A Reassessment of the Routine Pretreatment Protocol for Radiocarbon Dating Cremated Bones

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Snoeck ◽  
Richard A Staff ◽  
Fiona Brock

AbstractIn the late 1990s, it was demonstrated that reliable radiocarbon dates could be obtained directly from cremated bone. Many 14C laboratories have since used a protocol for pretreating cremated (calcined) bones that consists of consecutive treatments with bleach and acetic acid to remove organic matter and extraneous or diagenetic carbonate, respectively. In most instances, the bleach used is sodium hypochlorite, although in recent years the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) has used acidified sodium chlorite instead. However, properly calcined (white) bones should not contain any organic material; hence, the bleach treatment is potentially unnecessary. This article describes studies investigating the effectiveness of bleach (and the specific bleach used) during pretreatment of calcined bone, and demonstrates that 14C dates on six cremated bone samples are statistically indistinguishable whether or not the initial bleach step is applied.

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 138-153
Author(s):  
R.K. Nepop ◽  
A.R. Agatova ◽  
M.A. Bronnikova ◽  
E.P. Zazovskaya ◽  
I.YU. Ovchinnikov ◽  
...  

AbstractThe high mountainous southeastern part of Russian Altai is characterized by complicated sedimentation history. As a result of tectonic movements, Paleogene, Neogene, and even more old Carboniferous and Jurassic organicrich deposits had been partly uplifted and exhumed on the ridge’s slopes, where during the Pleistocene, they were affected by various exogenous processes including glaciation, glacio-fluvial erosion, winnowing activity of ice-dammed lakes, sliding during lake-draining events, followed by further intensive Holocene erosion, pedogenesis, and permafrost formation/degradation.Remobilized ancient organic matter had been involved into geomorphic and pedogenesis processes and affected the results of radiocarbon dating. Numerous radiocarbon ages obtained revealed several typical problems in interpretation of dating results, which was confirmed by multidisciplinary investigations of associated sediments in a wider regional context.This article presents a discussion on obtained apparent radiocarbon dates of organic material from ten sections of the SE Altai. In addition to radiocarbon analysis, in each case multidisciplinary study was carried out in order to properly interpret obtained dates, as well as to explain the inability of directly using apparent 14C ages as a geochronological basis for paleogeographical reconstruction. The analysis presented is of vital importance for establishing the chronology of formation of large ice-dammed lakes and their cataclysmic draining; revealing chronology and paleoenvironmental conditions of pedogenesis in the highlands of the SE Altai; and estimating the range and magnitude of the tectonically driven topography rebuilding in the post-Neogene time.


1975 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 179-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Smith

In 1940 Professor Thurstan Shaw excavated a trench in the cave known as Bosumpra at Abetifi (6° 41′N:0° 44′W) on the borderline between the moist forest and the northern marginal forest (fig. 1). Bosumpra is one of the four main ‘abosom’ (lesser) gods of the Guan pantheon (Brokenshaw 1966, 156). The report (Shaw, 1944) showed that the cave was formerly inhabited by a people with a pottery-using microlithic culture and provided the first analytical description of the microlithic industries from the forest regions of West Africa. As the site was the first of its kind to be excavated, and the excavation was carried out before the advent of radiocarbon dating, there was no way of knowing what age this industry was, or how long the cave had been occupied, beyond placing it within the rubric of the so-called “Guinea Neolithic”.To attempt to clarify this problem a group of students from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Ghana and myself conducted the excavation of a small witness section (fig. 2) in the cave over New Year 1973/74 with the specific aim of collecting organic material for dating. We were fortunate in finding adequate amounts of charcoal at all levels. Two of these samples were submitted to Rikagaku Kenkyusho, Japan, for dating.


Author(s):  
К. В. Воронин

При радиоуглеродном датировании по формовочной массе и нагару с поверхности двух сосудов культуры сетчатой керамики с поселения Песочное 1 на озере Неро полученные даты оказались в среднем на ~ 500-700 лет старше радиоуглеродных дат образцов культурного слоя, в котором они были найдены. Причиной мог быть пресноводный резервуарный эффект, обусловленный присутствием сформировавшейся в воде органики. Его проявление можно расценивать как индикатор присутствия происходящего из водной среды органического материала в составе компонентов формовочной массы исследуемых сосудов. В окрестностях поселения Песочное 1 единственным природным материалом, содержащим органику водного происхождения, соотносимого с формовочной массой, является сапропель из озера Неро. Для определения сходств и различий в элементном и минеральном составе методами SEM-/EDS- и XRD-анализов были изучены образцы керамики каждого сосуда и образец сапропеля из озера. Установлено, что компонентами формовочной массы являются иллитовая глина с полевыми шпатами и кварцем в виде частиц песка, сапропель и костная мука. Возможность получения радиоуглеродных дат по формовочной массе, отсутствие в ней химических элементов, свидетельствующих о наличии нередуцированных органических веществ, присутствие иллита показывают, что обжиг сосудов был произведен в интервале примерно от 400 до 800 °С. The article is devoted to the analysis of clay paste and burnt crust adhering to the surface of two vessels attributed to the «network» pottery culture (pottery with textile imprints) from the Pesochnoye 1 settlement on Lake Nero. The radiocarbon dating of these samples shows that on average the dates obtained are older than the radiocarbon dates of the samples from the occupation layer where the vessels were found by ~ 500700 years. The age difference is probably caused by the fresh water reservoir effect related to presence of organic matter in the water and presence of organic matter from water in the composition of clay paste used to make the studied vessels. Sapropel from Lake Nero is the only natural material in the Pesochnoye 1 vicinities which contains organic matter of water origin comparable with the clay used for the vessels making. To determine similarities and differences in the elemental and mineral compositions by the SEM/EDS and the XRD analyses, ceramic samples from each vessel and a gyttja clay sample from the lake were examined. It was found that sapropel tempered with feld spar and quartz sand, sapropel and bone flour were mixed in the clay body. Radiocarbon dates that can be obtained for clay, absence of chemical elements that would demonstrate presence of unreduced organic matter, presence of illite clay imply that the firing temperature fell within ~ 400-800 °С.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. 5589-5621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. K. Vasil'chuk ◽  
A. C. Vasil'chuk

