scholarly journals Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone collagen associated with early pottery at Yuchanyan Cave, Hunan Province, China

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (24) ◽  
pp. 9595-9600 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Boaretto ◽  
X. Wu ◽  
J. Yuan ◽  
O. Bar-Yosef ◽  
V. Chu ◽  
...  
Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (2) ◽  
pp. 733-741 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victor N Karmanov ◽  
Natalia E Zaretskaya ◽  
Alexander V Volokitin

A case study of the Neolithic comb ceramic site Pezmog 4 of the Kama culture presents a situation when results of radiocarbon dating change long-existing concepts concerning the development of archaeological events. Until the early 2000s, the chronology of the Kama culture, distributed mainly in the Kama and Vychegda River basins, has been based on comparative-typological analysis. Estimates of the age of this culture changed from the 3rd millennium BC in the 1950s to the 1st half of the 4th millennium BC by the 1990s. Research concerning the Pezmog 4 site in the central Vychegda River basin in 1999–2002 has abruptly changed this chronological understanding. The data obtained put the age of the early stage of Kama culture within the time range 5750–5620 cal BC and allowed us to propose the existence of another way of early pottery distribution in the forest zone of eastern Europe at the beginning of the 6th millennium BC. This innovation probably penetrated from the trans-Ural region.


2007 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 719-734 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael P. Richards ◽  
Sheila Greer ◽  
Lorna T. Corr ◽  
Owen Beattie ◽  
Alexander Mackie ◽  
...  

We report here on the results of AMS dating and isotopic analysis of the frozen human remains named Kwaday Dän Ts'inchí and associated materials recovered from a glacier located in Northwest British Columbia, Canada in 1999. The isotopic analysis of bone collagen (bulk and single amino acids) from the individual indicates a strongly marine diet, which was unexpected given the location of this find, more than 100 km inland eroding out of a high elevation glacier; however, bulk hair and bone cholesterol isotopic values indicate a shift in diet to include more terrestrial foods in the year before death. The radiocarbon dating is not straightforward, as there are difficulties in determining the appropriate marine correction for the human remains, and the spread of dates on the associated artifacts clearly indicates that this was not a single use site. By combining the most recent date on a robe worn by Kwaday Dän Ts'inchi with direct bone collagen dates we conclude that the individual likely dates to between cal A.D. 1670 to 1850, which is in the pre-(or early) European contact period for this region.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gytis Piličiauskas ◽  
Carl Heron

The aim of this article is to discuss radiocarbon dating offsets due to freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE and MRE, respectively) in the southeastern Baltic. Thirty-six 14C dates from Lithuanian coastal and inland Subneolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age sites as well as two Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries are presented here. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates, sometimes paired or tripled, have been obtained on samples of various origin, foodcrusts, or visible charred deposits adhering to the surfaces of ceramic vessel walls were also dated and investigated for stable isotope signals. The results argue for a significant freshwater component in the food processed in ceramic vessels during the Subneolithic and Neolithic. Paired dating of ungulate and human bones at the Spiginas and Donkalnis cemeteries (6300–1900 cal BC) does not suggest an FRE, although stable isotope data on human bone collagen strongly suggest a large input of freshwater food in the diet. An FRE in the order of 320–510 yr was estimated for the Šventoji paleolagoon around 3000 cal BC. At the same time, the FRE of the Curonian Lagoon could be larger as implied by large apparent 14C ages of modern pike-perch (981 ± 30 BP) and bream (738 ± 30 BP) bones as well as “foodcrust” offsets (650–530 yr) at Nida (3500–2500 cal BC). An MRE of 190 ± 43 yr was estimated for the southeastern coast of the Littorina Sea according to offsets between dates of seal bones and terrestrial samples at Nida and Šventoji. Any FRE at Lake Kretuonas remains uncertain due to the limited work to date.


Author(s):  
Stephen Black ◽  
Katherine Spradley ◽  
Michelle Hamilton

The discovery of two well preserved human crania in a crevice overlooking a spring fed creek near Austin, Texas, led to medico legal, archeological, and bioanthropological investigations aimed at understanding the context and biological affinity of the crania. Archeological excavations uncovered no evidence that the crania were interred in the crevice during prehistoric times. Skeletal analysis showed they were of Native American ancestry. Radiocarbon dating indicated they are contemporary to one another and probably date to the seventh or eighth century A.D. Measured stable isotopic rations of carbon ( 13 C/ 12 C) and nitrogen ( 15 N/ 14 N) derived from human bone collagen samples from the crania are not consistent with other burial populations from the region, having higher nitrogen values than all other comparative samples. The crania also showed polish from repeated handling and several of the molars in one cranium had been glued in place. Taken together, these lines of evidence suggest the crania were removed from an unknown locality outside the Central Texas region, kept in a private collection, and placed in the crevice recently.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7174
Author(s):  
John P. Hart ◽  
Robert S. Feranec ◽  
Timothy J. Abel ◽  
Jessica L. Vavrasek

