New dates place Sungir as one of the earliest mid Upper Palaeolithic burials at ca. 30,000BP

The site of Sungir (Russia) is well-known for its rich burials of 8 individuals, associated with spears made of mammoth ivory, ivory beads and perforated fox teeth. In the past, the radiocarbon dating of material from this site has proven extremely challenging. So far, three labs obtained direct AMS dates from the skeletal material but the results vary greatly, from 19,000 to 27,000 BP. A new study, published in PlosOne, now obtained a new set of dates using a new method to avoid the known human contamination on the bones themselves.

The authors use High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to separate single amino acids, such as hydroxyproline, on samples from both Sungir 1 and 4. This pretreatment method separates the compound of interest from the rest of the bone matrix rather than attempt to remove contamination from the bone collagen itself using macromolecular methods. The new date for the Sungir 1 burial is older than the previously determined results, indicating that there is a modern contamination in the bones from Sungir. This modern contamination, in the form of consolidants that may have been applied during curation and storage, was indeed identified through further infrared scanning of the bones. [...] globalpalaeonews.wordpress.com

Link 2: Sungir: Primeros ritos funerarios complejos, según nuevas dataciones (B&W2) 


Actualización 14-01-14. Nuevas dataciones colocan Sungir (Rusia) como uno de los primeros enterramientos de mediados del Paleolítico Superior
El enclave de Sungir (Rusia) es bien conocido por sus ricos enterramientos de 8 individuos asociados con lanzas hechas de marfil de mamut, cuentas de marfil y dientes de zorro perforados...