Last dance at the Laschamps? A paleomagnetic study of the key Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition site of Quinçay, France, and the potential of the Laschamps event as a geochronological marker in archaeology.

The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Western Eurasia took place between 50,000 and 35,000 years ago. At the start of the transition, the region was inhabited by Neanderthals, and perhaps by a few scattered groups of Anatomically Modern Humans. However, by the end of the transition, only Anatomically Modern Humans remained. Our understanding of how this came to be is fragmentary, as sites without preserved organic remains cannot be dated with high-precision methods. However, around 41,000 years ago there was a profound temporary change in the Earth’s magnetic field, named the Laschamps event. This event can be identified through using paleomagnetism and can potentially help in greatly constraining the chronologies of archaeological sites by offering a margin of error of less than 1,000 years. This thesis assesses the potential benefits and pitfalls of using the Laschamps event as a geochronological marker in archaeology. This is done by combining a literature study with a...Show moreThe Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition in Western Eurasia took place between 50,000 and 35,000 years ago. At the start of the transition, the region was inhabited by Neanderthals, and perhaps by a few scattered groups of Anatomically Modern Humans. However, by the end of the transition, only Anatomically Modern Humans remained. Our understanding of how this came to be is fragmentary, as sites without preserved organic remains cannot be dated with high-precision methods. However, around 41,000 years ago there was a profound temporary change in the Earth’s magnetic field, named the Laschamps event. This event can be identified through using paleomagnetism and can potentially help in greatly constraining the chronologies of archaeological sites by offering a margin of error of less than 1,000 years. This thesis assesses the potential benefits and pitfalls of using the Laschamps event as a geochronological marker in archaeology. This is done by combining a literature study with a paleomagnetic case study. The literature study focuses on assessing the quality of the previous identifications of the Laschamps event at archaeological sites. This literature study is the first ever on the Laschamps event at archaeological sites and found that most of the previous claims were not well supported by the available evidence. In particular, the methods used for demagnetising the paleomagnetic samples and recognising the potential effects of post-depositional processes was found to be important for interpreting the paleomagnetic signal. The paleomagnetic study uncovered reversed directions in several of the lower units at the cave site at Quinçay, France. This thesis shows the first record of the Laschamps event ever found at an archaeological site in Western Europe. The likely position of the Laschamps event in the site stratigraphy straddled the final Mousterian and Châtelperronian layers, which could indicate that the cultural succession at the site happened rapidly. But this interpretation is made with several caveats, particularly the need for better age control of the lower levels at the site.Show less

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Last dance at the Laschamps? A paleomagnetic study of the key Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition site of Quinçay, France, and the potential of the Laschamps event as a geochronological marker in archaeology.