ESR dates for the hominid burial site of Qafzeh in Israel

Early modern hominids are found buried at the mouth of a cave at Qafzeh near Nazareth, Israel. They are associated with a Middle Paleolithic lithic industry. Previous dating of this site by TL analysis of burnt flint (Valladas et al., 1988) gave an age of 92 ± 5 kyr. We have now used the ESR method to date enamel of teeth of large mammals from the hominid-bearing layers. Assuming a constant rate of uptake of U through time by the teeth, we obtain an age of 115 ± 15 kyr. This is consistent with the TL results demonstrating early arrival of fully modern humans in Southwestern Asia.