Direct dating of Neanderthalian remains and animal bones by the non-destructive gamma-ray spectrometry : comparison with other methods

A non-destructive gamma-ray spectrometry is used for the direct dating of fossil human bones and animal bones taken from several Neanderthalian and Mousterian sites in France, Italy and Spain.

1. For the Neanderthal child and adult remains from Fate cave (Finale Ligure, Italy), we obtained a U-Th age of 83 + 35/-24 Kiloyears (ky) and a U-Pa age of 76 +18/-13 ky. These ages are in good agreement with the ESR ages of the two lower stalagmitic layers of this cave : 78 ± 9 ky and 78 ± 13 ky.

2. Animal bones from Tournal cave, Genay Breccia site (France) and Arbreda cave (Spain) are also dated. U-Th and U-Pa ages of these sites are respectively, 33 ± 8 ky and 33 ± 4 ky for Tournal cave, 82 +20/-16 ky and 75 ± 6 ky for Genay Breccia site, 85 +38/-28 ky and 83 +11/-9 ky for Arbreda cave.