Untangling time-averaging in shell middens: Defining temporal units using amino acid racemisation

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 741-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brent Koppel ◽  
Katherine Szabó ◽  
Mark W. Moore ◽  
Michael J. Morwood
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Time Averaging ◽  
Shell Middens ◽  
Amino Acid Racemisation

Protein diagenesis in archaeological shells of Littorina littorea (Linnaeus, 1758) and the suitability of this material for amino acid racemisation dating

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 101017
Author(s):  
José E. Ortiz ◽  
Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti ◽  
Yolanda Sánchez-Palencia ◽  
Trinidad Torres ◽  
Manuel González-Morales
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Littorina Littorea ◽  
Amino Acid Racemisation

Mimicking the effects of anthropogenic heating on amino acid racemisation dating of gastropod shells

2020 ◽  
Vol 59 ◽  
pp. 101084
Author(s):  
José E. Ortiz ◽  
Yolanda Sánchez-Palencia ◽  
Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti ◽  
Trinidad Torres ◽  
Manuel González-Morales
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Amino Acid Racemisation

Identification of remanié fossils using amino acid racemisation

1994 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin V. Murray-Wallace ◽  
Antonio P. Belperio
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Amino Acid Racemisation

scholarly journals Scale of time-averaging in archaeological shell middens from the Canary Islands

The Holocene ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 258-271
Author(s):  
Wesley G Parker ◽  
Yurena Yanes ◽  
Eduardo Mesa Hernández ◽  
Juan Carlos Hernández Marrero ◽  
Jorge Pais ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Canary Islands ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Foraging Strategies ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Time Averaging ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Shell Middens ◽  
Carbonate Material ◽  
Dating Method ◽  
Analytical Errors

Characterizing the degree of disturbance in archaeological deposits is critically important for archaeologists assessing foraging strategies, environmental conditions, or behavior patterns of ancient human groups. Qualitative techniques (e.g. micromorphology analysis) have previously been applied to assess the degree of disturbance (age-mixing) in archaeological sites; however, quantitative dating of material in the sites provides a more robust assessment of potential age-mixing. Unfortunately, because of budget constraints, archaeologists are frequently forced to rely on few quantitative age dates for an assemblage, thus obfuscating the signal of age-mixing of the deposit. The development of an affordable and rapid carbonate-target accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon (14C) dating method provides a cost-effective way to retrieve more quantitative dates from carbonate material in archaeological assemblages to assess the degree of age-mixing in the deposit. This study tests this new technique and dates numerous harvested marine limpet shells from archaeological sites in the Canary Islands to determine whether there is multidecadal to multicentennial age-mixing. A total of 58 shells retrieved from six sites and three islands yielded uncalibrated radiocarbon ages ranging from 2265 ± 40 to 765 ± 35 BP, coinciding with the time of prehistoric human occupation in these islands. While most shells from the same stratum showed statistically equivalent ages, in some cases we detected age ranges that exceeded the imprecisions from analytical errors. This investigation is one of the first to quantitatively illustrate that shells retrieved from depth intervals without evident stratigraphic disturbance do not always contain contemporaneous remains and, therefore, dating each specimen is valuable for developing further paleoclimatic and paleoanthropological inferences. This study presents the first report of carbonate-target 14C ages from archaeological shell middens, and suggests that this novel radiocarbon methodology can be applied to these sites, thus allowing the generation of a more comprehensive chronology.

scholarly journals Protein diagenesis in Patella shells: Implications for amino acid racemisation dating

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 105-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
José E. Ortiz ◽  
Igor Gutiérrez-Zugasti ◽  
Trinidad Torres ◽  
Manuel González-Morales ◽  
Yolanda Sánchez-Palencia
Keyword(s):  
Amino Acid ◽  
Amino Acid Racemisation
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