia. Atti della Società Toscana di Scienze Naturali. Memori, Serie A 86: 435–87.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O., Belfer-Cohen, A. & Adler, D.S.. 2006. The implication of the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic chronological boundary in the Caucasus to European prehistory. Anthropologie 44(1): 49–60.Google Scholar
Bazile, F. & Sicard, S.. 1999. Le premier Aurignacien du Languedoc oriental dans son contexte Méditerranéen, in Les faciès leptolithiques du Nord-Ouest méditerranéen: milieux naturels et culturels (Actes du Colloque international, 24éme session du Congrès préhistorique de France, Carcassonne, France, 26-30 septembre 1994): 117–25. Paris: Société préhistorique française.Google Scholar
Bon, F. 2002. L'Aurignacien entre mer et océan: réflexion sur l'unité des phases anciennes de l'Aurignacien dans le Sud de la France (Mémoires de la Société préhistorique française 29). Paris: Société préhistorique française.Google Scholar
Bon, F. 2006. A brief overview of Aurignacian cultures in the context of the industries of the transition from the Middle to the Upper Paleolithic, in Bar-Yosef, O. & Zilhão, J. (ed.) Towards a definition of the Aurignacian: proceedings of the symposium held in Lisbon, Portugal, June 25-30, 2002 (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 45): 133–44. Lisbon: Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia.Google Scholar
Bon, F. 2009. Préhistoire: la fabrique de l'homme. Paris: Seuil.Google Scholar
Bordes, J-G. 2006. News from the West: a re-evaluation of the classical Aurignacian sequence of the Perigord, in Bar-Yosef, O. & Zilhão, J. (ed.) Towards a definition of the Aurignacian: proceedings of the symposium held in Lisbon, Portugal, June 25-30, 2002 (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 45): 147–171. Lisbon: Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia.Google Scholar
Bordes, J-G. & Lenoble, A.. 2002. La lamelle Caminade: un nouvel outil aurignacien? Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française 99(4): 735–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, F., Higham, T.F.G., Ditchfield, P. & Bronk Ramsey, C.. 2010. Current pre-treatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52: 103–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2008. Radiocarbon dating: revolutions in understanding. Archaeometry 50(2): 249–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, F., Higham, T.F.G., Ditchfield, P. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1): 337–60.Google Scholar
Chiotti, L. 1999. Les industries lithiques des niveaux aurignaciens de l'Abri Pataud, Les Eyzies-de-Tayac (Dordogne, France). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle.Google Scholar
Conard, N. & 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.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Vivo, B., Rolandi, G., Gans, P.B., Calvert, A., Bohrson, W.A., Spera, F.J. & Belkin, H.E.. 2001. New constraints on the pyroclastic eruptive history of the Campanian volcanic Plain (Italy). Mineralogy and Petrology 73: 47–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douka, K., Hedges, R.E.M. & Higham, T.F.G.. 2010a. Improved AMS 14C dating of shell carbonates using high-precision X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and a novel density separation protocol (CarDS). Radiocarbon 52: 735–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Douka, K., Higham, T.F.G. & Sinitsyn, A.. 2010b. The influence of preteatment chemistry on the radiocarbon dating of Campanian Ignimbrite-age charcoal from Kostenki 14 (Russia). Quaternary Research 73: 583–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farrand, W.R. 2000. Depositional history of Franchthi Cave: stratigraphology, sedimentologyy and chronology (Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 12). Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Féblot-Augustins, J. 1997. La circulation des matières premières au Paléolithique: synthèse des données perspectives comportementales (Études et recherches archéologiques de l'Université de Liège 75). Liége: Université de Liège.Google Scholar
Féblot-Augustins, J. 2009. Revisiting European Upper Paleolithic raw material transfers: the demise of the cultural ecological paradigm, in Blades, B.S. & Adams, B. (ed.) Lithic materials and Paleolithic societies: 25–46. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fedele, G., Giaccio, B. & Hadjas, I.. 2008. Timescales and cultural processes at 40,000 BP in the light of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, western Eurasia. Journal of Human Evolution 55: 834–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gambassini, P. (ed.) 1997. Il Paleolitico di Castelcivita: culture e ambiente (Materiae 5). Napoliloc: Electa Napoli.Google Scholar
