The Halibee member of the Upper Dawaitoli Formation of Ethiopia’s Middle Awash study area features a wealth of Middle and Later Stone Age (MSA and LSA) paleoanthropological resources in a succession of Pleistocene sediments. We introduce these artifacts and fossils, and determine their chronostratigraphic placement via a combination of established radioisotopic methods and a recently developed dating method applied to ostrich eggshell (OES). We apply the recently developed ²³⁰Th/U burial dating of OES to bridge the temporal gap between radiocarbon (¹⁴C) and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages for the MSA and provide ¹⁴C ages to constrain the younger LSA archaeology and fauna to ∼24 to 21.4 ka. Paired ¹⁴C and ²³⁰Th/U burial ages of OES agree at ∼31 ka for an older LSA locality, validating the newer method, and in turn supporting its application to stratigraphically underlying MSA occurrences previously constrained only by a maximum ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age. Associated fauna, flora, and Homo sapiens fossils are thereby now fixed between 106 ± 20 ka and 96.4 ± 1.6 ka (all errors 2σ). Additional ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹ results on an underlying tuff refine its age to 158.1 ± 11.0 ka, providing a more precise minimum age for MSA lithic artifacts, fauna, and H. sapiens fossils recovered ∼9 m below it. These results demonstrate how chronological control can be obtained in tectonically active and stratigraphically complex settings to precisely calibrate crucial evidence of technological, environmental, and evolutionary changes during the African Middle and Late Pleistocene.

埃塞俄比亚中阿瓦什研究区上 Dawaitoli 组的 Halibee 段在一系列更新世沉积物中具有丰富的中石器时代和晚期石器时代（MSA 和 LSA）古人类资源。我们介绍了这些人工制品和化石，并通过结合已建立的放射性同位素方法和最近开发的应用于鸵鸟蛋壳 (OES) 的测年方法来确定它们的年代地层位置。我们应用最近开发的 OES 的²³⁰ Th/U 埋藏年代来弥合MSA 的放射性碳 ( ¹⁴ C) 和⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹ Ar 年龄之间的时间差距，并提供¹⁴ C 年龄以将年轻的 LSA 考古学和动物群限制在 ~24至 21.4 ka。配对¹⁴对于较老的 LSA 位置，OES 的C 和²³⁰ Th/U 埋藏年龄一致为 ∼31 ka，验证了新方法，并反过来支持其应用于以前仅受最大⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹ Ar 年龄限制的地层底层 MSA 事件。因此，相关的动物群、植物群和智人化石现在固定在 106 ± 20 ka 和 96.4 ± 1.6 ka 之间（所有误差 2σ）。下层凝灰岩的额外⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹结果将其年龄细化至 158.1 ± 11.0 ka，为 MSA 石器文物、动物群和智人提供更精确的最小年龄化石在其下方约 9 m 处恢复。这些结果表明，如何在构造活跃和地层复杂的环境中获得年代控制，以精确校准非洲中更新世和晚更新世期间技术、环境和进化变化的关键证据。