Luminescence chronology of the Xiachuan Paleolithic site in Shanxi Province, northern China: A comparison between OSL and post-IR IRSL ages

Abstract

The Xiachuan site (35°26′22″N, 112°00′43″E) in Shanxi Province, northern China is an important Middle and Upper Paleolithic site, which contains four stages of development: the Middle Paleolithic culture, the initial and early Upper Paleolithic culture, the middle Upper Paleolithic culture and the late Upper Paleolithic culture. To establish the chronology framework for the site, a pedo-stratigraphic sequence at the QX2017T1 survey section of Fuyihegeliang Locality (Loc. FYH) was dated using blue-stimulated optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) on fine-grained quartz and post-infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (post-IR IRSL or pIRIR) on fine-grained polymineral. The quartz OSL ages of the Upper Paleolithic culture layer are between 21.4 ± 1.6 and 42.2 ± 3.0 ka, which is consistent with the calibrated ¹⁴C ages. The Middle Paleolithic culture layer is dated to from 118.2 ± 8.5 to 128.3 ± 9.5 ka using the polymineral pIRIR_{100, 290} protocol. These new results allow us to put the main part of the Upper Paleolithic culture layer in the late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and the early MIS 2, with the Middle Paleolithic culture layer corresponding to the early MIS 5. A gap of nearly 70 ka is observed between the two cultural layers, which is larger than previously expected. The presence of early hominins in the Xiachuan site during MIS 2 and MIS 3 as well as in early interglacial MIS 5 reflects their ability of adapting to variable environments.