Quaternary International 121 (2004) 41–52 Chronology of Pleistocene sedimentary cycles in the Carmel Coastal Plain of Israel Manfred Frechen a, *, Alexander Neber b , Alexander Tsatskin c , Wolfgang Boenigk c , Avraham Ronen c a Leibniz Institute for Applied Geosciences (GGA), Geochronology and Isotope Hydrology, Stilleweg 2, Hannover D-30655, Germany b Geologisches Institut, Universit . at zu K . oln, Z . ulpicher Str. 49a, K . oln D-50674, Germany c The Zinman Institute of Archaeology, The University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel Abstract The Eastern Mediterranean Coastal Plain of Israel is composed mainly of loam and sand and gravel of Pleistocene to Holocene age, supplemented by an Upper Pleistocene beach rock horizon, indicating an alternation of marine, coastal and continental environments. Owing to the complexity of the numerous exposures of aeolianites (‘‘kurkar’’) and soils (‘‘hamra’’) in the elongated ridges along the coastal plain, it is difficult to set up a reliable stratigraphy. A systematic luminescence dating study was carried out on loose sand, kurkar and hamra deposits in the coastal plain between Netanya and Haifa. In this study, 33 samples were investigated from key sections along the Carmel coast. The chronological results are in excellent agreement with the geological estimates. Five periods of sand accumulation and kurkar formation can be distinguished at about 140, 130, 90 and around 60 ka and between 60 and 50 ka. Hamra formation took place between 140 and 130 ka, around 80, 65 and 60 ka and between 20 and 12 ka. The beach rock is correlated with the sea level maximum during OIS 5e. The luminescence dating results indicate that neither kurkar nor hamra formation correlates with glacial and interglacial periods of the Northern Hemisphere. However, the chronological succession of these climate-related cycles is in good agreement with marine and terrestrial archives in the Eastern Mediterranean. r 2004 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The coastal plain of Israel is characterized by development of sand dune fields and aeolianite ridges locally termed ‘‘kurkar’’ running parallel to the coast line (Issar, 1968)(Fig. 1). Kurkar ridges are built of several sedimentary cycles (Ronen, 1975a, b; Gvirtzman et al., 1984; Neber, 2002), which are intercalated by red sandy loam soils locally termed ‘‘hamra’’ (Arabic word for ‘‘red’’) (Yaalon and Dan, 1967). These kurkar ridges are designated to represent typical longitudinal sand dunes formed synchronously parallel to the coastline by dominant wind direction perpendicular to the coast, as described by Gvirtzman et al. (1998). Archaeological and geological studies of sections along the Haifa–Tel- Aviv highway (Farrand and Ronen, 1974; Ronen, 1977) indicate that the upper part of exposed Quaternary sediments in the Carmel Coastal Plain contain two major kurkar units separated by a red paleosol (‘‘hamra’’, Arabic word for ‘‘red’’) including Mousterian artifacts. In addition, Boenigk et al. (1985) described the presence of a beach rock at the section at Highway km 95. At the same elevation, a kurkar is exposed but there is no physical contact between these two units. This kurkar is covered by a re-deposited Mousterian hamra soil including artifacts. Ronen et al. (1999) and Tsatskin and Ronen (1999) documented a Mousterian pedocom- plex at the section at Habonim, which includes several pedogenic episodes apparently separated by both phases of sedimentation and erosion. Neber (2002) and Neber et al. (in press) distinguished several major sand transgression events, which led to the development of the highway ridge in the Carmel Coastal Plain. The sedimentology and petrography of the exposed aeolia- nites revealed distinct facies characteristics for each kurkar unit. The different facies are related to changes in the environmental setting, including changes in the vegetation cover and distance from the sediment source, the Mediterranean beaches. Current studies attempt to detail the stratigraphic relations among kurkar, hamra and beach rock, as this coastal sediment sequence is an ARTICLE IN PRESS *Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.frechen@gga-hannover.de (M. Frechen). 1040-6182/$ - see front matter r 2004 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2004.01.022