Norbert Mercier

Université Bordeaux Montaigne | UB3 · Institute of Archaeomaterials Research (IRAMAT)

A multi-method approach aimed at characterizing carbonate parietal deposits and at proposing a chronology for these carbonate crusts is described. Dating was performed by radiometric methods (C-14 for recent samples, and U-series) on samples that had been characterized beforehand using optical and cathodoluminescence microscopy, and Fourier Transfo...

Border Cave hosts a rare Middle and Early Later Stone Age sequence of deposits that extends as far back as ca. 250 thousand years (ka). The site's chronology has been built mainly on Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) ages obtained from teeth, conducted at the end of the 1990s, and on radiocarbon dating for the more recent layers. In order to refine the...

The Riparo Mochi rock shelter, located on the Ligurian coast of Italy, is one of the most important early Upper Paleolithic sites on the Mediterranean rim. Its ∼10-m-deep stratigraphy comprises a Mousterian sequence, followed by various development stages of the Upper Paleolithic. A series of radiometric dates on marine shells bearing traces of hum...

Infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) of K-feldspar is a luminescence dating method proposed for chronologies of older sediments in Quaternary science. Its key advantages are higher saturation doses than optically stimulated quartz luminescence and long-term stability (no fading). However, while successful dating applications using IR-RF seem to becom...

In nature, each mineral grain (quartz or feldspar) receives a dose rate (Dr) specific to its environment. The dose-rate distribution therefore reflects the micro-dosimetric context of grains of similar size. If all the grains were well bleached at deposition, this distribution is assumed to correspond, within uncertainties, with the distribution of...

To overcome the problems associated with the traditional U-series dating protocol (large amount of sample required, possible contamination during preparation and consideration of sample contamination in the past), we present a new approach using isotope mapping of radioelements produced by femtosecond laser ablation coupled with high resolution mas...

The late Middle Pleistocene, starting at around 300 ka, witnessed large-scale biological and cultural dynamics in hominin evolution across Africa including the onset of the Middle Stone Age that is closely associated with the evolution of our species—Homo sapiens. However, archaeological and geochronological data of its earliest appearance are scar...

North African coastal Middle Stone Age (MSA) sites are key to study the development and expansion of early H. sapiens. El Mnasra cave on the Atlantic coast of Morocco (Té mara region) is a crucial site associated with MSA archaeological materials considered advanced cognitive hallmarks of behavioural innovation, such as numerous Nassar-iidae perfor...

Determining the extent of overlap between modern humans and other hominins in Eurasia, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, is fundamental to understanding the nature of their interactions and what led to the disappearance of archaic hominins. Apart from a possible sporadic pulse recorded in Greece during the Middle Pleistocene, the first settlemen...

Coastal adaptations have been considered to play an important role in the bio-cultural evolution of early Homo sapiens and their dispersal out of Africa. In line with this assessment, recent years have seen increasing evidence for the exploitation of seafood from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of northern and southern Africa. Yet, chronological control...

Major changes in the technological, economic, and social behavior of Middle Pleistocene hominins occurred at the onset of the Middle Paleolithic, 400–200 ka. However, until recently it was not possible to establish when, where, and how certain forms of Middle Paleolithic behavior appeared and spread into Southeastern Europe, mainly owing to gaps in...

Previous studies have suggested that the Lower-to-Middle Paleolithic transition was associated with the earliest Neanderthals, but recent research has established that the oldest Neanderthal fossils and the first signs of their technologies and behavior appear from MIS 11 or possibly earlier. To understand these changes, re-evaluation of the eviden...

Infrared Radiofluorescence (IR-RF) is a relatively new method for dosimetric dating of the depositional timing of sediments. This contribution presents an interlaboratory comparison of IR-RF measurements of sedimentary feldspar from eight laboratories. A comparison of the variability of instrumental background, bleaching, saturation, and initial ri...

In nature, any mineral grain (quartz or feldspar) receives a dose-rate (Dr) specific to its environment. The dose-rate distributions, therefore, reflect the micro-dosimetric context of grains of similar size. If all the grains have been well bleached at deposition, this distribution corresponds, within uncertainties, to the distribution of equivale...

The event model was proposed by Lanos and Philippe (2018) to combine measurements in the context of archaeological chronological dating. We extend this model to luminescence dating and define a new strategy to detect outliers from the hyperparameters of the event model. This procedure is applied to the combination of Gaussian measurements and lumin...

