TL DATES OF BURNT FLINTS FROM JELINEKS EXCAVATIONS AT TABUN AND THEIRIMPLICATIONS

A selection of 37 burnt flints from Jelinek's excavations at Tabun wer e dated by thermoluminescence. The results indicate that the bottom of unit I (Garrod's Layer C) should be given an age of 171 +/- 17 ky sp (transition from oxygen isotope stage 7 to 6) and that units XIII to I I (Layers Ed to D) were deposited between c. 330 and 210 ky sp, i.e. d uring the oxygen isotope stages 9-8 and the beginning of 7. These date s raise the possibility that: (a) a pre-Wurmian Neanderthal population may have settled in the Levant during the oxygen isotope stage 6, and that (b) the transition from Mugharan (Acheuleo-Yabrudian, Yabrudian and Amudian) to Levallois Mousterian type lithic industries occurred a t the end of stage 8, more than 200 ky ago. These early dates, whose r eliability was consistent with isochron analysis of the data, are not that different from those now accepted for the development of the Leva llois Mousterian industries in Europe. (C) 1995 Academic Press Limited