The age of the first manifestations of Art in South Africa, as well as the chronology of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) lithic industries to which they are associated, are hotly debated. This is due to a lack of consensus about the available dating results obtained these last years by the application of the luminescence dating techniques. We propose in this ANR project to develop a new chronology of the MSA based on the direct dating of bio-minerals (ostrich eggshells –OES, snails and other carbonated and phosphated materials –teeth) using the U-series dating method (U/Th). But, conversely to the usual way of application of this method, our first objective is to map in our samples the distributions of uranium (238U-234U) and thorium (230Th-232Th) on large areas (typically, a few square millimetres) in order to identify zones not affected by post-depositional processes. Getting such spatial distributions has recently become possible thanks to the development of a high performance, unique in the world, high repetition rate UV femtosecond laser-ablation system allowing to achieve a resolution of typically 6 µm. Mapping the distributions of uranium and thorium would allow, theoretically, to compute ages but, because of the extremely low 230Th signal intensity, we will use the same laser-ablation system to sample the unaltered parts of these materials and get enough material for precise measurements. The second objective will then concern the analysis of these micro-samples (ranging from the sub mg to 100 mg): we will develop novel approaches in order to address the analytical challenge consisting in determining low uranium and thorium contents (2-500 ppb) and low abundant 234U and 230Th in these microsamples. Preliminary tests performed recently on OES by the partners of this consortium showed these new approaches could be successful: if it is confirmed, this would open new horizons for establishing a detailed chronology of numerous MSA sites, fuel the debate on the emergence of modern behaviors during the MSA period and perhaps, allow in the future the direct dating of engraved OES whose age could be as old as 80,000 years, what has never been done before. Beyond South African MSA, numerous studies could also be undertaken for archaeological sites spread all over the world with the ambitiousness to revisit the chronology of the Prehistory (<500 ka) on all continents. Moreover, these analytical developments could likely be transposed as well in other scientific domains, such as environmental sciences, nuclear safety or upstream petroleum industry where technical improvements usually open new perspectives. Keywords : High repetition rate UV femtosecond Laser-Ablation (fsLA-), Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS), U-series Dating method (U-Th); Geochronology; Ostrich EggShells (OES); Teeth; Art; Prehistory; Middle Stone Age (MSA); Early Modern Humans; Early Modern behavior; South-Africa. PARTNERS-list: Partner 1 = IRAMAT-CRP2A: UMR 5060 CNRS-Université Bordeaux Montaigne (France) + Prehistorians from South-Africa, Germany, France; Partner 2 = IPREM-LCABIE : UMR 5254 CNRS-Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (France) ; Partner 3 = LSCE/IPSL : UMR 8212 CEA-CNRS-Université Versailles Saint-Quentin (France). Requested funding to the ANR = 126.9 k€. Project duration = 24 months, starting in January 2017 and finishing in December 2018.