Hansen, J.M. 1991. The Palaeoethnobotany of Franchthi Cave (Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 7). Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Higham, T.F.G. 2011. European Middle and Upper Palaeolithic radiocarbon dates are often older than they look: problems with previous dates and some remedies. Antiquity 85: 235–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higham, T.F.G., Jacobi, R., Basell, L., Bronk, C.Ramsey, L. Chiotti & Nespoulet, R.. In press. Precision dating of the Palaeolithic: a new radiocarbon chronology for the Abri Pataud (France), a key Aurignacian sequence. Journal of Human Evolution.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. & Farrand, W.R.. 1987. Franchthi Cave and Paralia: maps, plans and sections (Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 1) Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Jöris, O. & Street, M.. 2008. At the end of the 14C time scale: the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic record of Western Eurasia. Journal of Human Evolution 55: 782–802.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knecht, H. 1991. Technological innovation and design during the Early Upper Palaeolithic: a study of organic projectile technologies. Unpublished PhD dissertation, New York University.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koumouzelis, M., Ginter, B., Kozlowski, K., Pawlikowski, M., Bar-Yosef, O., Albert, R.M., Litynska-Zajac, M., Stworzewicz, E., Wojtal, P., Lipecki, G., Tomek, T., Bochenksi, Z.M. & Pazdur, A.. 2001. The Early Upper Palaeolithic in Greece: the excavation in Klissoura Cave. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 28: 515–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhn, S.L., Pigati, J., Karkanas, P., Koumouzelis, M., Kozlowski, J., Ntinou, M. & Stiner, M.. 2010. Radiocarbon dating results for the Early Upper Paleolithic of Klissoura Cave 1. Eurasian Prehistory 7(2): 37–46.Google Scholar
Laplace, G. 1966. Recherches sur l'origine et l'évolution des complexes leptolithiques. Paris: de Boccard.Google Scholar
Le Brun-Ricalens, F. (ed.) 2005. Productions lamellaires attribuées à l'Aurignacien. Chaînes opératoires et perpectives technoculturelles. Luxembourg: Musée national d'histoire et d'art.Google Scholar
Liolios, D. 2006. Reflections on the role of bone tools in the definition of the Early Aurignacian, in Bar-Yosef, O. & Zilhão, J. (ed.) Towards a definition of the Aurignacian Aurignacian: proceedings of the symposium held in Lisbon, Portugal, June 25-30, 2002 (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 45): 37–51. Lisbon: Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia.Google Scholar
Maíllo-Fernández, J.M. & QUIRós, F.B. De. 2010. L'Aurignacien archä?que de la grotte El Castillo (Espagne): caractérisation technologique et typologique. L'Anthropologie 114: 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P. 2006. Archeology and the dispersal of modern humans in Europe: deconstructing the Aurignacian. Evolutionary Anthropology 15: 167–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nigst, PH. R. 2006. The first modern humans in the Middle Danube area?New evidence from Willendorf II (East Austria), in Conard, N. (ed.) When Neanderthals and modern humans met: 269–304. Tübingen: Kerns.Google Scholar
Palma Di Cesnola, A. 1963. Prima campagna di scavi nella Grotta del Cavallo presso Santa Caterina (Lecce). Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche 18: 41–74.Google Scholar
Palma Di Cesnola, A. 1989. L'Uluzzien: faciès Italien du leptolithique archä?que. L'Anthropologie 93: 783–812.Google Scholar
Papagianni, D. 2009. Mediterranean southeastern Europe in the Late Middle and Early Upper Palaeolithic: modern human route to Europe or Neanderthal refugium? in Camps, M. & Szmidt, C. (ed.) The Mediterranean from 50 000 to 25 000 BP: turning points and new directions: 115–36. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Peresani, M. 2008. A new cultural frontier for the last Neanderthals: the Uluzzian in northern Italy. Current Anthropology 49: 725–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlès, C. 1987. Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce). Tome I: Présentation générale et industries paléolithiques (Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 3). Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Perlès, C. & Vanhaeren, M.. 2010. Black Cyclope neritea marine shell ornaments in the Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic of Franchthi Cave, Greece: arguments for intentional heat treatment. Journal of Field Archaeology 35(3): 298–309.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poppe, G.T. & Goto, Y.. 1993. European seashells, Volume 2. Wiesbaden: Christa Hemmen.