Age of Maba hominin site in southern China: Evidence from U-series dating of Southern Branch Cave

Maba hominin, one of the key representatives of archaic Homo sapiens in China, was originally attributed to around the Middle-Late Pleistocene transition (∼130 ka) based on biostratigraphic correlation and alpha-spectrometric U-series dating of fossil teeth. This paper reports mass-spectrometric U-series dates on speleothem samples intercalated with the deposits in Southern Branch Cave. Also presented here is a new survey of the entire Second Level Caves, which provides evidence that the so-called Southern Branch Cave is in fact the front section of the main corridor, and its obstruction marked the end of depositional processes throughout the caves at this level. Accordingly, the capping flowstone in Southern Branch Cave marks the minimum age of all fossiliferous deposits of the site. Maba hominin should thus be at least 230 ± 5 ka (2σ) old, most probably older than 278 ± 4 ka (2σ). This is consistent with an earlier interface between H. erectus and archaic H. sapiens, and would allow for an earlier presence of modern H. sapiens in eastern Asia.