Recent advances and future prospects of the U-Th and U-Pb chronometers applicable to archaeology

Journal of Archaeological Science

Volumn 56, Issue , 2015, Pages 32-40

  Hellstrom, John ^a   Pickering, Robyn ^a,b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE   (Australia)

^b UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN   (South Africa)

Author keywords

Archaeometry; Cave deposits; Human evolution; Speleothem; U Pb dating; U Th dating

Indexed keywords

ARCHAEOLOGY; CAVE DEPOSIT; HUMAN EVOLUTION; SPELEOTHEM; URANIUM SERIES DATING; URANIUM-LEAD DATING;

ANTHOZOA; MOLLUSCA;

EID: 84928554840     PISSN: 03054403     EISSN: 10959238     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2015.02.032     Document Type: Article

References (78)

1. Allard G., Roy M., Ghaleb B., Richard P.J.H., Larouche A.C., Veillette J.J., Parent M. Constraining the age of the last interglacial-glacial transition in the Hudson Bay lowlands (Canada) using U-Th dating of buried wood. Quat. Geochronol. 2012, 7:37-47.
2. Andersen M.B., Stirling C.H., Potter E.-K., Halliday A.N., Blake S.G., McCulloch M.T., Ayling B.F., O'Leary M. High-precision U-series measurements of more than 500,000 year old fossil corals. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2008, 265:229-245.
3. 230Th/U and 14C dating of mollusc shells from the coasts of the Caspian, Barents, White and Black Seas. Geochronometria J. Methods Appl. Absol. Chronol. 2002, 21:49-56.
4. Aubert M., Brumm A., Ramli M., Sutikna T., Saptomo E.W., Hakim B., Morwood M.J., van den Bergh G.D., Kinsley L., Dosseto A. Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia. Nature 2014, 514:223-227.
5. Auler A.S., Wang X., Edwards R.L., Cheng H., Cristalli P.S., Smart P.L., Richards D.A. Quaternary ecological and geomorphic changes associated with rainfall events in presently semi-arid northeastern Brazil. J. Quat. Sci. 2004, 19:693-701.
6. Bajo P., Drysdale R., Woodhead J., Hellstrom J., Zanchetta G. High-resolution U-Pb dating of an early Pleistocene stalagmite from Corchia Cave (central Italy). Quat. Geochronol. 2012, 14:5-17.
7. Balter V., Blichert-Toft J., Braga J., Telouk P., Thackeray F., Albarede F. U-Pb dating of fossil enamel from the Swartkrans Pleistocene hominid site, South Africa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2008, 267:236-246.
8. Bar-Matthews M., Marean C.W., Jacobs Z., Karkanas P., Fisher E.C., Herries A.I.R., Brown K., Williams H.M., Bernatchez J., Ayalon A., Nilssen P.J. Ahigh resolution and continuous isotopic speleothem record of paleoclimate and paleoenvironment from 90 to 53 ka from Pinnacle Point on the south coast of South Africa. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2010, 29:2131-2145.
9. Bischoff J.L., Fitzpatrick J.A. U-series dating of impure carbonates: an isochron technique using total-sample dissolution. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1991, 55:543-554.
10. Blackwell B., Schwarcz H.P., Debenath A. Absolute dating of hominids and palaeolithic artifacts of the cave of La Chaise-de-Vouthon (Charente), France. J.Archaeol. Sci. 1983, 10:493-513.
11. Bourdon B., Henderson G.M., Lundstrom C.C., Turner S. Introduction of U-series geochemistry. Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 2003, Mineralogical Society of America, Washington. J.J. Rosso, P.H. Ribbe (Eds.).
12. Braun D.R., Levin N.E., Stynder D., Herries A.I.R., Archer W., Forrest F., Roberts D.L., Bishop L.C., Matthews T., Lehmann S.B., Pickering R., Fitzsimmons K.E. Mid-Pleistocene hominin occupation at elandsfontein, western cape, South Africa. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2013, 82:145-166.
13. Bruxelles L., Clarke R.J., Maire R., Ortega R., Stratford D. Stratigraphic analysis of the Sterkfontein StW 573 Australopithecus skeleton and implications for its age. J.Hum. Evol. 2014, 70:36-48.
14. Burley D., Weisler M.I., Zhao J.-x High precision U/Th dating of first polynesian Settlement. PLoS One 2012, 7:e48769.
