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Szeletian, Not Aurignacian: A Review of the Chronology and Cultural Associations of the Vindija G1 Neandertals

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Abstract

Analysis of the lithic assemblages from provenience units Fd/d+G1, G/F, and G1 of Vindija confirms that a significant proportion correspond to items bearing edge damage and/or abraded dorsal scar ridges. Diagnostic Aurignacian items exist in the stratigraphically mixed G/F assemblage, and they may well have been discarded in the context of the same occupation as the split-based bone point recovered in G1. This level, however, also contains fragments of bone points of the Mladeč type, as well as a typically Szeletian bifacial foliate point. Thus, G1 is best explained as a post-depositionally disturbed palimpsest, one where the co-occurrence of finds is no sufficient indicator of true contemporaneity. This hypothesis is corroborated by the >10,000 years age difference between the two cave bear bones from that level that have been AMS radiocarbon dated. Given the regional archeological and human paleontological context, and the evidence suggesting that the direct dates obtained for the Neandertal remains from G1 are minimum ages only, it is concluded that such remains are likely to be Szeletian- rather than Aurignacian-related. The fact that Mladeč bone points are the only diagnostic tools throughout the F and E units further indicates that these deposits belong to the later Aurignacian, not the Gravettian. This pattern implies a major stratigraphic discontinuity at Vindija during the Last Glacial Maximum, thus providing an analog for the site formation processes inferred for G1 times on the basis of the level’s mixed content.

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Acknowledgments

My April 2004 inspection of the Vindija collections in Zagreb was carried out during a research stay at the University of Cologne, in the framework of a Humboldt Foundation Research Award. I thank Jadranka Mauch-Lenardič for access to the material, and I am especially grateful to Ivor Karavanić for his help with references, language, contextual information, and comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Alistair Pike read a draft and contributed useful suggestions. John Hawks clarified the catalog numbering of the dated Neandertal remains from Vindija G3. Göran Possnert provided the lab number for the direct radiocarbon date on the Vi-80/33.16 Neandertal specimen. As usual, any errors or omissions are my own.

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  1. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

    João Zilhão

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  1. João Zilhão
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  1. Dept. Anthropology, George Washington University, G Street NW., 2110, Washington, 20052, U.S.A.

    Marta Camps

  2. CRAFT Stone Age Institute, Indiana University, W. Dittemore Road 1392, Gosport, 47433-9531, U.S.A.

    Parth Chauhan

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Zilhão, J. (2009). Szeletian, Not Aurignacian: A Review of the Chronology and Cultural Associations of the Vindija G1 Neandertals. In: Camps, M., Chauhan, P. (eds) Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-76487-0_27

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