Genetic data and radiocarbon dating question Plovers Lake as a Middle Stone Age hominin-bearing site. Issue 131 (June 2019)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- Genetic data and radiocarbon dating question Plovers Lake as a Middle Stone Age hominin-bearing site. Issue 131 (June 2019)
- Main Title:
- Genetic data and radiocarbon dating question Plovers Lake as a Middle Stone Age hominin-bearing site
- Authors:
- Lombard, Marlize
Malmström, Helena
Schlebusch, Carina
Svensson, Emma M.
Günther, Torsten
Munters, Arielle R.
Coutinho, Alexandra
Edlund, Hanna
Zipfel, Bernhard
Jakobsson, Mattias - Abstract:
- Abstract: We have sampled five out of the eleven previously identified human specimens and some faunal remains from the Plovers Lake site in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, for ancient DNA. We were successful in obtaining positive results for three of the human individuals and three 'buffalo' teeth. Based on ages obtained for flowstone and one bovid tooth, the site was interpreted previously as a hominin-bearing Middle Stone Age site of more than 60 000 years old. Our work, however, revealed that not all the material accumulated during the Pleistocene. Instead, the sampled humans and bovids most likely represent a Bantu-speaking Iron Age population (mtDNA haplogroup L3d) and their Nguni cattle. Newly obtained radiocarbon dates confirmed that these remains are probably no older than the last 500 years bp. This study demonstrates the usefulness of inter-disciplinary investigation into the human past, and the depositional and stratigraphic complexities that researchers in the Cradle of Humankind need to contend with before interpreting their assemblages.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of human evolution. Issue 131(2019)
- Journal:
- Journal of human evolution
- Issue:
- Issue 131(2019)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 131, Issue 131 (2019)
- Year:
- 2019
- Volume:
- 131
- Issue:
- 131
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2019-0131-0131-0000
- Page Start:
- 203
- Page End:
- 209
- Publication Date:
- 2019-06
- Subjects:
- Plovers lake -- Ancient DNA -- Hominin-bearing site -- South Africa -- Middle Stone Age -- C14 dating
Human evolution -- Periodicals
Homme -- Évolution -- Périodiques
Human evolution
Periodicals
599.93805 - Journal URLs:
- http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00472484 ↗
http://www.elsevier.com/journals ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1016/j.jhevol.2019.03.014 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0047-2484
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 5003.415000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 10742.xml