Primeras evidencias humanas en África del Nortemarco cronoestratigráfico de la secuencia Plio- Pleistocena de Oued Boucherit (Argelia)

Résumé

Sahnouni et al. (2018) recently reported the discovery of Oldowan lithic tools and cut-marked bones from two archaeologi- cal levels at Ain Boucherit locality, Algeria. A multi-method dating approach based on magnetostratigraphy, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and biochronology was used to chronologically constrain the deposits. This combination provided an Olduvai and early Matuyama age for the upper (AB-Up) and lower (AB-Lw) archaeological levels, respectively. Refined age estimates of 1.92 ± 0.05 Ma (AB-Up) and 2.44 ± 0.14 Ma (AB-Lw) were finally derived from the sediment accumulation rate values. This discovery pushes back by about 0.6 Ma the earliest evidence of hominin occupation in North Africa. Based on the initial dating work presented in Sahnouni et al (2018), it is possible to establish a robust chronostratigraphic framework for the whole Plio-Pleistocene sequence of Oued Boucherit, and derive numerical age estimates for each of the archaeological and/or paleontological levels. The different sources of uncertainty that may possibly impact the dating results will also be evaluated and discussed.