Recent research in the southern Central Balkans has resulted in the discovery of the first Middle Paleolithic sites in this region. Systematic excavations of Velika and Mala Balanica, and Pešturina (southern Serbia) revealed assemblages of Middle Paleolithic artifacts associated with hominin fossils and animal bones. This paper focuses on Pešturina...

Middle Pleistocene Homo in the Levant Our understanding of the origin, distribution, and evolution of early humans and their close relatives has been greatly refined by recent new information. Adding to this trend, Hershkovitz et al. have uncovered evidence of a previously unknown archaic Homo population, the “Nesher Ramla Homo ” (see the Perspecti...

The dose rate of the 90Sr / 90Y beta source used in most luminescence readers is a laboratory key parameter. There is a well-established body of knowledge about parameters controlling accuracy and precision of the calibration value but some hard-to-explain inconsistencies still exist. Here, we have investigated the impact of grain size, aliquot siz...

The Ravin Blanc I archaeological occurrence, dated to MIS 5, provides unprecedented data on the Middle Stone Age (MSA) of West Africa since well-contextualized archaeological sites pre-dating MIS 4/3 are extremely rare for this region. The combined approach on geomorphology, phytolith analysis, and OSL date estimations offers a solid framework for...

The La Combette rock-shelter, located in the Luberon mountains (Southern France), is an essential local archaeological discovery. The site comprises several Palaeolithic layers suggesting multiple phases of Mousterian occupation. The sediment sequence of c. 7 m thickness indicates rapid changes in the environmental conditions, which led to an aband...

Published table 1, in table format for more clarity. From: Douze et al. 2021. A West African Middle Stone Age site dated to the beginning of MIS 5: Archaeology, chronology, and paleoenvironment of the Ravin Blanc I (eastern Senegal). Journal of Human Evolution, 154, 102952.

Luminescence dating methods on natural minerals such as quartz and feldspars are indispensable for establishing chronologies in Quaternary Science. Commonly applied sediment dating methods are optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and infrared stimulated luminescence (IRSL). In 1999, Trautmann et al. (1999a, b) proposed a new related technique ca...

The end of the Palaeolithic represents one of the least-known periods in the history of western Africa, both in terms of its chronology and the identification of cultural assemblages entities based on the typo-technical analyses of its industries. In this context, the site of Fatandi V offers new data to discuss the cultural pattern during the Late...

The eastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula is a key region to explore past climatic and environmental changes and their impact on the coastal ecosystems and Neolithic communities during the mid-Holocene (~8000–5000 years ago). Indeed, it is located at the frontier zone between dry and wet tropical systems, where the monsoon has reduced its activity...

We present additional experiments for alpha-Al2O3:C chips used to estimate in situ g-dose rates. Our contribution supplements the article by Kreutzer et al. (2018) and presents results from previously announced follow-up experiments. (1) We investigate the divergent g-dose rate results we obtained from cross-check experiments for one reference site...

Since the 1980s, the dating methods used in Prehistory have become more diversified and geochronologists have now at hand a wide range of methods to date various kinds of samples, both in nature and age. It has helped, in collaboration with archaeologists and paleo-anthropologists, to clarify the chronological framework of the biological and cultur...

There is a relatively low amount of Middle Paleolithic sites in Europe dating to MIS 4. Of the few that exist, several of them lack evidence for anthropogenic fire, raising the question of how this period of global cooling may have affected the Neanderthal population. The Iberian Peninsula is a key area to explore this issue, as it has been conside...

Geochemical conditions (e.g., pH-value, temperature , availability of CO 2) in carbonate-rich sedimentary environments lead to cementation processes, i.e., air or water in the pore space are substituted by mineral phases. Consequently, in such environments the conventional formalism of estimating the environmental dose rate from U, Th and K concent...

This study presents the geoarchaeological and geochronological aspects of Shovakh Cave and the first comparative context to the nearby Amud Cave (~ 500 m downstream), providing an exceptional opportunity to explore the range of human behaviours within a small geographic area. Sediment samples from two newly excavated areas at the rear and entrance...

Geißenklösterle Cave (Germany) is one of the most important Paleolithic sites in Europe, as it is characterized by human occupation during the Middle and early Upper Paleolithic. Aurignacian layers prior to 37–38 ka cal BP feature both musical and figurative art objects that are linked to the early arrival in Europe of Homo sapiens. Middle Paleolit...

