Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-zlgnt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T05:10:37.482Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Puzzling Radiocarbon Dates for the Upper Paleolithic Site of Sungir (Central Russian Plain)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Yaroslav V Kuzmin ,
Johannes van der Plicht  and
Leopold D Sulerzhitsky
Yaroslav V Kuzmin*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia
Johannes van der Plicht
Affiliation:
Center for Isotope Research, University of Groningen, Groningen, the Netherlands; and Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands
Leopold D Sulerzhitsky
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 199034, Russia (deceased)
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: kuzmin@fulbrightmail.org.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A summary is presented of more than a decade-long study of direct radiocarbon dating for one of the most important human burials in Eurasia, the Sungir site in eastern Europe. Eighteen 14C dates were produced before early 2014 on three skeletons (Sungir 1–3), and there is still no consistency in the results. In the absence of other independent methods to establish the antiquity of Sungir, a careful analysis is performed of the site's stratigraphy, paleoenvironment, and 14C dates run on animal bones from the same layer as the burials. Although the conclusions of this work cannot be guaranteed to be absolutely correct, we suggest that at the present stage of research the age range of ∼26,000–27,210 BP is the most probable time for the creation of the elaborate human burials at the Sungir site.

Information

Type
Chronology
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 2 , 2014 , pp. 451 - 459
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alekseeva, LI. 1998. Okhotnichya fauna stoyanki Sungir [The prey fauna of the Sungir site]. In: Bader, NO, editor. Pozdnepaleoliticheskoe Poselenie Sungir (Pogrebeniya i Prirodnaya Sreda). Moscow: Nauchny Mir Publishers. p 240–57. In Russian.Google Scholar
Alekseeva, TI, Bader, NO, editors. 2000. Homo sungirensis. Upper Palaeolithic Man: Ecological and Evolutionary Aspects of the Investigation. Moscow: Nauchny Mir Publishers. 468 p. In Russian with English abstract.Google Scholar
Bader, NO, editor. 1998. Pozdnepaleoliticheskoe Poselenie Sungir (Pogrebeniya i Prirodnaya Sreda). Moscow: Nauchny Mir Publishers. 270 p. In Russian.Google Scholar
Bader, NO, Mikhailova, LA. 1998. Kulturny sloi poseleniya Sungir po raskopkam 1987–1995 godov [The cultural layer of the Sungir settlement according to the 1987–1995 excavations]. In: Bader, NO, editor. Pozdnepaleoliticheskoe Poselenie Sungir (Pogrebeniya i Prirodnaya Sreda). Moscow: Nauchny Mir Publishers. p 165–88. In Russian.Google Scholar
Bader, ON. 1978. Sungir. Verkhnepaleoliticheskaya Stoyanka [Sungir. An Upper Paleolithic Site]. Moscow: Nauka Publishers. 271 p. In Russian.Google Scholar
Bader, ON. 1998. Sungir. Paleoliticheskie porgebeniya [The Sungir site. Paleolithic burials]. In: Bader, NO, editor. Pozdnepaleoliticheskoe Poselenie Sungir (Pogrebeniya i Prirodnaya Sreda). Moscow: Nauchny Mir Publishers. p 5–158. In Russian.Google Scholar
Bahder, ON. 1967. Eine ungewöhnliche paläolitische Bestattung in Mittelrußland. Quartär 18:191–4.Google Scholar
Bahn, P, editor. 2001. The Penguin Archaeology Guide. London: Penguin Books. 494 p.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Higham, T, Ditchfield, P, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2010. Current pretreatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52(1):103–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brock, F, Wood, R, Higham, TFG, Ditchfield, P, Bayliss, A, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2012. Reliability of nitrogen content (%N) and carbon:nitrogen atomic ratios (C:N) as indicators of collagen preservation suitable for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):879–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherdyntsev, VV, Zavelsky, FS, Kind, NV, Sulerzhitsky, LD, Forova, VS. 1969. Radiouglerodnye daty GIN AN SSSR. Soobshchenie IV [Radiocarbon dates of the Geological Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences. Report IV]. Bulleten Komissii po Izucheniyu Chetvertichnogo Perioda 36:172–93. In Russian.Google Scholar
