First chronometric dates (TL and OSL) for the Aurignacian open-air site of Româneşti-Dumbrăviţa I, Romania

The luminescence behavior of artefact samples required the use of different multiple- and single-aliquot measurement protocols to obtain reliable age information. In addition, analyses of glow curves and the performance during regenerative-dose measurements allowed us to distinguish two types of samples. Since one group is characterized by poor dose reproducibility, only samples showing reliable luminescence behavior were considered for final age interpretations. As a result, we could determine that the last heating of artefacts from GH3 happened most likely between ∼39 ka (single-aliquot age estimate) and ∼45 ka (multiple-aliquot age estimate) ago, with a weighted average age of the GH3 finds of 40.6 ± 1.5 ka (including all data). These dates were confirmed by OSL dating of sediments of the find layer. Such an early age fits well to technological and typological features, which place the dated lithic assemblage at the very beginning of the development of the Aurignacian technocomplex usually seen as a proxy for the earliest wide spread presence of AMH in Europe.