Isotopic analysis of dog (Canis lupus familiaris) bone recovered from archaeological sites as proxies for human bone is becoming common in North America. Chronological placement of the dogs is often determined through radiocarbon dating of dog bone. The Great Lakes, their tributaries, and nearby lakes and streams were important fisheries for Native Americans prior to and after sustained European presence in the region. Carbon entering the food web in freshwater systems is often not in full isotopic equilibrium with the atmosphere, giving rise to spuriously old radiocarbon ages in fish, other aquatic organisms, and their consumers. These freshwater reservoir offsets (FROs) have been noted on human and dog bone in several areas of the world. Here we report the results of multi-tracer Bayesian dietary modeling using δ15N and δ13C values on dog bone collagen from mid-fifteenth to mid-sixteenth-century Iroquoian village sites at the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River, New York, USA. Results indicate that fish was an important component of dog diets. A comparison of radiocarbon dates on dog bone with dates on deer bone or maize from the same sites indicate FROs ranging from 97 ± 24 to 220 ± 39 14Cyr with a weighted mean of 132 ± 8 14Cyr. These results suggest that dog bone should not be used for radiocarbon dating in the absence of modeling to determine fish consumption and that previously reported radiocarbon dates on human bone from the larger region are likely to have FROs given the known importance of fish in regional human diets.


2017 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 593-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
James C. Chatters ◽  
James W. Brown ◽  
Steven Hackenberger ◽  
Patrick McCutcheon ◽  
Jonathan Adler

Radiocarbon dating using charcoal and bone collagen, two standards of archaeological chronology, can be difficult to impossible in environments where natural burning is common and bone does not preserve well. In such settings, charcoal ages cannot always be trusted and collagen is unavailable. Calcined bone can be a viable alternative medium in these situations but it has rarely been exploited in the Americas. One area that could benefit from its use is the forested Pacific Northwest. We compare calcined bone ages with charcoal and/or collagen dates from individual features or discrete cultural strata in 10 Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia sites dating between 9000 and 100 B.P. Resulting radiocarbon age estimates based on calcined bone closely match those based on charcoal and/or collagen in nearly all cases. We obtained calcined bone dates from three additional Holocene-aged sites that had not previously produced accurate results, obtaining findings consistent with estimates based on cross dating. Preserving well where all other organic media of cultural origin are lost or unreliable, calcined bone holds promise for dating sites in conifer forests and other acidic soil settings, and can allow researchers to refine archaeological sequences that have long defied accurate chronometric analysis.


Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1533-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina H Nielsen ◽  
Bente Philippsen ◽  
Marie Kanstrup ◽  
Jesper Olsen

ABSTRACTTollund Man is one of the most famous Iron Age bog bodies due to his well-preserved head. Since he was unearthed in 1950 in Bjældskovdal, Denmark, he has been subjected to several scientific investigations, but until now no attempts to reconstruct his general diet through isotope analyses have been conducted. Furthermore, previous radiocarbon (14C) analyses have only been able to date him broadly to the 3rd–4th century BC. In this study, stable isotope measurements (δ13C, δ15N) on bone collagen from Tollund Man’s femur and rib showed that the diet of Tollund Man was terrestrial-based and that the crops he ate probably were grown on manured fields. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates were obtained on both the <30kDa and >30kDa fractions of ultrafiltered collagen. Results showed that the ultrafiltration removed contamination from older substances from the burial environment. The femur was dated to 2330±23 BP, the rib to 2322±30 BP. These dates statistically agree with a previously published AMS 14C age on skin. By combining the new dates with the previous date of his skin it was possible to narrow down the age of Tollund Man to the period 405–380 cal BC (95.4% confidence interval).


2006 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 370-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hervé Bocherens ◽  
Dorothée G. Drucker ◽  
Daniel Billiou ◽  
Jean-Michel Geneste ◽  
Johannes van der Plicht

Radiocarbon ◽  
1974 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis D Coleman

All samples processed from November 1971 through January 1973 at the Illinois State Geological Survey Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory are reported here. The benzene liquid scintillation technique was used. Laboratory procedures used were the same as those reported by Coleman (1973), with the exceptions that bone collagen was separated by the Longin (1970; 1971) technique and acetylene was trimerized to benzene as described by Coleman, et al (1972).


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