title: 26Al/10Be burial dating of Xujiayao-Houjiayao site in Nihewan Basin, northern China.
abstract: The Xujiayao-Houjiayao site in Nihewan Basin is among the most important Paleolithic sites in China for having provided a rich collection of hominin and mammalian fossils and lithic artifacts. Based on biostratigraphical correlation and exploratory results from a variety of dating methods, the site has been widely accepted as early Upper Pleistocene in time. However, more recent paleomagnetic analyses assigned a much older age of ∼500 ka (thousand years). This paper reports the application of 26Al/10Be burial dating as an independent check. Two quartz samples from a lower cultural horizon give a weighted mean age of 0.24 ± 0.05 Ma (million years, 1σ). The site is thus younger than 340 ka at 95% confidence, which is at variance with the previous paleomagnetic results. On the other hand, our result suggests an age of older than 140 ka for the site's lower cultural deposits, which is consistent with recent post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIR-IRSL) dating at 160-220 ka.
authors.affiliation: College of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: College of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Guanjun
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: College of Geographical Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China; Department of Natural Science, Zhangjiakou University, Zhangjiakou, China.
authors.forename: Haixu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, Shijiazhuang, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Darryl E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Granger
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum / Q000032:analysis; D000818:Animals; D001608:Beryllium / Q000032:analysis; D002048:Burial; D002681:China; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D015186:Hominidae; D006801:Humans; D010163:Paleontology / Q000379:methods*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D055110:Radiometric Dating / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D011868:Radioisotopes; D000535:Aluminum; D001608:Beryllium