Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2010 Nov 16;107(46):19726-30.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1012722107. Epub 2010 Nov 1.

Radiometric dating of the type-site for Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer, Germany

Günther A Wagner  1 , Matthias Krbetschek, Detlev Degering, Jean-Jacques Bahain, Qingfeng Shao, Christophe Falguères, Pierre Voinchet, Jean-Michel Dolo, Tristan Garcia, G Philip Rightmire
Affiliations

Radiometric dating of the type-site for Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer, Germany

Günther A Wagner et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .

Abstract

The Mauer mandible, holotype of Homo heidelbergensis, was found in 1907 in fluvial sands deposited by the Neckar River 10 km southeast of Heidelberg, Germany. The fossil is an important key to understanding early human occupation of Europe north of the Alps. Given the associated mammal fauna and the geological context, the find layer has been placed in the early Middle Pleistocene, but confirmatory chronometric evidence has hitherto been missing. Here we show that two independent techniques, the combined electron spin resonance/U-series method used with mammal teeth and infrared radiofluorescence applied to sand grains, date the type-site of Homo heidelbergensis at Mauer to 609 ± 40 ka. This result demonstrates that the mandible is the oldest hominin fossil reported to date from central and northern Europe and raises questions concerning the phyletic relationship of Homo heidelbergensis to more ancient populations documented from southern Europe and in Africa. We address the paleoanthropological significance of the Mauer jaw in light of this dating evidence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Mauer mandible, holotype of Homo heidelbergensis (1). The two left premolars were lost in the 1940s (photograph: K. Schacherl).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Stratigraphy of the sand pit Grafenrain at Mauer with the find horizon of the Homo heidelbergensis mandible in the lower sands. Left photograph is taken from the original monograph (1), with the find site (x); right photograph shows the present exposure.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
IR-RF ages (squares) and ESR-US ages (circles) with their 1-σ error bars (± SEM) of samples from the sand pit Grafenrain at Mauer.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Schoetensack O. The Mandible of Homo Heidelbergensis from the Sands of Mauer near Heidelberg—A Contribution to the Palaeontology of Man. Leipzig: Engelmann; 1908. (in German)
    1. von Koenigswald W. On the ecology and biostratigraphy of both Pleistocene faunas of Mauer near Heidelberg. In: Beinhauer KW, Wagner GA, editors. The Strata of Mauer—85 Years Homo erectus heidelbergensis. Mannheim: Braus; 1992. pp. 101–110. (in German)
    1. Wagner GA, Fezer F, Hambach U, von Koenigswald W, Zöller L. The age of Homo heidelbergensis of Mauer. In: Wagner GA, Beinhauer KW, editors. Homo heidelbergensis of Mauer—The Appearance of Humans in Europe. Heidelberg: Winter; 1997. pp. 124–143. (in German)
    1. Wagner GA, Maul LC, Löscher M, Schreiber HD. Mauer—the type site of Homo heidelbergensis: Palaeoenvironment and age. Quat Sci Rev. 2010 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.01.013.
    1. Coltorti M, et al. New 40Ar/39Ar, stratigraphic and palaeoclimatic data on the Isernia La Pineta Lower Palaeolithic site, Molise, Italy. Quaternary Int. 2005;131:11–22.

Publication types