The calibration of any artificial-source attached to a luminescence reader is fundamental for the accuracy of luminescence dating results. Here, we present calibration results obtained for a-source attached to a single grain Risø reader in Bordeaux using a series of quartz of different origins. The quartz was irradiated with three different-irradia...

Pleistocene deposits exposed along the coast of the Médoc area, south‑west France, represent valuable palaeoenvironmental archives that have been the subject of extensive work in the past few decades. To further understand the palaeoenvironmental history and sedimentary dynamics of these deposits, a detailed lithostratigraphic study was performed o...

Between 2012 and 2015, five successive archaeological campaigns were led by the Department of archaeology of Eure-et-Loir, on the Illiers-Combray plateau, 1 km to the east of the river Loir. Middle Palaeolithic remains were discovered in a Pleistocene loess-palaeosoils sequence, extending over an area of more than 10 km ² . This Early Weichselian s...

Our original claim, based on three independent numerical dating methods, of an age of ~185,000 years for the Misliya-1 modern human hemi-maxilla from Mount Carmel, Israel, is little affected by discounting uranium-series dating of adhering crusts. It confirms a much earlier out-of-Africa Homo sapiens expansion than previously suggested by the consi...

Révélé par l’érosion littorale à la fin des années 1960, le site du Rozel (Manche) correspond à un ensemble d’occupations néandertaliennes conservées dans un massif dunaire implanté dans une crique au pied d’une falaise de schiste, topographie favorable au retour périodique des paléolithiques. L’érosion s’intensifiant, une fouille de sauvetage est...

In the past few decades, a diverse array of research has emphasized the precocity of technically advanced and symbolic practices occurring during the southern African Middle Stone Age. However, uncertainties regarding the regional chrono-cultural framework constrain models and identification of the cultural and ecological mechanisms triggering the...

A proper understanding of local palaeoenvironmental histories is an iterative process. Previously settled interpretations suddenly demand a reconsideration triggered by findings from sites not accessible before. The coastline of the Médoc area in South-West France faced considerable recent erosion, providing new valuable insights into the history o...

Many samples used for luminescence and ESR dating show complex mineralogical structures, resulting in heterogeneous beta dose rates. Ideally, the beta dose rate distribution could be reconstructed using softwares like DosiVox, which can both upload 3D-scans recorded with X-ray tomography and distributions of radioactive elements. However, some mine...

Infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) of K-feldspar is an alternative luminescence dating approach to infrared luminescence (IRSL). The application of IR-RF on coarse grain K-feldspar untreated with HF requires knowledge of the IR-RF α-efficiency. We present IR-RF α-efficiency measurements performed on four natural fine grain (4–11 μm) K-feldspar samp...

In situ dosimetry (active, passive dosimeters) provides high accuracy by determining environmental dose rates directly in the field. Passive dosimeters, such as α-Al2O3:C, are of particular interest for sites with desired minimum disturbance (e.g., archaeological sites). Here, we present a comprehensive approach obtaining the environmental cosmic a...

Earliest modern humans out of Africa Recent paleoanthropological studies have suggested that modern humans migrated from Africa as early as the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, 120,000 years ago. Hershkovitz et al. now suggest that early modern humans were already present outside of Africa more than 55,000 years earlier (see the Perspective by St...

To date, the earliest modern human fossils found outside of Africa are dated to around 90,000 to 120,000 years ago at the Levantine sites of Skhul and Qafzeh. A maxilla and associated dentition recently discovered at Misliya Cave, Israel, was dated to 177,000 to 194,000 years ago, suggesting that members of the Homo sapiens clade left Africa earlie...

Luminescence ages were obtained from six sediment samples at the archaeological site ‘Le Rozel’. These samples are associated with hundreds of footprints left by humans (probably Neanderthals) in the archaeological layers. The single-grain technique was applied to 200–250 μm quartz grains, whereas K-feldspar grains were measured using the multi-gra...

Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) is commonly used to date the last exposure of grains extracted from sediments to sunlight. However, it is frequent that some of the measured grains were not sufficiently exposed to light before burial. Such samples are said to be poorly bleached. We propose a new statistical model based on a Bayesian approach...

Cette 19ème année de recherches du programme « Peuplement humain et paléo-environnement en Afrique » constitue la première année du projet ANR-FNS CHeRCHA (Chronology of Rapid Climatic changes and Human adaptation in West Africa) et du projet FNS centré sur les dynamiques techniques des deux derniers millénaires dans la vallée de la Falémé. Cette m...

