Tarentian / Tarantian
Proposed name(s) for a stage representing the Upper Pleistocene; no equivalent named stage is ratified on the ICS 2026/06 chart.
Language and route: Modern proposed geographical terms from Italian Taranto / Latin Tarentum. Modern proposed geographical terms from Italian Taranto / Latin Tarentum. Italian/Latin place-name, with competing unratified spellings.
Literal gloss: of Taranto (Latin Tarentum)
The name and its history
Cita & Castradori / van Couvering; later Negri and colleagues · Tarantian proposed 1994–1995; Tarentian proposed 2015
- What does the word literally mean?
- of Taranto (Latin Tarentum)
- What did the original author mean?
- Earlier authors proposed Tarantian in the 1990s; Negri and colleagues deliberately used Tarentian in 2015, derived from ancient Tarentum, for a proposed Italian marine type area.
- Why was the name needed?
- A global stage spanning the interval since the last interglacial needed an agreed name and basal GSSP, whereas Eemian and Tyrrhenian are regional or differently based concepts.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Mediterranean marine succession near Taranto and oxygen-isotope climate stratigraphy suggested a candidate for the lower boundary around Termination II and MIS 5.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- Neither spelling is a ratified ICS stage name as of June 2026; the Upper/Late Pleistocene subepoch is formal even though its lower stage/GSSP remains unratified.
Further historical context
Earlier authors proposed Tarantian in the 1990s; Negri and colleagues deliberately used Tarentian in 2015, derived from ancient Tarentum, for a proposed Italian marine type area.
A global stage spanning the interval since the last interglacial needed an agreed name and basal GSSP, whereas Eemian and Tyrrhenian are regional or differently based concepts.
Mediterranean marine succession near Taranto and oxygen-isotope climate stratigraphy suggested a candidate for the lower boundary around Termination II and MIS 5.
Neither spelling is a ratified ICS stage name as of June 2026; the Upper/Late Pleistocene subepoch is formal even though its lower stage/GSSP remains unratified.
Editorial qualification
Do not erase the documented spelling distinction or misstate the 2015 Tarentian proposal as the official Upper Pleistocene.
Related names
Sources
- ICS, International Chronostratigraphic Chart v2026/06 — Governing classification, chronological sequence and numerical reference ages; not naming priority
- Negri et al. (2015), potential GSSP for Tarentian Stage, Quaternary International — Original 2015 Tarentian proposal contrasting earlier Tarantian spelling; not a ratified ICS unit
- Negri et al. (2015), accessible article copy — Contemporaneous proposal spells out Tarantian (1994/95) versus Tarentian (2015)
- Head et al. (2021), Formal ratification of Pleistocene subseries, Episodes — Documents January 2020 ratification of Lower and Upper Pleistocene subepochs and unratified Upper stage
- ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Major divisions — Institutional history of Quaternary stages, GSSPs, and reassignment of the Gelasian
- ICS, International Stratigraphic Guide: Chronostratigraphic Units — Stage/age, series/epoch and subseries/subepoch distinctions