Chronology of a Quina type mousterian site of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente)

Abstract

This paper presents a chronological framework for the site of Les Pradelles (Marillac-le-Franc, Charente, France). In the East locus of the site, four meters of sediments preserve late Middle Paleolithic archaeological materials with Quina Mousterian lithics associated with abundant reindeer-dominated faunal remains. During the most recent excavations conducted by B. Maureille and A. Mann between 2001 et 2013, only two dates were obtained in this locus: one was a single burnt flint dated by thermoluminescence (TL) and the second, was a single speleothem located at the base of the sequence dated using uranium-series disequilibrium (U-Th). The top layers fell beyond the radiocarbon limit. Owing to the scarcity of datable material, only a relative chronology was proposed for the site (Maureille et al., 2008). As part of a multidisciplinary project that aims to define a reliable chronological framework for understanding the variability of Neandertal cultures in the SW France, we dated the sedimentary deposits of the Les Pradelles site using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) techniques. The results of these techniques applied on various materials (quartz and feldspars), as well as previously obtained radiometric datasets improve the chronostratigraphy of the site. They constrain the age of the Neandertal remains and the Quina occupations between the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 and during MIS 3, up to 50 ka BP