Roca dels Bous (archaeological site) interesting archaeological site indeed. Furthermore, it is to be noted that the samples used for the 14C AMS dating were obtained from deep strata at the site. The oldest Neanderthal sites known in the nearby areas date back to around 40,000 BP. The first settlements attributed to “anatomically modern” Homo sapiens sapiens in Northern Spain are dated around 39,000-38,000 BP. All this would suggest that Neanderthals could have persisted in this particular area longer than previously believed, preceding the arrival of the first Homo sapiens to the area. Research work began in 1988. This wide period of time has contributed
Hydrogen isotope biogeochemistry measurement nowadays. The commercial products of GC-IRMS include both combustion and pyrolysis interfaces so that δC and δD can be measured simultaneously. The significant advantage of GC/pyrolysis method for hydrogen isotope measurement is that it can separate different compounds in the samples. It requires the smallest sample size (a typical size of ~ 200 ng) relative to other methods and also has a high precision of 1~5 ‰. But this method is relatively slow and limited to the samples which can be applied in GC system. Laser Spectroscopy (or Cavity ring-down spectroscopy, CRDS) is able to directly measure D/H, O/O