Swabian Jura suggested that the Aurignacian was earlier attested
in Central Europe. But, another paper in the Journal of Human
Evolution examines meticulously the sequence in the Moch
rockshelter and finds that it is just as early. Comparisons with
dates for other Upper Palaeolithic contexts outside Italy
suggest that the date of the Protoaurignacian of Mochi compares
closely. In Fig. 9a the start boundaries for the earliest
Aurignacian evidence at the sites of Geissenklösterle (Germany),
Abri Pataud and Isturitz (France) are compared to the start
boundary for unit G in Mochi. The first two sites were dated
recently in Oxford with reliable methodologies (Higham et al.,
2011; Higham et al., in press) while for Isturitz only a small
number of dates exist for the earliest Upper Palaeolithic
(Szmidt et al., 2010). This comparison reveals that the
lowermost Aurignacian levels at Geissenklosterle (AHIII) and
Isturitz (C4d) date to the same period as Mochi G, at around
42.7-41.5 ka cal BP (68.2%). The earliest Aurig