New dates from Ushki-1, Kamchatka, confirm 13,000 cal BP age for earliest Paleolithic occupation
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abstract
For many years cultural layer 7 at the Ushki sites, Kamchatka was considered to represent the earliest human occupation of Beringia, because four radiocarbon dates indicated an age of 16,000-17,000 calendar years ago (cal. BP). In 2003, however, Goebel et al. reported that layer 7 more likely formed only 13,000. cal. BP, nearly 4000 years later than N.N. Dikov, the site's primary excavator, originally reported. Some researchers have downplayed the significance of the new dates, continuing to regard Dikov's early dates as evidence that at least some of the hearth and dwelling features previously excavated at Ushki-1 date to as early as 17,000. cal. BP. Here we present four new radiocarbon dates (and two previously unpublished dates) on curated charcoal from hearth features excavated at Ushki-1 more than 20 years ago. They indicate that these hearths and associated dwelling features date to about 13,000. cal. BP. We now know 15 radiocarbon dates on charcoal from a variety of features and profiles across Ushki-1 and Ushki-5 that indicate the age of layer 7 is about 13,000. cal. BP. We discount the four 16,000-17,000. cal. BP dates, first, because two of them came from a deeply dug human burial pit and were likely secondarily introduced into the burial; second, because provenience data for the other two dated samples were never reported and do not exist in the records of the radiocarbon laboratories that produced them; and, third, because sediments immediately underlying layer 7 at Ushki-1 are only a few centuries earlier than 13,000. cal. BP, providing an important lower-limiting age for the layer-7 occupation. We conclude that the age of all of the layer-7 features at Ushki-1 and Ushki-5 should be considered to be about 13,000. cal. BP, at least until the earlier obtained old dates of 16,000-17,000. cal. BP can be replicated. 2010 Elsevier Ltd.