15. Candy I., Black S. The timing of quaternary calcrete development in semi-arid southeast Spain: investigating the role of climate on calcrete genesis. Sediment. Geol. 2009, 218:6-15.
16. Carey S.P., Camens A.B., Cupper M.L., Grün R., Hellstrom J.C., McKnight S.W., McLennan I., Pickering D.A., Trusler P., Aubert M. Adiverse Pleistocene marsupial trackway assemblage from the Victorian Volcanic Plains, Australia. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2011, 30:591-610.
17. 234U half-life values, and U-Th isotopic measurements by multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2013, 371-372:82-91.
18. Curnoe D., Xueping J., Herries A.I.R., Kanning B., Taçon P.S.C., Zhende B., Fink D., Yunsheng Z., Hellstrom J., Yun L., Cassis G., Bing S., Wroe S., Shi H., Parr W.C.H., Shengmin H., Rogers N. Human remains from the pleistocene-holocene transition of Southwest China suggest a complex evolutionary history for East Asians. PLoS One 2012, 7.
19. de Ruiter D.J., Pickering R., Steininger C.M., Kramers J.D., Hancox P.J., Churchill S.E., Berger L.R., Backwell L. New australopithecus robustus fossils and associated U-Pb dates from Cooper's cave (Gauteng, South Africa). J.Hum. Evol. 2009, 56:497-513.
20. Drysdale R.N., Paul B.T., Hellstrom J.C., Couchoud I., Greig A., Bajo P., Zanchetta G., Isola I., Spötl C., Baneschi I., Regattieri E., Woodhead J.D. Precise microsampling of poorly laminated speleothems for U-series dating. Quat. Geochronol. 2012, 14:38-47.
21. Duval M., Aubert M., Hellstrom J., Grün R. High resolution LA-ICP-MS mapping of U and Th isotopes in an early Pleistocene equid tooth from Fuente Nueva-3 (Orce, Andalusia, Spain). Quat. Geochronol. 2011, 6:458-467.
22. 232Th systematics and the precise measurement of time over the past 500,000 years. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 1987, 81:175-192.
23. Eggins S.M., Grün R., McCulloch M.T., Pike A.W.G., Chappell J., Kinsley L., Mortimer G., Shelley M., Murray-Wallace C.V., Spötl C., Taylor L. In situ U-series dating by laser-ablation multi-collector ICPMS: new prospects for quaternary geochronology. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2005, 24:2523-2538.
24. Faure G. Principles of Isotope Geology 1977, J. Wiley and Sons, New York.
25. Goldstein S.J., Stirling C.H. Techniques for measuring uranium-series nuclides: 1992-2002. Uranium-series Geochemsitry: Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 2003, 23-57. Geochemical Society. B. Bourdon, S. Turner, G.M. Henderson, C.C. Lundstrom (Eds.).
26. Grenthe I., Droz˙dz˙yński J., Fujino T., Buck E.C., Albrecht-Schmitt T.E., Wolf S.F. The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements 2011, Springer. fourth ed.
27. Grün R., Aubert M., Hellstrom J., Duval M. The challenge of direct dating old human fossils. Quat. Int. 2010, 223-224:87-93.
28. Grün R., Eggins S., Kinsley L., Moseley H., Sambridge M. Laser ablation U-series analysis of fossil bones and teeth. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 2014, 416:150-167.
29. Hedges R.E.M., Millard A.R. Bones and groundwater: towards the modelling of diagenetic processes. J.Archaeol. Sci. 1995, 22:155-164.
30. Hellstrom J. Rapid and accurate U/Th dating using parallel ion-counting multi-collector ICP-MS. J.Anal. Atomic Spectrom. 2003, 18:1346-1351.
31. 230Th using stratigraphical constraint. Quat. Geochronol. 2006, 1:289-295.
32. Hercman H. U-series dating of collagen - a step toward direct U-series dating of fossil bone?. Quat. Int. 2014, 339-340:4-10.
33. Ivanovich M., Harmon R.S. Uranium-series Disequilibrium: Applications to Earth, Marine and Environmental Science 1992, 910. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
34. Kaufman A., Broecker W.S., Ku T.L., Thurber D.L. The status of U-series methods of mollusk dating. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1971, 35:1155-1183.
