Open-air surface accumulations and scatters of material cultural remains often are perceived as less-reliable archaeological archives, where it is difficult to distinguish anthropogenic versus geogenic formation processes or to assess their specific effects on the integrity of archaeological records. Here we analyze the depositional histories of three Middle Paleolithic open-air sites in the Negev desert of Israel, combining archaeological and geomorphological methods to create a conceptual model of multi-scale effects on the archaeological remains. Relying on the long research history in archaeology and geomorphology in the Negev, we show that integration of archaeological and geomorphological methodologies provides nuanced insights to our understanding of the archaeological record. The links established between regional and local geomorphic processes and lithic taphonomy by applying such a multi-scale analysis further allow back-tracking environmental processes from flint taphonomic attributes. Placing each site within the range of regional and local processes of exposure and burial by using informed and critically evaluated data helps to create a robust regional archaeological data base. We suggest that our approach is useful in other arid zone contexts and may have implications for understanding Pleistocene population movements across such regions.

The eruption of Toba ca. 75 ka was the largest volcanic eruptive event during the Quaternary, and evidence for this eruption is widespread in terrestrial sediment sequences in South Asia as primary and reworked distal ash deposits. Youngest Toba Tuff horizons (YTT) have been widely employed as isochrons to understand and link regional sediment sequences and the evidence for environmental and cultural change in the archaeological records preserved within them. We identify the YTT deposits at Retlapalle, Andhra Pradesh, India, and present the optical ages of the K-feldspar grains recovered from sediments immediately underlying and overlying the tephra horizon. We combine these results with particle size and magnetic susceptibility analyses to establish the depositional conditions of YTT, which indicate that accumulation and reworking ceased by ca. 64 ka. We explore the role of YTT deposits as an isochron for examining the effect of the 75 ka Toba super-eruption, highlighting the need for an independent chronological assessment of YTT before using it as a Late Pleistocene chronological marker in reconstructing South Asian paleo-landscapes and hominin adaptations. Further, our findings support the regional continuity of human occupations within South Asia, spanning the eruption of Toba and the enduring utility of Middle Paleolithic tools.

Human remains from the (late) Middle Paleolithic remain rare. Improving our understanding of their spatio-temporal distribution is essential for obtaining insights into human evolution and the dynamics between Neanderthals and early Anatomically Modern Humans (AMHs). We present the single-amino-acid radiocarbon dating and ancient DNA results from the only Neanderthal skeletal remains known in Slovakia (Šal’a I and Šal’a II). As they were found without archaeological context and in secondary deposition, recontextualization is important. By employing the hydroxyproline radiocarbon dating method, we were able to successfully counteract contamination issues and circumvent problems caused by highly degraded collagen. By contrast, DNA analysis did not detect any endogenous DNA at the limits of our resolution. We conclude that the radiocarbon ages of >44,800 BP (OxA-X-2731-16) and >45,100 (OxA-X-2731-15) firmly place the two individuals in the Middle Paleolithic, and before the arrival of AMHs to the region. Furthermore, indirect evidence based on morphology and possibly related faunal remains suggest ages younger than 100 ka. This time frame coincides with a period in which Neanderthal populations were highly dispersed in Europe, yet in decline.

Samples of bone and teeth from the Middle Paleolithic open-air site of Rozhok I, located on the Gulf of Taganrog, were dated by radiocarbon (14C). We obtained 26 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates on a large sample of nonhuman bone and teeth recovered by N. D. Praslov during 1961–1962 from 5 of the 6 occupation horizons at Rozhok I. Two rigorous pretreatment methods were applied to the samples: ultra-filtration and XAD resin. The 14C ages from the uppermost two layers (Horizons 1 and 2) are infinite with the exception of one age near the limit of the 14C method. By contrast, the dates from Horizon 3 and the two lowermost layers (Horizons 5 and 6) are all finite ages and some are less than 45,000 BP (uncalibrated). While there is evidence of some post-depositional disturbance, there is no evidence of a stratigraphic reversal of the cultural layers. The simplest explanation for the pattern is that bones and teeth in the lower layers have been contaminated by groundwater containing young carbon. We conclude that Rozhok I probably antedates 50,000 cal BP and is beyond the range of 14C dating.