Abstract. The main problem of radiocarbon dating within permafrost is the uncertain reliability of the 14C dates. Syngenetic sediments contain allochthonous organic deposit that originated at a distance from its present position. Due to the very good preservation of organic materials in permafrost conditions and numerous re-burials of the fossils from ancient deposits into younger ones the dates could be both younger and older than the true age of dated material. The strategy for the most authentic radiocarbon date selection for dating of syncryogenic sediments is considered taking into account the fluvial origin of the syngenetic sediments. The re-deposition of organic material is discussed in terms of cyclic syncryogenic sedimentation and also the possible re-deposition of organic material in subaerial-subaqueous conditions. The advantages and the complications of dating organic micro-inclusions from ice wedges by the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) method are discussed applying to true age of dated material search. Radiocarbon dates of different organic materials from the same samples are compared. The younger age of the yedoma from cross-sections of Duvanny Yar in Kolyma River and Mamontova Khayata in the mouth of Lena River is substantiated due to the principle of the choice of the youngest 14C date from the set.


Radiocarbon ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
H W Scharpenseel ◽  
F Pietig ◽  
H Schiffmann

Radiocarbon measurements are carried out mainly on soil samples and soil organic matter fractions. Benzene samples are prepared as described earlier (Scharpenseel and Pietig, 1969; 1970). Radioactivity is measured in a single quartz vial, using a Packard Tri Carb Model 3075 as well as a Berthold Betascint BF 5000. Most equipment has been transferred from Bonn University Radiocarbon Dating Lab to Hamburg, where operation of former Bonn Radiocarbon Lab will be continued.


2017 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gentry A. Catlett ◽  
Jason A. Rech ◽  
Jeffrey S. Pigati ◽  
Mustafa Al Kuisi ◽  
Shanying Li ◽  
...  

AbstractPlayas, or ephemeral lakes, are one of the most common depositional environments in arid and semiarid lands worldwide. Playa deposits, however, have mostly been avoided as paleoclimatic archives because they typically contain exceptionally low concentrations of organic material, making14C dating difficult. Here, we describe a technique for concentrating organic matter in sediments for radiocarbon dating and apply it to playa sediments recovered from a 2.35 m sediment core from a small playa in southern Jordan. Based on14C ages of the organic concentrate fraction, the playa was active from ~29 to 21 ka, coincident with the last major high stand of Paleolake Lisan and wet conditions recorded by other paleoclimatic proxies in the southernmost Levant during the last full glacial period (35–20 ka). The timing and spatial pattern of these records suggests that the increased moisture was likely derived from more frequent and deeper eastern Mediterranean (EM) cyclones associated with the intensification of the westerlies. The presence of full glacial pluvial deposits in southern Jordan (29°N), and the lack of similarly aged deposits in the northern Arabian Peninsula to the south, suggests that the southerly limit of the incursion of EM cyclones during last full glacial period was ~28°N.


Author(s):  
M. M. Pevzner ◽  
O. V. Yashina ◽  
O. I. Smyshlyaeva ◽  
R. I. Nechushkin ◽  
T. D. Karimov ◽  
...  

Reference sections of friable sediments in central Kamchatka are studied and their present-day state is described. Previous concepts of the Middle Pleistocene age of these sediments are critically examined. Radiocarbon dates performed in the 1980s‒1990s by researchers at the Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, are revised. It is shown that some (oldest) part of dates did not pass the quality check. Results of the new (2016‒2017) radiocarbon dating agree well with the data accomplished previously and supported later by revision. Based on the combined databank with 65 determinations of different species of the buried organic material and mammal bones, the Late Pleistocene age of sediments is suggested. A new interpretation is proposed for the formation setting of some sequences in the studied sections.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 795-801 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Zaitseva ◽  
V Skripkin ◽  
N Kovaliukh ◽  
G Possnert ◽  
P Dolukhanov ◽  
...  

The direct measurement of organic matter included in archaeological pottery may yield a reliable assessment of age. The main problem consists in the identification of possible origins and assessment of distortion for the age of organic inclusions. Our experiments show that shells included in pottery fabrics are strongly influenced by the reservoir effect, which may reach 500 yr or more. Other organic inclusions, such as lake ooze, do not visibly distort the age. The obtained series of radiocarbon dates have been used for the assessing the age of the early stages of pottery manufacture in southern Russia.


2003 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Prentiss ◽  
Michael Lenert ◽  
Thomas A. Foor ◽  
Nathan B. Goodale ◽  
Trinity Schlegel

This paper provides an analysis of radiocarbon dates acquired during earlier and recent field seasons at the Keatley Creek site, southern British Columbia. Results indicate that early occupations predating 1900 cal. B.P. occurred, but were not likely associated with population aggregation and large housepits. The aggregated village appears to have emerged by approximately 1700 cal. B.P. and was abandoned at approximately 800 cal. B.P. A break in the occupational sequence is recognized at 1450-1350 cal. B.P. and one other short break may have occurred shortly after 1250 cal. B.P. Peak socioeconomic complexity appears to have been achieved between 1350 and 800 cal B.P. Climatic warming may have provided a selective environment favoring population aggregation and intensification during this time. The final abandonment of the Keatley Creek village appears to have been part of a regional phenomenon suggesting the possibility that climatic factors were important in this case as well.


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