Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom;
Department of Archaeology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, HR-10000 Zagreb, Croatia.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Oct 3;114(40):10606-10611. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1709235114. Epub 2017 Sep 5.
Previous dating of the Vi-207 and Vi-208 Neanderthal remains from Vindija Cave (Croatia) led to the suggestion that Neanderthals survived there as recently as 28,000-29,000 B.P. Subsequent dating yielded older dates, interpreted as ages of at least ∼32,500 B.P. We have redated these same specimens using an approach based on the extraction of the amino acid hydroxyproline, using preparative high-performance liquid chromatography (Prep-HPLC). This method is more efficient in eliminating modern contamination in the bone collagen. The revised dates are older than 40,000 B.P., suggesting the Vindija Neanderthals did not live more recently than others across Europe, and probably predate the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Eastern Europe. We applied zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry (ZooMS) to find additional hominin remains. We identified one bone that is Neanderthal, based on its mitochondrial DNA, and dated it directly to 46,200 ± 1,500 B.P. We also attempted to date six early Upper Paleolithic bone points from stratigraphic units G, Fd/d+G and Fd/d, Fd. One bone artifact gave a date of 29,500 ± 400 B.P., while the remainder yielded no collagen. We additionally dated animal bone samples from units G and G-G These dates suggest a co-occurrence of early Upper Paleolithic osseous artifacts, particularly split-based points, alongside the remains of Neanderthals is a result of postdepositional mixing, rather than an association between the two groups, although more work is required to show this definitively.
先前对来自维迪加洞穴（克罗地亚）的 Vi-207 和 Vi-208 尼安德特人遗骸的年代测定表明，尼安德特人在那里的生存时间最晚可追溯到 28000-29000 年前 BP。随后的年代测定得出了更古老的日期，被解释为至少约 32500 年前 BP 的年龄。我们使用基于提取氨基酸羟脯氨酸的方法，使用制备高效液相色谱（Prep-HPLC）重新对这些相同的标本进行了年代测定。这种方法在消除骨胶原中的现代污染方面更有效。修订后的日期超过 40000 BP，表明维迪加尼安德特人生活的时间并不比欧洲其他地区的尼安德特人晚，而且可能早于解剖学上的现代人在东欧的出现。我们应用质谱动物园考古学（ZooMS）寻找其他人类遗骸。我们根据其线粒体 DNA 鉴定出一块属于尼安德特人的骨头，并直接将其年代测定为 46200±1500 BP。我们还试图对来自 G、Fd/d+G 和 Fd/d、Fd 地层单位的六件早期旧石器时代的骨尖器进行年代测定。一个骨头文物给出的日期为 29500±400 BP，而其余的则没有胶原。我们还对来自单位 G 和 G-G 的动物骨骼样本进行了年代测定。这些日期表明，早期旧石器时代的骨制人工制品，特别是基于分裂的尖器，与尼安德特人的遗骸同时存在是由于沉积后混合的结果，而不是两个群体之间的关联，尽管需要更多的工作来明确证明这一点。