Clark, PU, Dyke, AS, Shakun, JD, Carlson, AE, Clark, J, Wohlfarth, B, Mitrovica, JX, Hostetler, SW, McCabe, AM. 2009. The Last Glacial Maximum. Science 325(5941):710–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DeNiro, M. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317(6040):806–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobrovolskaya, M, Richards, MP, Trinkaus, E. 2012. Direct radiocarbon dates for the mid Upper Paleolithic (eastern Gravettian) burials from Sunghir, Russia. Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'Anthropologie de Paris 24:96–102.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, YV, Burr, GS, Jull, AJT, Sulerzhitsky, LD. 2004. AMS 14C age of the Upper Palaeolithic skeletons from Sungir site, Central Russian Plain. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:731–4.Google Scholar
Longin, R. 1971. New method of collagen extraction for radiocarbon dating. Nature 230(5291):241–2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marom, A, McCullagh, JSO, Higham, TFG, Sinitsyn, AA, Hedges, REM. 2012. Single amino acid radiocarbon dating of Upper Paleolithic modern humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109(18):6878–81.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mook, WG, Streurman, HJ. 1983. Physical and chemical aspects of radiocarbon dating. In: Mook, WG, Waterbolk, HT, editors. Proceedings of the First International Symposium 14C and Archaeology, Groningen, 1981. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. p 31–55.Google Scholar
Pettitt, PB, Bader, NO. 2000. Direct AMS radiocarbon dates for the Sungir mid Upper Palaeolithic burials. Antiquity 74(284):269–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Praslov, ND, Soulerjytsky, LD. 1997. De nouvelles données chronologiques pour le Paléolithique de Kostienki-sur-Don. Préhistoire Européenne 11:133–43.Google Scholar
Praslov, ND, Sulerzhitsky, LD. 1999. New data on the chronology of Paleolithic sites in Kostenki-on-Don. Doklady Earth Sciences 365(2):196–200.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS. Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, MP, Pettitt, PB, Stiner, MC, Trinkaus, E. 2001. Stable isotope evidence for increasing dietary breadth in the European mid-Upper Paleolithic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 98(11):6528–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sinitsyn, AA, Hoffecker, JF. 2006. Radiocarbon dating and chronology of the Early Upper Paleolithic at Kostenki. Quaternary International 152–153:175–85.Google Scholar
Soffer, O. 1993. Upper Palaeolithic adaptations in Central and Eastern Europe and man–mammoth interactions. In: Soffer, O, Praslov, ND, editors. From Kostenki to Clovis: Upper Palaeolithic – Paleo-Indian Adaptations. New York: Plenum Press. p 31–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sulerzhitsky, LD. 1997. Cherty radiouglerodnoi khronologii mamontov Sibiri i severa Vostochnoi Evropy (kak substrata dlya rasseleniya cheloveka) [The features of radiocarbon chronology of mammoths in Siberia and northern Eastern Europe (as substratum for human dispersal)]. In: Velichko, AA, Soffer, O, editors. Chelovek Zaselyaet Planetu Zemlya. Moscow: Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences. p 184–202. In Russian.Google Scholar
Sulerzhitsky, LD. 2004. The chronological span of some Late Palaeolithic sites according to the radiocarbon dating of the bones of megafauna. Rossiiskaya Arkheologiya 3:103–12. In Russian with English abstract.Google Scholar
Sulerzhitsky, LD, Pettitt, P, Bader, NO. 2000. Radiocarbon dates of the remains from the settlement Sunghir. In: Alekseeva, TI, Bader, NO, editors. Homo sungirensis. Upper Palaeolithic Man: Ecological and Evolutionary Aspects of the Investigation. Moscow: Nauchny Mir Publishers. p 30–4. In Russian with English abstract.Google Scholar
Taylor, RE, Southon, J. 2012. On the resolution of 14C dating anomalies: case studies from New World archaeology. Radiocarbon 54(3–4):979–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Velichko, AA, Faustova, MA, Pisareva, VV, Gribchenko, YN, Sudakova, NG, Lavrentiev, NV. 2011. Glaciations of the East European Plain: distribution and chronology. In: Ehlers, J, Gibbard, PL, Hughes, PD, editors. Quaternary Glaciations – Extent and Chronology: A Closer Look. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p 337–59.Google Scholar
Vogel, J, Waterbolk, HT. 1972. Groningen radiocarbon dates X. Radiocarbon 14(1):6–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zenin, VN, van der Plicht, J, Orlova, LA, Kuzmin, YV. 2000. AMS 14C chronology of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius Blum.) remains from the Shestakovo Upper Paleolithic site, Western Siberia: timing of human-mammoth interaction. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172(1–4):745–50.Google Scholar