Periodic Reporting for period 4 - RESOLUTION (Radiocarbon, tree rings, and solar variability provide the accurate time scale for human evolution and geoscience)
Período documentado: 2023-12-01 hasta 2024-12-31
The ERC RESOLUTION project has revolutionized radiocarbon dating, pushing the boundaries of archaeological, paleoclimatic, and evolutionary research. By generating high-resolution radiocarbon sequences with sub-decadal precision, the project has identified significant fluctuations in atmospheric radiocarbon levels that correlate with solar activity. These findings provide new insights into past atmospheric dynamics and highlight the potential for improving radiocarbon calibration in the future. While these data are not yet officially integrated into the calibration curve, they represent a crucial step toward refining chronological frameworks and enhancing our understanding of climate variability during the last glacial period. A key innovation of the project has been the integration of Near-Infrared Hyperspectral Imaging (NIR-HSI) to improve the non-destructive analysis of prehistoric bones, enhancing the accuracy of radiocarbon dating while preserving valuable archaeological materials.
Through extensive fieldwork across Europe, the project collected subfossil trees and archaeological samples, enabling the construction of high-resolution radiocarbon chronologies. These datasets have improved our understanding of key prehistoric events, including the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition and the interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The results have been applied to major archaeological sites such as Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria and Ranis in Germany, providing unprecedented chronological precision on the spread of Homo sapiens in Europe. Interdisciplinary collaborations with leading institutions, including ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute, have further strengthened the project’s impact.
Through extensive fieldwork across Europe, the project collected subfossil trees and archaeological samples, enabling the construction of high-resolution radiocarbon chronologies. These datasets have improved our understanding of key prehistoric events, including the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition and the interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. The results have been applied to major archaeological sites such as Bacho Kiro Cave in Bulgaria and Ranis in Germany, providing unprecedented chronological precision on the spread of Homo sapiens in Europe. Interdisciplinary collaborations with leading institutions, including ETH Zurich and the Max Planck Institute, have further strengthened the project’s impact.
From the beginning of the RESOLUTION project to its conclusion, significant progress has been made in advancing radiocarbon dating, refining chronological frameworks, and enhancing our understanding of past climatic variations and human evolution. Fieldwork across multiple sites in Portugal and Italy led to the successful collection of new subfossil trees, establishing a growing network of researchers and gravel pit operators to facilitate future discoveries. These samples formed the basis for the development of floating tree-ring chronologies, with materials from Revine (Italy), and Furadouro (Portugal) providing multi-century sequences. Through a combination of tree-ring width analysis, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating, and ‘Speed Dates,’ the project successfully identified and established floating chronologies from key periods, particularly around 30,000 BP (Furadouro) and 18,000 BP (Revine).Building on this, the project generated high-precision decadal radiocarbon datasets, with a focus on the most relevant time periods for comparison with cosmogenic isotope records. AMS dating of tree samples from Furadouro (Portugal) were strategically sampled in continuous 3-year blocks, allowing for a final decadal radiocarbon series with errors under 80 years, meeting the requirements for correlation with ice-core data. The project’s methodological advancements have been instrumental in applying high-precision tree-ring chronologies to key debates in human evolution. The newly established sequences are being incorporated into the upcoming IntCal calibration curve, aiming to improve radiocarbon dating accuracy for the Late Pleistocene. These refined chronological tools are already being applied to archaeological sites across Europe, providing more precise age estimates for critical prehistoric events.
Since its inception, the RESOLUTION project has led to over 80 high-impact scientific publications, including studies in Nature, Scientific Reports, and Nature Ecology & Evolution. Among its most notable discoveries is the identification of the oldest decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave (Poland) and major breakthroughs in genomic research on the Mesolithic and Neolithic transitions in Europe. Dissemination efforts have ensured broad visibility, with results presented at major international conferences such as Radiocarbon, the XXI INQUA Congress, and the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, as well as through public engagement on Rai3, TG Leonardo, and Kilimangiaro. A key highlight was the publication of Misurare la Storia: La nuova linea del tempo dell’evoluzione umana, a book that translates the latest scientific findings into an accessible format for the public. Recognized as one of the top science books of the year at the Trieste Next Festival, it underscores the project's commitment to making cutting-edge research widely accessible.
