On the Chronology of the Petralona Hominid

The chronology of the Petralona hominid continues to stimulate vigorous debate, and the recent contribution by Falguères assigning an age of ~300 ka has prompted me to a short commentary and critically recall and reassess the reported age with earlier investigations, most of which were missing from the said publication. Between 1980 and 1984 a series of seven papers devoted to the radiochemical dating of speleothems and travertines from Petralona Cave. These works represented some of the earliest systematic applications of Uranium–Thorium disequilibrium dating (U-234/Th-230) to the archaeological context of a hominid fossil. Taken together, earlier seven published studies, the methodological refinement for handling contamination, and the stratigraphic confirmation from the Mausoleum chamber all support a secure assignment of the Petralona hominid to at least 230 ka, most probably 250–300 ka BP.