UNCORRECTED PROOF Timescales and cultural process at 40,000 BP in the light of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, Western Eurasia Francesco G. Fedele a, * , Biagio Giaccio b , Irka Hajdas c a Laboratory of Anthropology, University of Naples, ‘Federico II’, via Mezzocannone 8, 80134 Naples, Italy b Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria, CNR, via Bolognola 7, 00138 Rome, Italy c Ion Beam Physics, Paul Scherrer Institute and ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland article info Article history: Received 30 May 2007 Accepted 28 August 2008 Keywords: Middle Paleolithic Upper Paleolithic Volcanic eruptions Mousterian Late Pleistocene Heinrich Event 4 Radiocarbon timescale Culture change abstract Significant new information shows that the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI) eruption from the Phlegrean Fields, southern Italy, was much larger than hitherto supposed and in fact one of the largest Late Quaternary explosive events. The eruption can be dated to 40,000 calendar years ago, within the interval of the so-called Middle to Upper Paleolithic ‘transition’. Its position can be precisely correlated with a number of other environmental events, including Heinrich Event 4 (HE4), the Laschamp excursion, and a particular cosmogenic nuclide peak. In view of this unique combination of factors, we studied the CI volcanic catastrophe with particular attention for its impact on climate and human ecosystems, including potential interference with ongoing processes of cultural evolution (biological evolution is best left aside for the moment). The contribution of this research is chronological and ecological. The CI volcanic event provides an unequalled means of correlating stratigraphic sequences across Western Eurasia, either directly or indirectly, and affords a unique opportunity to establish the age and climatic context of important archaeological sequences. Ecologically, the CI eruption inevitably interacted with the begin- ning of HE4 in terms of atmospheric feedback systems. Their combined forcing produced a sudden and at least hemispheric climatic deterioration; a ‘volcanic winter’ scenario cannot be ruled out. Paleolithic occupation was severely altered throughout the direct-impact zone of the eruption and likely along fringe areas in southern and southeastern Europe. The above observations call for a reconsideration of the processes and rhythms involved in the Middle to Upper Paleolithic ‘transition’. A tentative model is suggested that links the exceptional environmental stress at 40,000 BP with processes already active in Paleolithic societies, leading to a period of accelerated change in cultural configurations. These eventually evolved into an Upper Paleolithic proper at a later date. The evidence to invoke allochthonous cultural input or invasionist scenarios is not considered compelling. Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Introduction In this paper we examine some critical temporal aspects of what is commonly called the ‘Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition,’ here neutrally understood as one of several intervals of faster-paced changes in human Paleolithic societies. We take a particular and, until now, underrated perspective: a detailed investigation of a very large volcanic eruption that occurred at a crucial moment within the ‘transition.’ From its point of origin in southern Italy and its widespread deposits, or tephra, this eruption is known as the Campanian Ignimbrite (CI). Recent work has shown that an acute cooling caused by arctic ice discharge, Heinrich Event 4 (HE4), 1 starting at ca. 40,050 BP GISP2 , 2 was soon followed by this explosive eruption (Fedele et al., 2002, 2003). The CI explosion took place in * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: ffedele01@yahoo.it (F.G. Fedele), biagio.giaccio@igag.cnr.it (B. Giaccio), hajdas@phys.ethz.ch (I. Hajdas). 1 The following abbreviations will be used throughout for recurrent stratigraphic terms and units related to the late Pleistocene record (the informal expression late Pleistocene, as different from Upper Pleistocene, is used sensu Klein, 1999): D-O ¼ Dansgaard-Oeschger cycle; GI ¼ Greenland Interstadial; GS ¼ Greenland Stadial; HE ¼ Heinrich event; MIS ¼ Marine Isotopic Stage (formerly OIS, Ocean Isotopic Stage). Correlations with the Greenland ice sheet tephro- and chro- nostratigraphydcores GRIP, GISP2, NorthGRIPdare based on the depth-age models of Meese et al. (1997), Johnsen et al. (2001), Shackleton et al. (2004), and Andersen et al. (2006), as explained in the main text. See also Hammer et al. (1997). 2 Chronometric age will be reported as follows (e.g.): ‘40,000 14 C BP’ for radio- carbon measurements; ‘40,000 cal BP’ for calibrated radiocarbon dates; and ‘40 ka BP’ for radiometric determinations different from radiocarbon (often in this paper BP 40Ar/39Ar ¼ 40 Ar/ 39 Ar years before present). The colloquial expression ‘40,000 BP’ or ‘years ago’ will occasionally be used to suggest calendar age in descriptive passages where no need exists of formal specification; ca. ¼ circa. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Human Evolution journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhevol ARTICLE IN PRESS 0047-2484/$ – see front matter Ó 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.012 Journal of Human Evolution xxx (2008) 1–24 YJHEV1265_proof  15 September 2008  1/24 Please cite this article in press as: Francesco G. Fedele et al., Timescales and cultural process at 40,000 BP in the light of the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption, Western Eurasia, J Hum Evol (2008), doi:10.1016/j.jhevol.2008.08.012 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109