Since its inception, the RESOLUTION project has led to over 80 high-impact scientific publications, including studies in Nature, Scientific Reports, and Nature Ecology & Evolution. Among its most notable discoveries is the identification of the oldest decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave (Poland) and major breakthroughs in genomic research on the Mesolithic and Neolithic transitions in Europe. Dissemination efforts have ensured broad visibility, with results presented at major international conferences such as Radiocarbon, the XXI INQUA Congress, and the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting, as well as through public engagement on Rai3, TG Leonardo, and Kilimangiaro. A key highlight was the publication of Misurare la Storia: La nuova linea del tempo dell’evoluzione umana, a book that translates the latest scientific findings into an accessible format for the public. Recognized as one of the top science books of the year at the Trieste Next Festival, it underscores the project's commitment to making cutting-edge research widely accessible.
The RESOLUTION project has significantly advanced the field of radiocarbon calibration, human evolution research, and archaeological dating, pushing beyond the current state of the art. One of its most critical contributions has been the development of high-precision floating tree-ring. This effort is particularly relevant as it extends beyond the current absolute tree-ring calibration limit of 14,220 cal BP, providing much-needed data for improving the accuracy of radiocarbon dating in the Late Pleistocene. While the integration of these datasets into the official IntCal calibration curve is still in progress, the findings represent a major step forward in understanding radiocarbon variability and its relationship with past solar activity and climate fluctuations.
Beyond its technical and methodological breakthroughs, RESOLUTION has strengthened interdisciplinary collaborations across radiocarbon science, archaeology, paleoanthropology, climatology, ecology, and physics, reinforcing the PI’s role as a leading figure in the application of radiocarbon dating to human evolution studies. These collaborations have fostered international academic mobility, enabling knowledge exchange and expanding research networks throughout Italy and Europe. The project’s success has already set the foundation for future advancements in radiocarbon calibration, ensuring that its results will continue to impact the scientific community well beyond the project's duration.
A key infrastructure milestone within RESOLUTION has been the construction of the BRAVHO radiocarbon laboratory at the University of Bologna, which has significantly enhanced Europe’s capacity for high-precision ¹⁴C dating. Since its establishment, BRAVHO has attracted numerous requests from European research institutes and universities for dating key archaeological sites, further reinforcing international collaborations and expanding research opportunities. The lab's role in human evolution research is growing, as it provides cutting-edge radiocarbon dating expertise that is essential for resolving debates about the timing of early human dispersals and interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
Beyond its technical and methodological breakthroughs, RESOLUTION has strengthened interdisciplinary collaborations across radiocarbon science, archaeology, paleoanthropology, climatology, ecology, and physics, reinforcing the PI’s role as a leading figure in the application of radiocarbon dating to human evolution studies. These collaborations have fostered international academic mobility, enabling knowledge exchange and expanding research networks throughout Italy and Europe. The project’s success has already set the foundation for future advancements in radiocarbon calibration, ensuring that its results will continue to impact the scientific community well beyond the project's duration.
A key infrastructure milestone within RESOLUTION has been the construction of the BRAVHO radiocarbon laboratory at the University of Bologna, which has significantly enhanced Europe’s capacity for high-precision ¹⁴C dating. Since its establishment, BRAVHO has attracted numerous requests from European research institutes and universities for dating key archaeological sites, further reinforcing international collaborations and expanding research opportunities. The lab's role in human evolution research is growing, as it provides cutting-edge radiocarbon dating expertise that is essential for resolving debates about the timing of early human dispersals and interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.