Nature 351, 737 - 739 (27 June 1991); doi:10.1038/351737a0

Thermoluminescence dating of the late Neanderthal remains from Saint-Césaire

N. Mercier, H. Valladas, J-L. Joron^*, J-L. Reyss, F. Lévêque^† & B. Vandermeersch^‡

Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, Laboratoire mixte CNRS-CEA, Avenue de la Terrasse, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
^*Groupe des Sciences de la Terre, Laboratoire Pierre Süe, CEN, Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
^†Direction des Antiquités de la Région Poitou-Charentes, Hôtel de Rochefort, 102 Grand'Rue, BP 553, 86020 Poitiers, France
^‡Laboratoire d'Anthropologie, Université de Bordeaux 1, UA 376 du CNRS, 33405 Talence, France

ANATOMICALLY modern humans have long been thought to have been responsible for the Aurignacian and Châtelperronian industries of the early Upper Palaeolithic of Western Europe, whereas the Middle Palaeolithic Mousterian industry has been attributed to Neanderthals. The presence of both Middle and Upper Palaeolithic strata at Saint-Césaire in France offers an excellent opportunity for studying the cultural transition between the two. Saint-Césaire is the only Châtelperronian site that has yielded really diagnostic hominid fossils, and the discovery there of Neanderthal remains¹ alongside Châtelperronian tools cast doubt on the exclusive association between industries and taxon. We report thermoluminescence dates for 20 burnt flints from the site. Those found near the Neanderthal remains were dated at 36,300 2,700 years BP (before present), making this specimen the youngest Neanderthal dated so far. This date places the stratum close in age to several French^2,3 but much younger than some Spanish^4,5 Aurignacian sites believed to have been occupied by modern humans. The possibility of contact between the West European Neanderthals and the intrusive modern humans who replaced them cannot therefore be excluded.

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