Response to Comment on "U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art"

D L Hoffmann; C D Standish; M García-Diez; P B Pettitt; J A Milton; J Zilhão; J J Alcolea-González; P Cantalejo-Duarte; H Collado; R de Balbín; M Lorblanchet; J Ramos-Muñoz; G-Ch Weniger; A W G Pike

doi:10.1126/science.aau1736

Response to Comment on "U-Th dating of carbonate crusts reveals Neandertal origin of Iberian cave art"

Science. 2018 Oct 12;362(6411):eaau1736. doi: 10.1126/science.aau1736.

Authors

D L Hoffmann¹, C D Standish², M García-Diez³, P B Pettitt⁴, J A Milton⁵, J Zilhão^{6

7

8}, J J Alcolea-González⁹, P Cantalejo-Duarte¹⁰, H Collado¹¹, R de Balbín⁹, M Lorblanchet¹², J Ramos-Muñoz¹³, G-Ch Weniger^{14

15}, A W G Pike¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Human Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
² Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK.
³ Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Isabel I, 09003 Burgos, Spain.
⁴ Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK.
⁵ Ocean and Earth Science, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK.
⁶ Departament d'Història i Arqueologia (SERP), University of Barcelona, 08001 Barcelona, Spain.
⁷ Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), 08010 Barcelona, Spain.
⁸ Centro de Arqueologia da Universidade de Lisboa (UNIARQ), Faculdade de Letras, Campo Grande, 1600-214 Lisbon, Portugal.
⁹ Prehistory Section, University of Alcalá de Henares, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
¹⁰ Centro de la Prehistoria/Cueva de Ardales, 29550 Ardales (Málaga), Spain.
¹¹ Quaternary-Prehistory Research Group, I-PAT Research Group, D.G. Bibliotecas, Museos y Patrimonio Cultural, Junta de Extremadura, Spain.
¹² CNRS-Retraité, Roc des Monges, 46200 St. Sozy, France.
¹³ Departamento de Historia, Geografía y Filosofia, Universidad de Cádiz, Cádiz, Spain.
¹⁴ Neanderthal Museum, 40822 Mettmann, Germany.
¹⁵ Institute of Prehistory, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.
¹⁶ Department of Archaeology, University of Southampton, Avenue Campus, Southampton SO17 1BF, UK. a.w.pike@soton.ac.uk.

PMID: 30309914
DOI: 10.1126/science.aau1736

Abstract

Slimak et al challenge the reliability of our oldest (>65,000 years) U-Th dates on carbonates associated with cave paintings in Spain. They cite a supposed lack of parietal art for the 25,000 years following this date, along with potential methodological issues relating to open-system behavior and corrections to detrital or source water ²³⁰Th. We show that their criticisms are unfounded.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Carbonates
Caves*
Neanderthals*
Reproducibility of Results
Spain

Substances

Carbonates