As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
New research study recalibrates the age of the Jordan Valley’s Ubeidiya Formation to almost 2 million years, putting it on par with the well-known website of Dmanisi in Georgia. This might mark a turning point in human advancement– proof that early hominins with innovative tool-making strategies ventured into unique environments much earlier than presumed.
This is an artist’s restoration of Homo erectusImage credit: Yale University.
The historical site of Ubeidiya lies in the Jordan Valley of Israel, in between the town Menahemia and the kibbutz Beit Zera.
Found in 1959, the website yielded distinct Acheulean handaxes, however just couple of hominin fossils.
” The Ubeidiya Formation has long interested scientists due to the fact that it maintains early proof of the Acheulean culture, defined by big bifacial stone tools discovered in association with abundant faunal assemblages, consisting of types of African and Asian origin, a few of which are now extinct,” stated Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Professor Ari Matmon and coworkers.
“However, developing the website’s precise age has actually been an obstacle for years.”
“For several years, many scientists approximated that Ubeidiya dated to in between 1.2 and 1.6 million years ago however this age was based upon relative chronology.”
To identify the exact age of the website, the scientists utilized 3 independent dating techniques: magnetostratigraphy, uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating of mollusk shells, and cosmogenic isotope burial dating.
“Cosmogenic isotope burial dating steps unusual isotopes produced when cosmic rays strike rocks at the Earth’s surface area,” they discussed.
“Once those rocks are buried, the isotopes start to decay at foreseeable rates, efficiently beginning a geological clock that exposes the length of time they have actually lain underground.”
“We likewise took a look at traces of Earth’s ancient electromagnetic field protected in the website’s lake sediments,” they included.
“As sediments settle, they secure the instructions of the world’s electromagnetic field at that minute.”
“By matching these magnetic signatures to recognized turnarounds in Earth’s history, we identified that the layers formed throughout the Matuyama Chron, a duration that started more than 2 million years back.”
“Finally, we evaluated fossilized Melanopsis shells, freshwater snails embedded in the sediment, utilizing U-Pb dating to develop a minimum age for the layers in which the stone tools were found.”
“Altogether, the outcomes assembled on a considerably earlier date than formerly presumed.”
A bifacial stone tool from the website of Ubeidiya in Israel. Image credit: Omry Barzilai.
The group’s outcomes suggest that the Ubeidiya website is at least 1.9 million years of ages, substantially older than previous evaluations.
“The brand-new timeline recommends that ‘Ubeidiya is approximately the very same age as the well-acknowledged Dmanisi website in Georgia, which suggests our forefathers were spreading out throughout various areas at a comparable time,” the researchers stated.
“It likewise recommends that 2 various innovations of making stone tools, the easier Oldowan custom and the advanced Acheulean, moved at the very same time from Africa by the various groups of hominins as they moved into brand-new areas.”
The research study was released in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews
_____
A. Matmon et al2026. Complex exposure-burial history and Pleistocene sediment recycling in the Dead Sea Rift with ramifications for the age of the Acheulean website of ‘Ubeidiya. Quaternary Science Reviews 378: 109871; doi: 10.1016/ j.quascirev.2026.109871
Learn more
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
