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Science 24 February 1989:
Vol. 243. no. 4894, pp. 1053 - 1056
DOI: 10.1126/science.243.4894.1053
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Articles

Uranium-Series Dated Authigenic Carbonates and Acheulian Sites in Southern Egypt

B. J. SZABO 1, W. P. MCHUGH 2, G. G. SCHABER 3, C. V. HAYNES JR. 4, and C. S. BREED 3

1 U.S. Geological Survey, Box 25046, Mail Stop 963, Denver, CO 80225.
2 EPIX Incorporated; 571 Coal Street, Wilkinsburg, PA 15221.
3 U.S. Geological Survey, 2255 North Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, AZ 86001.
4 Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.

Field investigations in southern Egypt have yielded Acheulian artifacts in situ in authigenic carbonate deposits (CaCO3-cemented alluvium) along the edges of nowaggraded paleovalleys (Wadi Arid and Wadi Safsaf). Uranium-series dating of 25 carbonate samples from various localities as far apart as 70 kilometers indicates that widespread carbonate deposition occurred about 45, 141 and 212 ka (thousand years ago). Most of the carbonate appears to have been precipitated from groundwater, which suggests that these three episodes of deposition may be related to late Pleistocene humid climates that facilitated human settlement in this now hyperarid region. Carbonate cements from sediments containing Acheulian artifacts provide a minimum age of 212 ka for early occupation of the paleovalleys.

Submitted on August 9, 1988
Accepted on December 12, 1988


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