35. Kirch P.V., Sharp W.D. Coral 230Th dating of the imposition of a ritual control hierarchy in Precontact Hawaii. Science 2005, 307:102-104.
36. Latham A.G. Uranium-series dating. Handbook of Archaeological Sciences 2001, 63-72. Wiley Interscience, Chichester and New York. D.R. Brothwell, A.M. Pollard (Eds.).
37. Li W.X., Lundberg J., Dickin A.P., Ford D.C., Schwarcz H.P., McNutt R., Williams D. High-precision mass-spectrometric uranium-series dating of cave deposits and implications for palaeoclimate studies. Nature 1989, 339:534-536.
38. Luo S., Ku T.L. U-series isochron dating: a generalized method employing total-sample dissolution. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1991, 55:555-564.
39. Marean C.W., Bar-Matthews M., Bernatchez J., Fisher E., Goldberg P., Herries A.I.R., Jacobs Z., Jerardino A., Karkanas P., Minichillo T., Nilssen P.J., Thompson E., Watts I., Williams H.M. Early human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the middle Pleistocene. Nature 2007, 449:905-911.
40. McLaren S.J., Rowe P.J. The reliability of uranium-series mollusc dates from the western mediterranean basin. Quat. Sci. Rev. 1996, 15:709-717.
41. Miller G.H., Magee J.W., Johnson B.J., Fogel M.L., Spooner N.A., McCulloch M.T., Ayliffe L.K. Pleistocene extinction of genyornis newtoni: human impact on Australian megafauna. Science 1999, 283:205-208.
42. Patterson C. Age of meteorites and the earth. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1956, 10:230-237.
43. Pickering R. U-Pb dating small buried stalagmites from wonderwerk Cave, South Africa: a new chronometer for earlier Stone age cave deposits. Afr. Archaeol. Rev. 2015, (in press) accepted May 2014.
44. Pickering R., Dirks P.H.G.M., Jinnah Z., de Ruiter D.J., Churchill S.E., Herries A.I.R., Woodhead J.D., Hellstrom J.C., Berger L.R. Australopithecus sediba at 1.977Ma and implications for the origins of the genus Homo. Science 2011, 333:1421-1423.
45. Pickering R., Jacobs Z., Herries A.I.R., Karkanas P., Bar-Matthews M., Woodhead J.D., Kappen P., Fisher E., Marean C.W. Paleoanthropologically significant south African sea caves dated to 1.0 million years using acombination of U-Pb, TT-OSL and palaeomagnetism. Quat. Sci. Rev. 2013, 65:39-52.
46. Pickering R., Kramers J.D. Are-appraisal of the stratigraphy and new U-Pb dates at the Sterkfontein hominin site, South Africa. J.Hum. Evol. 2010, 59:70-86.
47. Pickering R., Kramers J.D., Hancox P.J., de Ruiter D.J., Woodhead J.D. Contemporary flowstone development links early hominin bearing cave deposits in South Africa. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 2011, 306:23-32.
48. Pickering R., Kramers J.D., Partridge T., Kodolanyi J., Pettke T. U-Pb dating of calcite-aragonite layers in speleothems from hominin sites in South Africa by MC-ICP-MS. Quat. Geochronol. 2010, 5:544-558.
49. Pike A.W.G., Hedges R.E.M., Van Calsteren P. U- series dating of bone usingthe diffusion- adsorption model. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 2002, 66:4273-4286.
50. Pike A.W.G., Hoffmann D.L., García-Diez M., Pettitt P.B., Alcolea J., De Balbín R., González-Sainz C., De Las Heras C., Lasheras J.A., Montes R., Zilhão J. U-series dating of paleolithic art in 11 caves in Spain. Science 2012, 336:1409-1413.
51. Pike A.W.G., Pettitt P.B. U-series dating and human Evolution. U-series Geochemistry: Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry 2003, 607-630. B. Bourdon, S. Turner, G.M. Henderson, C.C. Lundstrom (Eds.).
52. Pons-Branchu E., Bourrillon R., Conkey M.W., Fontugne M., Fritz C., Gárate D., Quiles A., Rivero O., Sauvet G., Tosello G., Valladas H., White R. Uranium-series dating of carbonate formations overlying Paleolithic art: interest and limitations. Bull. la Soc. Prehist. Francaise 2014, 111:211-224.
53. Prideaux G.J., Roberts R.G., Megirian D., Westaway K.E., Hellstrom J.C., Olley J.M. Mammalian responses to Pleistocene climate change in southeastern Australia. Geology 2007, 35:33-36.