Identifying systematic errors that are in- troduced by the measurement equipment is a necessary prerequisite for reproducible measurements and reliable results. However, technical artefacts often remain unpublished. Here we report on a sudden change of lumi- nescence intensity observed while measuring IR-RF signals from K-feldspar extracts. The mea...

The site of La Quina Amont, located in the Charente region, is one of the most important sites in southwestern France for studying major changes in human behaviors from the Middle Paleolithic (MP) to the Early Upper Paleolithic (EUP). Extensively excavated over the past 50 years, numerous dating studies have been focused on the Upper Paleolithic de...

Hominin footprints, and particularly those associated with Neandertals, are very scarce in the fossil record. They give information on the anatomy, the composition or the gait of a group which are not accessible with the other fossil remains. The site of Rozel delivered a set of occupation layers, corresponding to areas devoted to butchery, located...

Due to recent technological advances, new optical stimulation sources with higher energies became commercially available. In the present work, laser diodes emitting in the violet (∼405 nm) were used to investigate dosimetric characteristics of the violet stimulated luminescence (VSL) signal from electronic components (resistors and inductors) extra...

Luminescence ages are calculated by dividing an absorbed dose by the dose rate to which the natural dosimeter has been exposed. In practice, one measures an equivalent dose, De; in the absence of an alpha dose contribution, this should be indistinguishable from the dose absorbed in nature. Here we first review the relationship between absorbed dose...

Après une brève présentation de la méthode de datation par la thermoluminescence (TL), l’article fait le bilan des datations obtenues avec cette méthode sur des silex chauffés récoltés dans des grottes du Proche-Orient dont le remplissage archéologique est attribué au Paléolithique moyen. Certains de ces sites ayant livré des fossiles humains, les...

Depuis 2011, le programme de recherche international Peuplement Humain et Paléoenvironnement en Afrique (dir. Pr. É. Huysecom) concentre une partie de ses recherches sur la Vallée de la Falémé, à l’est du Sénégal. Plusieurs séries de vestiges provenant d’industries associées à l’Early, au Middle et au Later Stone Age y ont en effet été identifiées....

Les méthodes ESR/U-Th combinées sont couramment utilisées dans la datation de restes fossiles du Pléistocène inférieur et moyen. Les problématiques liées à ces deux périodes chronologiques sont axées vers la détermination de la dose équivalente et la modélisation de l’incorporation de l’uranium. Au Pléistocène supérieur, en contexte karstique, l’ap...

Hominin footprints, and more particularly those associated with Neandertals, are very scarce in the fossil record. However, they give a unique point of view on dynamic moments of individuals' life that the fossil remains don't allow to obtain. Moreover, their study enables to get a lot of paleobiological information, for example about the anatomy o...

A function named textitanalyse_baSAR() was written using the statistical programming language textbfR and its code is now available within thetextbfR package 'Luminescence'. The function allows the application of the Bayesian hierarchical model 'baSAR' proposed by Combés et al. (2015) and comes with additional features to analyse luminescence data...

Elands Bay Cave (EBC) is one of the key sites for the analysis of the Late Pleistocene/Holocene record in southern Africa. It typifies an area of study, the West Coast of South Africa, which benefits from a long history of research, from the 1960s until today. The 2011 project of EBC was initiated within the framework of the Middle Stone Age (MSA)...

In 2011 we conducted a field campaign at the site of Elands Bay Cave (EBC), on the West coast of South Africa, with the aim of clarifying the nature and chronology of its human Pleistocene occupations. In the present paper, we present the results of a chronology based on various materials and methods: radiocarbon (C14) dating was applied to 8 fragm...

Measuring the infrared radiofluorescence (IR-RF) signal of K-feldspars, which is thought to be not affected by any anomalous fading potentially provides a promising alternative dating approach to the more studied IR and pIRIR signals. Here we report a series of experiments aimed at characterising the IR-RF signal, which led us to propose an improve...

Located in southwest France, Roc de Marsal is a cave with a rich Mousterian stratigraphic sequence. The lower part of the sequence (Layers 9–5) are characterized by assemblages dominated by Levallois lithic technology associated with composite faunal spectra (including red deer, roe deer and reindeer) that shows a gradual increase in the frequency...