Institutskolloquium

Eslem Ben Arous

Putting a Pin in the Map!’: recent developments in ESR Dating for the Middle Stone Age of West Africa by Eslem Ben Arous; PACEA Research Unit - University of Bordeaux (Pessac, France), MPI-EVA and MPI-GEA

Abstract:

West Africa remains one of the least chronologically constrained regions of the African continent for the Pleistocene, despite its importance for understanding the diversity, dispersal, and evolution of human populations across Africa. This talk presents recent results from the application of electron spin resonance (ESR) dating to optically bleached quartz from Middle Stone Age archaeological contexts in West Africa. It will address the potential of ESR dating to establish chronological constraints for archaeological deposits in Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal, with particular attention to the challenges associated with assessing age uncertainties.

The new ESR results help fill an important chronological gap in the region, providing age estimates for archaeological contexts that have previously been difficult to date and contributing to the development of a Pleistocene chronological framework. Beyond individual sites, these results highlight the potential of improved chronologies to reshape our understanding of human evolution and population dynamics in West Africa. Rather than viewing West Africa as a geographical gap in the African Palaeolithic record, increasingly robust chronological frameworks suggest that part of this apparent absence may reflect limited archaeological research and dating rather than an absence of human.

Digital characterization of fracture networks and fluid flow analysis in rocks - new methods and applications by Raghubeer Rai, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology

More information to follow

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