ESR DATING OF TOOTH ENAMEL - COMPARISON WITH AMS C-14 AT EL CASTILLO CAVE, SPAIN

At El Castillo, in Cantabrian Spain, uncalibrated AMS C-14 dating has shown the transition from Mousterian to Aurignacian to occur at 39.3 /- 1.6 ka BP. We found ESR tooth enamel ages from the basal Aurignacia n level at El Castillo to be 36.2 +/- 4.1 ka (early and linear uptake) . The enamel and dentine had very low U contents, but ESR ages are str ongly dependent upon knowledge of the moisture content history of the sediments. Although the Aurignacian ESR age is 8% younger than the wei ghted average uncalibrated AMS C-14 age of 39.6 +/- 1.3 ka obtained fr om charcoal samples, we have shown that the methods agree within exper imental uncertainty. However, since no precise C-14 calibration yet ex ists for this period of time, we are unable to specify which of the ag es is more accurate, nor are we able ascribe the apparent age discrepa ncy to a particular deficiency in the ESR method. (C) 1996 Academic Pr ess Limited