Dating of the hominid (Homo Neanderthalensis) remains accumulation from El Sidrón cave (piloña, Asturias, North Spain): an example of a multi-methodological approach to the dating of upper pleistocene sites

The age of Neanderthal remains and associated sediments from El Sidrón cave has been obtained through different dating methods (14CAMS, U/TH, OSL, ESR and AAR) and samples (charcoal debris, bone, tooth dentine, stalagmitic flowstone, carbonate-rich sediments, sedimentary quartz grains, tooth enamel and land snail shells). Detrital Th contamination rendered Th/U dating analyses of flowstone unreliable. Recent 14C contamination produced spurious age-values from charcoal samples as well as from inadequately pretreated tooth samples. Most consistent 14C dates are grouped into two series: one between 35 and 40 ka and the other between 48 and 49 ka. Most ESR and AAR samples yielded concordant ages, ranging between 39 and 45 ka; OSL dating results permitted adequate bracketing of the sedimentary layer that contained the human remains. Our results emphasize the value of multi-dating approaches for the establishment of reliable chronologies of human remains. © University of Oxford, 2009.This work was supported by Principado de Asturias-Universidad de Oviedo Grants CN-00-184- D3; CN-01-132,133,134-B1; CN-04-152, Plan I + D + I Fycit-Principado de Asturias Grant FC- 02-Pc-SPV01-27 and Principado de Asturias ‘Severo Ochoa Program’ PCTI 2006/2009. Partial aspects of the research are included in Project BOS2003-01531, Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia.Peer Reviewe