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Radiocarbon dates from the Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire support a Neandertal origin for the Châtelperronian

Hublin, Jean-Jacques; Talamo, Sahra; Julien, Michèle; David, Francine; Connet, Nelly; Bodu, Pierre; Vandermeersch, Bernard; Richards, Michael P

Authors

Jean-Jacques Hublin

Sahra Talamo

Michèle Julien

Francine David

Nelly Connet

Pierre Bodu

Bernard Vandermeersch

Michael P Richards



Abstract

The transition from the Middle Paleolithic (MP) to Upper Paleolithic (UP) is marked by the replacement of late Neandertals by modern humans in Europe between 50,000 and 40,000 y ago. Châtelperronian (CP) artifact assemblages found in central France and northern Spain date to this time period. So far, it is the only such assemblage type that has yielded Neandertal remains directly associated with UP style artifacts. CP assemblages also include body ornaments, otherwise virtually unknown in the Neandertal world. However, it has been argued that instead of the CP being manufactured by Neandertals, site formation processes and layer admixture resulted in the chance association of Neanderthal remains, CP assemblages, and body ornaments. Here, we report a series of accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates on ultrafiltered bone collagen extracted from 40 well-preserved bone fragments from the late Mousterian, CP, and Protoaurignacian layers at the Grotte du Renne site (at Arcy-sur-Cure, France). Our radiocarbon results are inconsistent with the admixture hypothesis. Further, we report a direct date on the Neandertal CP skeleton from Saint-Césaire (France). This date corroborates the assignment of CP assemblages to the latest Neandertals of western Europe. Importantly, our results establish that the production of body ornaments in the CP postdates the arrival of modern humans in neighboring regions of Europe. This new behavior could therefore have been the result of cultural diffusion from modern to Neandertal groups.

Citation

Hublin, J., Talamo, S., Julien, M., David, F., Connet, N., Bodu, P., …Richards, M. P. (2012). Radiocarbon dates from the Grotte du Renne and Saint-Césaire support a Neandertal origin for the Châtelperronian. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(46), 18743-18748. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1212924109

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Nov 1, 2012
Deposit Date Sep 5, 2013
Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Print ISSN 0027-8424
Electronic ISSN 1091-6490
Publisher National Academy of Sciences
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 109
Issue 46
Pages 18743-18748
DOI https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1212924109
Keywords Stimulus diffusion, Cultural modernity.
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1451128