Magnetostratigraphy of the loess-palaeosol key Palaeolithic section at Korolevo (Transcarpathia, W Ukraine) Jerzy Nawrocki a , Maria Lanczont b, * , Olga Rosowiecka a , Andriy B. Bogucki c a Polish Geological Institute, NRI, Rakowiecka 4, 00-975 Warszawa, Poland b Departament of Geoecology and Palaeogeography, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Al. Kra snicka 2cd, 20-718 Lublin, Poland c Department of Geomorphology and Palaeogeography, Ivan Franko National University, Doroshenka 41, 29000 Lviv, Ukraine article info Article history: Available online xxx Keywords: Loess-soil stratigraphy MBB Jaramillo subchron Palaeolithic layers Central Europe abstract A total of 213 oriented samples were taken for palaeomagnetic investigations from 11 m of loess- palaeosol sediments cropping out in the Korolevo new section (W Ukraine). As the background of our palaeomagnetic investigations we present the results of granulometric, chemical (content of humus and iron oxides), mineralogical (heavy minerals) and structural analyses of loess and soil deposits. The MatuyamaeBrunhes boundary was found at a depth of 8.7 m, in the upper part of the illuvial horizon of the soil S7, the second well developed soil from the bottom. The bottom part of the oldest sediment studied here (relict palaeosol of Cambisol type?) was magnetized by the normal polarity geomagnetic field that can be correlated with the top of the Jaramillo subchron. The oldest cultural-chronological assemblages VII and VIII from the Korolevo site can be dated at the period between the B/M boundary (780 ka) and the top of the Jaramillo subchron (986 ka) but this conclusion must be supported by further, more extensive palaoemagnetic investigations of the bottom part of Quaternary deposits in different places in the Korolevo site. Three zones of the Korolevo section containing anomalous directions inside the normal polarity record of the Brunhes chron can be interpreted as possible places with destructed record of palaeomagnetic excursions. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Among the Early Palaeolithic sites in Central Europe, the Kor- olevo archaeological site in Transcarpathia is one of great impor- tance. This multi-layer, open-air Palaeolithic site is located in the upper reaches of the Tisza River within the Sarget range (Fig. 1). The site is associated with the series of Quaternary deposits occurring in a large 80e90 m deep quarry of andesite situated in the central part of the volcanic mount (Gostry Verkh area in western arm of Sarget Ridge; 394.7 m a.s.l.) and located to the NW of the Korolevo village (Koulakovska et al., 2010). It was discovered by Gladilin in 1974 (Gladilin, 1975), and studied in detail by his team in the years 1977e1991 (see Gladilin and Sitlivy, 1990), and next by L.V. Koulakovska (1999), Haesaerts and Koulakovska (2006). Lithologic, stratigraphic, and palaeoecological studies of the site were con- ducted by Adamenko and Grodetskaya (1987 and references therein) and Koulakovska et al. (2010). Stepanchuk (2006), Stepanchuk et al. (2010), and Koulakovska and Usik (2011) dis- cussed all results obtained for the Korolevo site against a back- ground of the Lower Palaeolithic in Ukraine. The Palaeolithic artefacts of the multi-layer Korolevo site occurred in a complex loessepalaeosol sequence, which built the Quaternary cover on the slopes and top of the volcanic mount. Previous palaeomagnetic study of the Korolevo section was undertaken by Adamenko et al. (1981, 1989). The Matuyamae- Brunhes boundary (MBB) was fixed between VIII and IX palaeosols (Gladilin and Sitlivy, 1990; see also; Haesaerts and Koulakovska, 2006; Stepanchuk, 2006; Stepanchuk et al., 2010). This boundary was defined directly above palaeosol IX, in a very thin (<0.5 m) loess deposit layer separating this soil from palaeosol VIII. However, in the original form of the declination and inclination diagrams in the zone defined as the Matuyama (Adamenko et al., 1981) the negative values of inclinations were determined for a few samples only. Moreover, the values of declination calculated for that zone do not depart significantly from declination values expected for the normal polarity record. The demagnetisation procedure was most probably not effective enough for the rocks studied and therefore the extension of sediments with Matuyama reversed polarity * Corresponding author. E-mail address: lanczont@umcs.lublin.pl (M. Lanczont). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Quaternary International journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/quaint http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.063 1040-6182/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. Quaternary International xxx (2015) 1e14 Please cite this article in press as: Nawrocki, J., et al., Magnetostratigraphy of the loess-palaeosol key Palaeolithic section at Korolevo (Transcarpathia, W Ukraine), Quaternary International (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.063