Thermoluminescence Dating of a Middle Palaeolithic Occupation at Sodmein Cave, Red Sea Mountains (Egypt)

The Palaeolithic sequence from Sodmein Cave in the Egyptian Eastern Desert, near Quseir, contains seven stratified archaeological levels from the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic. The lowest archaeological level (Middle Palaeolithic level 5) consists of huge fireplaces associated with a lithic assemblage in which Nubian Levallois technology and bifacial tools are present. From this level, six fragments from two large burned flint blocks have been dated by thermoluminescence. A mean age-estimate of 118 8 ka for the six dates, all of which fall between 109 and 127 ka, puts the use of this hearth at the beginning of Oxygen Isotope Stage 5, most likely during episodes e or d. This age is close to that of other Egyptian Middle Palaeolithic sites with very similar lithic assemblages. 1999 Academic Press