New dates for the Fontéchevade (Charente, France) Homo remains.
Homo I from the site of Fontéchevade, France, has long been an anomaly in the European fossil record. The specimen is a fragment of human frontal bone that lacks a supraorbital torus and appears to belong to an anatomically modern Homo sapiens. However, the level from which it was recovered in 1947 was dated on the basis of associated faunal and lithic material to the last interglacial or earlier. As a result, Homo I has been interpreted, among other things, as a representative of a pre-sapiens lineage in Europe. This paper reports on recent ESR and radiocarbon dates that indicate that the specimen almost certainly dates to oxygen isotope stage 3, which brings it in line with other evidence for the entry of modern Homo sapiens into Europe.
Chase
Philip G
PG
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA. pchase@sas.upenn.edu
Debénath
André
A
Dibble
Harold L
HL
McPherron
Shannon P
SP
Schwarcz
Henry P
HP
Stafford
Thomas W
TW
Tournepiche
Jean-François
JF
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D002910:Chronology as Topic; D004578:Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopy; D005580:Fossils; D005602:France; D005624:Frontal Bone / Q000737:chemistry; D015186:Hominidae / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D013997:Time Factors