Age of the Mousterian industry at Hayonim Cave, Northern Israel, using electron spin resonance and 230Th/ 234U methods

Abstract

Electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis was done on teeth excavated at Hayonim between 1993 and 1997. 230Th/ 234U analysis was done on two of these teeth and one calcite speleothem excavated in 1992. Small amounts of uranium uptake into teeth provided nearly ideal conditions for ESR age determinations. The combined ESR/ 230Th/ 234U analyses on teeth confirmed that uranium uptake occurred according to values constrained by early (EU) and linear (LU) uptake ESR model age estimates, suggesting that EU and LU ESR model ages on other teeth were reliable burial ages. A speleothem stratigraphically above all the teeth yielded a 230Th/ 234U age of 155.3± 2.9 1.4ka. The EU and LU ESR mean model ages for teeth in layers just below the speleothem were 177±12 and 182±15 ka respectively. Teeth in the lowest part of the section in the Central Area yielded younger ages, apparently due to the increase in radioactive potassium content associated with the formation of siliceous aggregate mineral assemblages nearby. These results were rejected. The ages of the reliably dated portion of the section were contemporaneous with levels at Tabun Cave containing both Tabun C-type and D-type lithics, but they were significantly younger than the levels at Tabun which contain only the D-type lithics. The use of infrared spectroscopy to identify mineral assemblages in close proximity to teeth were important to be able to select only those teeth not affected by changes in radioactive dose rate through time.