The time between Palaeolithic hearths

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Herrejon-Lagunilla, Angela; Villalain, Juan Jose; Pavon-Carrasco, Francisco Javier; Serrano Sanchez-Bravo, Mario; Sossa-Rios, Santiago; Mayor, Alejandro; Galvan, Bertila; Hernandez, Cristo M.; Mallol, Carolina; Carrancho, Angel
• 署名单位: Universidad de Burgos; Complutense University of Madrid; Complutense University of Madrid; Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC); CSIC-UCM - Instituto de Geociencias (IGEO); University of Valencia; Universitat d'Alacant; Universidad de la Laguna; Universidad de la Laguna; University of California System; University of California Davis; Universidad de Burgos
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-5465
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07467-0
• 发表日期: 2024-06-20
• 页码: 666-+
• 关键词: resolution example; hunter-gatherers; level o; middle; palimpsests; alicante

摘要

Resolving the timescale of human activity in the Palaeolithic Age is one of the most challenging problems in prehistoric archaeology. The duration and frequency of hunter-gatherer camps reflect key aspects of social life and human-environment interactions. However, the time dimension of Palaeolithic contexts is generally inaccurately reconstructed because of the limitations of dating techniques(1), the impact of disturbing agents on sedimentary deposits(2) and the palimpsest effect(3,4). Here we report high-resolution time differences between six Middle Palaeolithic hearths from El Salt Unit x (Spain) obtained through archaeomagnetic and archaeostratigraphic analyses. The set of hearths covers at least around 200-240years with 99% probability, having decade- and century-long intervals between the different hearths. Our results provide a quantitative estimate of the time framework for the human occupation events included in the studied sequence. This is a step forward in Palaeolithic archaeology, a discipline in which human behaviour is usually approached from a temporal scale typical of geological processes, whereas significant change may happen at the smaller scales of human generations. Here we reach a timescale close to a human lifespan.