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J. & Mccormac, F.M.. 2002. Marine radiocarbon reservoir corrections for the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas. Radiocarbon 44(1): 159–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Mccormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Reimer, R.W, Richards, D.A, Southon, J.R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., Van Der Plicht, J. & Weyhenmeyer, C.E.. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0-50 000 years cal. BP. Radiocarbon 51: 1111–1150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackleton, J.C. (with M. R. Deith & N. J. Shackleton). 1988. Marine molluscan remains from Franchthi Cave. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Sinitsyn, A.A. 2003. A Palaeolithic Pompeii at Kostenki, Russia. Antiquity 77: 9–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiner, M.C. & Munro, N.D.. 2011. On the evolution of diet and landscape during the Upper Palaeolithic through Mesolithic at Franchthi Cave (Peloponnese, Greece). Journal of Human Evolution 60: 618–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiner, M.C., Kozlowski, J.K., Kuhn, S.L., Karkanas, P. & Koumouzelis, M.. 2010. Klissoura Cave 1 and the Upper Paleolithic of southern Greece in cultural and ecological context. Eurasian Prehistory 7(2): 309–21.Google Scholar
Svensson, A., Andersen, K.K., Bigler, M., Clausen, H.B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Davies, S.M., Johnsen, S.J., Muscheler, R., Rasmussen, S.O., Rothlisberger, R., Steffensen, J.P. & Vinther, B.M.. 2006. The Greenland ice core chronology 2005, 15-42ka. Part 2: Comparison to other records. Quaternary Science Reviews 25(23-24): 3258–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szmidt, C.C., Normand, C., Burr, G., Hodgins, G. & Lamotta, S.. 2010. AMS 14C dating the Protoaurignacian/Early Aurignacian of Isturitz, France: implications for Neanderthal-modern human interaction and the timing of technical and cultural innovations in Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science 37: 758–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teyssandier, N. 2007. En route vers l'Ouest: les débuts de l'Aurignacien en Europe (British Archaeological Reports international series 1638). Oxford: John & Erica Hedges.Google Scholar
Teyssandier, N. 2008. Revolution or evolution? The emergence of the Upper Palaeolithic in Europe. World Archaeology 40: 493–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teyssandier, N., Bon, F. & Bordes, J-G.. 2010. Within projectile range: some thoughts on the appearance of the Aurignacian in Europe. Journal of Anthropological research 66: 209–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tsanova, T. 2006. Les débuts du Paléolithique supérieur dans l'Est des Balkans: réflexions à partir de l'étude taphonomique et techno-économique des ensembles lithiques des sites de Bacho-Kiro (couche 11), Temnata (couches VI et 4) et Kozarnika (couche VII). Unpublished PhD dissertation, Université Bordeaux I. Vanhaeren, M. & F. D'ERRICO. 2001.La parure de l'enfant de La Madeleine et du site éponyme (fouilles Peyrony): un nouveau regard sur l'enfance au Paléolithique supérieur. Paléo 13: 201–240.Google Scholar
Tsanova, T. 2006. Aurignacian ethno-linguistic geography of Europe revealed by personal ornaments. Journal of Archaeological Science 33(8): 1105–1128.Google Scholar
Tsanova, T. 2007. La parure aurignacienne reflet d'unités ethno-culturelles, in Floss, H. & Rouquerol, N. (ed.) Les chemins de l'art aurignacien en Europe: colloque international, Aurignac, 16-18 septembre 2005: 233–48. Aurignac: Editions Musée-forum Aurignac.Google Scholar
Vitaliano, C.J., Taylor, S.R., Farrand, W.R. & Jacobsen, T.W. 1981. Tephra layer in Franchthi Cave, Peleponnesus, Greece, in Self, S. & Sparks, R.S.J. (ed.) Tephra studies: 373–79. Dordrecht: Riedel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zilhão, J. 2006. Neandertals and modern mixed, and it matters. Evolutionary Anthropology 15: 183–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zilhão, J. 2011. Aliens from outer time? Why the human revolution is wrong and where do we go from here, in Condemi, S. & G-C. Weniger (ed.) Continuity and discontinuity in the peopling of Europe: one hundred fifty years of Neanderthal study (Vertebrate Paleobiology and Paleoanthropology series): 331–66. New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zilhão, J. & 'Errico, F.D. 2003a. The chronology of the Aurignacian and transitional technocomplexes: where do we stand? in Zilhão, J. & D'Errico, F. (ed.) The chronology of the Aurignacian and transitional technocomplexes: dating, stratigraphies and cultural implications (Trabalhos de Arqueologia 33): 313–49. Lisbon: Instituto Portugues de Arqueologia.Google Scholar
Zilhão, J. 2003b. An Aurignacian Garden of Eden in Germany? An alternative interpretation of the Geissenklösterle and a critique of the Kulturpumpe model. Paléo 15: 69–86.Google Scholar