54. Rasbury E.T., Cole J.M. Directly dating geologic events: U-Pb dating of carbonates. Rev. Geophys. 2009, 47.
55. Richards D.A., Bottrell S.H., Cliff R.A., Strohle K., Rowe P.J. U-Pb dating of a speleothem of quaternary age. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 1998, 62:3683-3688.
56. Richards D.A., Dorale J.A. Uranium-series chronology and environmental applications of speleothems. Uranium-series Geochemistry 2003, 407-460.
57. Schwarcz H.P. Uranium series dating of quaternary deposits. Quat. Int. 1989, 1:7-17.
58. Schwarcz H.P. Uranium series dating in paleoanthropology. Evol. Anthropol. 1992, 1:56-62.
59. Schwarcz H.P. Uranium-series dating and the origin of modern man. Philos. Trans. Biol. Sci. 1992, 337:131-137.
60. Schwarcz H.P. Uranium series dating. Chronometric Dating in Archaeology 1997, 159-182. Plenum Press, New York. R.E. Taylor, M.J. Aitken (Eds.).
61. Schwarcz H.P. Chronometric dating in archaeology: a review. Accounts Chem. Res. 2002, 35:637-643.
62. Schwarcz H.P., Blackwell B., Goldberg P., Marks A.E. Uranium series dating of travertine from archaeological sites, Nahal Zin, Israel. Nature 1979, 277:558-560. [10].
63. Schwarcz H.P., Latham A.G. Dirty calcites 1. Uranium-series dating of contaminated calcite using leachates alone. Chem. Geol. 1989, 80:35-43.
64. Schwarcz H.P., Rink W.J. Dating methods for sediments of caves and Rockshelters. Geoarchaeol. - Int. J. 2001, 16:355-371.
65. Sharp W.D., Kahn J.G., Polito C.M., Kirch P.V. Rapid evolution of ritual architecture in central Polynesia indicated by precise 230Th/U coral dating. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2010, 107:13234-13239.
66. Smart P.L. Uranium series dating. Quaternary Dating Methods - a User's Guide 1991, 45-83.
67. Sniderman K., Woodhead J., Hellstrom J., Elith J., Porch N. Latest Miocene-Early Pliocene vegetation and climate of the Nullarbor Plain: new insights from fossil pollen records of U-Pb dated speleothems. Climate Change: the Karst Record. 7th International Conference, Melbourne, Australia 2014.
68. Spötl C., Mattey D. Scientific drilling of speleothems - a technical note. Int. J. Speleol. 2012, 41:29-34.
69. St Pierre E., Zhao J.-x., Feng Y.-x., Reed E. U-series dating of soda straw stalactites from excavated deposits: method development and application to Blanche Cave, Naracoorte, South Australia. J.Archaeol. Sci. 2012, 39:922-930.
70. St Pierre E., Zhao J.x., Reed E. Expanding the utility of Uranium-series dating of speleothems for archaeological and palaeontological applications. J.Archaeol. Sci. 2009, 36:1416-1423.
71. St Pierre E.J., Westaway K.E., Zhao J.X., Gagan M.K., Lentfer C., Due R.A., Morwood M.J., Hantoro W.S., Djubiantono T., Suwargadi B.W. Preliminary U-series and thermoluminescence dating of excavated deposits in Liang Bua sub-chamber, Flores, Indonesia. J.Archaeol. Sci. 2013, 40:148-155.
72. Taçon P.S.C., Aubert M., Gang L., Decong Y., Hong L., May S.K., Fallon S., Xueping J., Curnoe D., Herries A.I.R. Uranium-series age estimates for rock art in southwest China. J.Archaeol. Sci. 2012, 39:492-499.
73. Walker J., Cliff R.A., Latham A.G. U-Pb isotopic age of the StW 573 hominid from Sterkfontein, South Africa. Science 2006, 314:1592-1594.
74. Walker M. Quaternary Dating Methods 2005, John Wiley, Chichester & New York.
75. Woodhead J., Hellstrom J., Maas R., Drysdale R., Zanchetta G., Devine P., Taylor E. U-Pb geochronology of speleothems by MC-ICPMS. Quat. Geochronol. 2006, 1:208-221.
76. Woodhead J., Hellstrom J., Pickering R., Drysdale R., Paul B., Bajo P. Uand Pb variability in older speleothems and strategies for their chronology. Quat. Geochronol. 2012, 14:105-113.
77. Woodhead J., Pickering R. Beyond 500ka: progress and prospects in the U-Pb chronology of speleothems, and their application to studies in palaeoclimate, human evolution, biodiversity and tectonics. Chem. Geol. 2012, 322-323:290-299.
78. 230Th disequilibrium dating of the recent past: a review. Quat. Geochronol. 2009, 4:423-433.