Luminescence dating of the Niederweningen mammoth site, Switzerland

Luminescence dating is used to further constrain the so far controversial age of the mammoth site at Niederweningen, Switzerland. Gamma spectrometric analyses reveal the presence of radioactive disequilibria in the uranium decay chain in most of the samples but these cause only minor uncertainties in the age estimates. The major uncertainty is actually related to the problem of estimating the average water content for the whole burial time. Nevertheless, even considering these problems involved with dose rate determination the dating results clearly indicate that the peat is significantly younger than Early Würmian, in contrast to some previous assumptions. Together with the results of radiocarbon dating and pollen analyses, the luminescence ages point to a correlation of the mammoth peat with interstadial conditions during the early part of the Middle Würmian, at around 45 ka ago.