Project description
Advancing luminescence dating of Neanderthal cave occupations
Reconstructing Neanderthal adaptation to climate change depends on reliable cave chronologies, though dating such environments is challenging. For instance, luminescence dating tracks last sunlight exposure of minerals but faces accuracy and range limitations in cave settings. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions project, the LUMI-Cave project is building a timeline of about 477 000 years of cave deposits located at key Belgian sites, including Scladina cave and the underlying Sous-Saint Paul. It will date individual mineral grains one by one and use statistical methods to combine results reliably. It will also address the problem of bleaching-related bias where some mineral grains were not fully reset by sunlight before being buried. The findings will clarify how Neanderthals lived in and moved through northwestern Europe.
Objective
During the Middle Palaeolithic, our Neanderthal relatives adapted to various climate conditions and developed different material cultures across time and space. To understand the temporality of such changes, one needs numerical dating methods, among which luminescence dating is particularly suitable thanks to the ubiquity of quartz and feldspar crystals in the Earth’s crust. Luminescence dating relies on the capacity of minerals to store energy over time after being reset by sunlight exposure, a process named “bleaching”. Methodological challenges remain for cave environments, especially due to bleaching issues. In addition, the chronological range of quartz Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) is considered limited to ~200,000 years, while feldspars extend this range but are more difficult to bleach completely.
The LUMI-Cave project serves both archaeological and methodological purposes. Archaeologically, it will document the chronology of the Scladina cave in Belgium, well known for its Neanderthal occupations, and of the poorly documented Sous-Saint Paul cave located beneath it. Methodologically, the project aims (1) to extend the chronological range of quartz OSL by combining single-grain protocols with Bayesian statistics, and (2) to establish a protocol for correcting feldspar ages from potential bleaching-related overestimation, ensuring applicability in cave contexts. By combining quartz and feldspar OSL chronologies with palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic proxies, the project will provide a detailed deposition history for the last ~477,000 years. LUMI-Cave will thus set a crucial milestone for understanding Neanderthal settlements in North-Western Europe and their place in human evolutionary history.
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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35042 Rennes
France
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