The dating of stalagmitic calcite at the early hominid site of Caune de l'Arago, France, by the electron spin resonance (ESR) technique of Yokoyama et al., has yielded ages for the underlying floor of approximately 7 x 10⁵ years. These are in serious disagreement with the chronology obtained by thermoluminescence (TL), which indicates a date of around 3 x 10⁵ years. The discrepancy has been attributed to instability of the TL 280°C dating signal, for which a mean life of 2 x 10⁵ years was proposed. Here the arguments on which this claim is based are criticized, and evidence is presented that corrections to TL age measurements incurved by signal fading are, even for the oldest stalagmites from the site, probably less than 15%. The conflict between the TL and ESR chronologies at Caune de l'Arago is explicable in terms of the ESR results reported by Skinner. -- AATA