Chronologic constraints on hominin dispersal outside Africa since 2.48 Ma from the Zarqa Valley, Jordan

Author(s)

Scardia, Giancarlo ^[1] ; Parenti, Fabio ^{[2, 3]} ; Miggins, Daniel P. ^[4] ; Gerdes, Axel ^[5] ; Araujo, Astolfo G. M. ^[6] ; Neves, Walter A. ^[7]

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Estadual Paulista, UNESP, Inst Geociencias & Ciencias Exatas, BR-13506900 Rio Claro, SP - Brazil

^[2] Univ Fed Parana UFPR, Dept Antropol, BR-80060150 Curitiba, Parana - Brazil

^[3] Ist Italiano Paleontol Umana, I-00197 Rome - Italy

^[4] Oregon State Univ, Argon Geochronol Lab, Corvallis, OR 97331 - USA

^[5] Goethe Univ, Frankfurt Isotope & Element Res Ctr FIERCE, D-60438 Frankfurt - Germany

^[6] Univ Sao Paulo, Museu Arqueol & Etnol, BR-05508070 Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[7] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Estudos Avancados, BR-05508050 Sao Paulo - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS; v. 219, p. 1-19, SEP 1 2019.
• Web of Science Citations: 1

Abstract

Recent discoveries constrain the presence of hominins in North Africa since ca. 2.4 Ma and in China since ca. 2.1 Ma, providing a new temporal framework for the earliest migration out of Africa. No Paleolithic sites of such age exist in the Levant, the natural corridor between Africa and Asia. The Dawqara Formation in the Zarqa Valley, Jordan, has been known since the early 1980s because of the presence of artifacts at different stratigraphic levels within its fluvial sediments, consisting of choppers, cores, and flakes. Although most of the artifacts display signs of transport, they bear unambiguous evidence of manufacture, and document hominin presence in the Zarqa Valley during the deposition of Dawqara Formation. Based on integrated chronology provided by paleomagnetic, Ar-40/Ar-39, and U-Pb dating methods, our study shows that the Dawqara Formation was deposited between 2.52 +/- 0.01 Ma and the Matuyama-Olduvai geomagnetic reversal (1.95 Ma). By linear interpolation, the artifact-bearing strati graphic levels within the Dawqara Formation have ages of ca. 2.48 Ma, 2.24 Ma, 2.16 Ma, 2.06 Ma, and 1.95 Ma, respectively, possibly documenting continuous hominin presence in the Zarqa Valley. These new ages for the Dawqara assemblage constrain the earliest hominin dispersal out of Africa to the beginning of the Pleistocene, and pre-date by ca. 300 kyr the hominin occupation of Chinese Loess Plateau. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 13/22631-2 - Hominin biocultural evolution at Zarqa river valley, Jordan: a paleoanthropological approach
• Grantee: Walter Alves Neves
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 16/04809-7 - Magnetostratigraphy of volcanic and sedimentary succession of the Zarqa river, Jordan
• Grantee: Giovana Oliveira Pimentel
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation