| Abstract: | Animal bones, associated with Palaeolithic artefacts and skeletal remains of early hominids from the cave of La Chaise-de-Vouthon, have been dated using a new approach to uranium series dating of bone. Speleothem (cave calcite) interstratified with bone-bearing sediments in the two chambers of Grotte Bourgeois-Delaunay and Grotte Suard have previously been dated by the 230Th/234 U method. This provides a chronological control for the bone ages, for which the method is still at an experimental stage. A good agreement is shown in most cases between the calcite and the bone ages, showing the cave to have been a stable environment for the deposition of bone and the acquisition of uranium. |