Tianhuadong is a cave site located in the northwest of Yunnan Province, China. Since 2010, several surveys and one test excavation have yielded more than 1000 stone artifacts. The lithic assemblage shows some features of Levallois and Quina technologies, similar to those found in Middle Paleolithic sites in the Western Hemisphere. In this study, we summarize the lithic industry and propose a reliable chronology for the site using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of individual quartz grains extracted from sediments. We applied the standardized growth curve method to deal with the problem associated with the saturation in natural OSL signals in quartz. Our dating results yielded ages of 90–40 ka, suggesting that the associated lithic assemblage could be assigned to Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages 5 and 4 and could potentially represent Middle Paleolithic technologies. Because the number of Middle Paleolithic sites in southwest China is small, this site provides one of the few traces of human occupation in southwest China during the early upper Pleistocene. Thus, it is important for understanding hominin evolution and dispersal in this region.

The timing of the late Middle Paleolithic and late disappearance of Neanderthals in the Iberian Peninsula are hotly debated subjects in Paleolithic archeology. Several studies suggested a late survival in South and Central Iberia until about 32 ka, but were probably subject to significant age underestimation due to contamination of dating samples, undiagnostic lithic assemblages, and/or lack of stratigraphic integrity. We conducted a radiocarbon and luminescence-dating study backed by detailed sedimentological and micromorphological investigations at the newly discovered rock shelter sequence of Abrigo del Molino (Central Spain). Accumulation of the sediment sequence was rapid. It started with deposition of paleoflood slack-water deposits at around 48 ka and continued until about 41 ka with deposition of colluvial and detrital sediments. These contain two Mousterian levels, which place the latest Neanderthal occupation at around 45 to 41 ka, i.e., between Heinrich Stadials 5 and 4, and probably during a time of climate amelioration. Abrigo del Molino thus provides a detailed and chronologically well-constrained record of Late Neanderthal presence and morphodynamic change in Central Iberia during times of millennial-scale climate changes. The site gives further evidence for an early disappearance of Neanderthals in Central Iberia.

Here we present a new site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain): Galería de las Estatuas (GE), which provides new information about Mousterian occupations in the Iberian Plateau. The GE was an ancient entrance to the cave system, which is currently closed and sealed by a stalagmitic crust, below which a detritic sedimentary sequence of more than 2 m is found. This has been divided into five litostratigraphic units with a rich assemblage of faunal and lithic remains of clear Mousterian affinity. Radiocarbon dates provide minimum ages and suggest occupations older than 45 14C ka BP. The palynological analysis detected a landscape change to increased tree coverage, which suggests that the sequence recorded a warming episode. The macromammal assemblage is composed of both ungulates (mainly red deer and equids) and carnivores. Taphonomic analysis reveals both anthropic, and to a lesser extent, carnivore activities. The GE was occupied by Neanderthals and also sporadically by carnivores. This new site broadens the information available regarding different human occupations at the Sierra de Atapuerca, which emphasizes the importance of this site-complex for understanding human evolution in Western Europe.

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.

Previous geochronological and archaeological studies on the rock shelter Jarama VI suggested a late survival of Neanderthals in central Iberia and the presence of lithic assemblages of Early Upper Paleolithic affinity. New data on granulometry, mineralogical composition, geochemical fingerprints and micromorphology of the sequence corroborate the previous notion that the archaeological units JVI.2.1 to JVI.2.3 are slackwater deposits of superfloods, which did not experience significant post-depositional changes, whereas the artifact-rich units JVI.3 and JVI.1 mainly received sediment inputs by sheetwash and cave spall. New AMS radiocarbon measurements on three samples of cut-marked bone using the ultrafiltration technique yielded ages close to, or beyond, the limit of radiocarbon dating at ca. 50 14C ka BP, and hence suggest much higher antiquity than assumed previously. Furthermore, elevated temperature post-IR IRSL luminescence measurements on K feldspars yielded burial ages for subunits JVI.2.2 and JVI.2.3 between 50 and 60 ka. Finally, our reappraisal of the stone industry strongly suggests that the whole sequence is of Mousterian affinity. In conclusion, Jarama VI most probably does not document a late survival of Neanderthals nor an Early Upper Paleolithic occupation in central Iberia, but rather indicates an occupation breakdown after the Middle Paleolithic.