Current issues in late Middle Palaeolithic chronology: New assessments from Northern Iberia Julià Maroto a , Manuel Vaquero b, * , Álvaro Arrizabalaga c , Javier Baena d , Enrique Baquedano e , Jesús Jordá f , Ramon Julià g , Ramón Montes h , Johannes Van Der Plicht i, j , Pedro Rasines h , Rachel Wood k a Àrea de Prehistòria, Universitat de Girona, pl. Ferrater Mora, 1, 17071 Girona, Spain b Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Plaça Imperial Tarraco,1, 43005 Tarragona, Spain c Área de Prehistoria, Universidad del País Vasco e Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea, c/ Tomás y Valiente, s/n, 01006 Vitoria, Spain d Dpto. de Prehistoria y Arqueología, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Campus Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain e Museo Arqueológico Regional de Madrid, Plaza de las Bernardas, s/n, 28801 Alcalá de Henares, Spain f Dpto. de Prehistoria y Arqueología, UNED, Paseo de la Senda del Rey, 7, 28040 Madrid, Spain g Institut de Ciències de la Terra Jaume Almera (CSIC), c/ Lluís Solé i Sabarís, s/n, 08028 Barcelona, Spain h Museo Nacional y Centro de Investigación de Altamira, 39330 Santillana del Mar, Spain i Centrum voor IsotopenOnderzoek, Groningen University, Nijenborgh 4, 9747 AG Groningen, Netherlands j Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O.Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands k Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom article info Article history: Available online 20 July 2011 abstract The Iberian Peninsula plays a central role in the current debates on the Middle-Upper Palaeolithic transition and the Neanderthal extinction. This is largely due to the chronological data which some authors have suggested show a clear divide between Northern Iberia, where the Upper Palaeolithic appeared as early as 36.5 ka 14 C BP, and Southern Iberia, where the Middle Palaeolithic survived until ca. 32e30 ka 14 C BP or later. The best example of this view is the Ebro Frontier hypothesis. However, there are chronological data in both Northern and Southern Iberia that do not fit this pattern, and some of the evidence supporting the Ebro Frontier hypothesis has been questioned in recent years. This paper focuses on the chronology of the final Middle Palaeolithic of Northern Iberia, where several assemblages have been found to post-date the first Upper Palaeolithic in the region, and be of a similar age to the final Neanderthal occupations of the south. In order to improve the chronological framework of the Middle- Upper Palaeolithic boundary in the Northern Iberian Peninsula, a radiocarbon dating program is focused on sites from both the Cantabrian and Mediterranean regions. The first results of this program are presented in this paper. New radiocarbon dates have been measured by two laboratories using a range of pre-treatment methodologies. These do not support a late Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Iberia. Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The substitution of Neanderthals by Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) has been a central issue in archaeological and palaeoanthropological research in recent years. The Iberian Penin- sula plays a special role in this debate, as chronological and archaeological evidence provides the strongest claim for the coex- istence of the two populations on a peninsular scale. On the one hand, the dating of Aurignacian levels at certain northern sites, such as Arbreda, Abric Romaní, and La Viña (Bischoff et al., 1989, 1994; Fortea, 1996), has indicated that Upper Palaeolithic industries, presumably manufactured by AMHs, arrived around 38e36 ka 14 C BP (44e42 ka cal BP). On the other hand, Neanderthals and Middle Palaeolithic industries appear to have persisted in Southern and Central Iberia until at least 30 ka 14 C BP, as indicated by the recent dates obtained from Gorham’s Cave, Oliveira, Jarama VI and Cabezo Gordo (Finlayson et al., 2006; Zilhão, 2006; Jordá Pardo, 2007; Walker et al., 2008). This suggests nearly 10 ka of coexistence. On the basis of these data, some authors have proposed a clear-cut pattern of biological and cultural distribution for this period. The most widely-known of these hypotheses, the “Ebro Frontier” hypothesis, is based on a biogeographical barrier located south of the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Cordillera in Northern Iberia at * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: julia.maroto@udg.edu (J. Maroto), manuel.vaquero@urv.cat (M. Vaquero), alvaro.arrizabalaga@ehu.es (Á. Arrizabalaga), Javier.Baena@uam.es (J. Baena), enrique.baquedano@madrid.org (E. Baquedano), jjorda@geo.uned.es (J. Jordá), rjulia@ija.csic.es (R. Julià), rmontes@patrimoniogyp.com (R. Montes), J.van.der.Plicht@rug.nl (J. Van Der Plicht), investigacion.maltamira@mcu.es (P. Rasines), rachel.wood@keble.ox.ac.uk (R. Wood). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint 1040-6182/$ e see front matter Ó 2011 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2011.07.007 Quaternary International 247 (2012) 15e25