The 12 Mile Creek Site: A Reinvestigation

1984 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 757-764 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A. Rogers ◽  
Larry D. Martin
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Scientific Personnel ◽  
Kill Site ◽  
Original Concept

The 12 Mile Creek site in western Kansas was the first site yielding a fluted projectile point to be excavated in North America by scientific personnel. The Bison from this kill site were used in forming the original concept of B. occidentalis. A new study of the site including radiocarbon dates and a pollen analysis suggests the kill took place in a pine parkland about 10,300 years ago. The artifact from this site reported by Williston seems to be a Clovis projectile point.

scholarly journals Pollen analysis: state of the art

2010 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 151-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon J. Ogden
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Sediment Cores ◽  
Data Bank ◽  
Sedimentation Rates ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Surface Pollen ◽  
Pollen Stratigraphy ◽  
Better Than

Although nearly 50 years have passed since P.B. Sears introduced pollen analysis to North America, it remains an occult art. Dramatic improvements in sampling and analytic techniques continue to be limited by intractable problems of differential production, dispersal, ballistics, sedimentation, and preservation. It is a basic tenet of pollen stratigraphy that the data set, consisting primarily of microfossils preserved in sediments, is better than anything we have yet been able to do with it. Basic agreement between late- and postglacial pollen records has been confirmed wherever the method has been applied. Quantitative sampling techniques, sample preparation, and analytic procedures, together with multiple radiocarbon dates, permits calculation of sedimentation rates and absolute pollen influx. Of approximately 300 sediment cores from northeastern North America, fewer than 30 have more than 3 radiocarbon determinations from which least squares power curve regressions can be reliably calculated in the determination of sedimentation rates. Analogy with modern environments represented by surface pollen spectra is limited by an insufficient number of samples of uniform quality to characterize a vegetational mosaic covering 40 degrees of latitude (40-80°N) and longitude (60-100°W). The present surface pollen data bank includes about 700 samples, unevenly spaced and of uneven quality, permitting a grid resolution of no better than 10,000 km2.

A Prehistoric Ford near Rough Castle, Falkirk

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-103
Author(s):  
JAMIE HAMILTON ◽  
CIARA CLARKE ◽  
ANDREW DUNWELL ◽  
RICHARD TIPPING
Keyword(s):  
Coal Mining ◽  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Site Formation Processes ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Small Stream ◽  
Mining Project ◽  
First Millennium

This report presents the results of the excavation of a stone ford laid across the base of a small stream valley near Rough Castle, Falkirk. It was discovered during an opencast coal mining project. Radiocarbon dates and pollen analysis of deposits overlying the ford combine to indicate a date for its construction no later than the early first millennium cal BC. Interpreting this evidence was not straightforward and the report raises significant issues about site formation processes and the interpretation of radiocarbon and pollen evidence. The importance of these issues extends beyond the rarely investigated features such as fords and deserve a larger place in the archaeological literature.

Present and postglacial rates of uplift for glaciated northern and eastern North America derived from postglacial uplift curves

1970 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 703-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Andrews
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Eastern North America ◽  
Hudson Bay ◽  
High Cell ◽  
Uplift Rate ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Marine Deposits ◽  
Maximum Value ◽  
Current Maximum ◽  
A Current

Average rates of postglacial uplift reach a maximum value of nearly 4 m 100 y−1 over southeastern Hudson Bay, and another high cell, with rates of about 2.5 m 100 y−1, lies between Bathurst Inlet and Southampton Island. Current rates of uplift are underestimated if exponential curves are fitted solely to dated raised marine deposits without considering the amount of future recovery. Rates of rebound are, instead, derived from A/t where A is uplift in the first 1000 y since deglaciation, and t is time since deglaciation. For the northwest margin of the former ice sheet coefficients of determination for rate of uplift, at specific times, as a function of distance are [Formula: see text]. Maps of rates of uplift for northern and eastern North America are presented for 8000 y B.P., 6000 y B.P. and the present day. They reveal the existence of three uplift centers and show that rates of uplift declined from a maximum of 10 to 12 m 100 y−1, immediately following deglaciation, to a current maximum of about 1.3 m 100 y−1. Agreement is satisfactory when calculated rates of uplift are compared with those derived from geological observations, radiocarbon dates, and from water-level records. A final map shows isochrones on the uplift rate of ~1 m 100 y−1. The rate dropped to this value about 10 000 y ago on the outer northwest and southeast coasts, whereas the value might not be reached for another 2000 y in southeastern Hudson Bay.

Points in Time: Direct Radiocarbon Dates on Great Basin Projectile Points

2013 ◽  
Vol 78 (3) ◽  
pp. 580-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey M. Smith ◽  
Pat Barker ◽  
Eugene M. Hattori ◽  
Anan Raymond ◽  
Ted Goebel
Keyword(s):  
Great Basin ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Projectile Points ◽  
Primary Means ◽  
Point Types ◽  
Cross Dating ◽  
Age Estimates

AbstractTypological cross-dating is the primary means by which archaeological sites are placed into chronological frameworks. This approach relies on the assumption that artifacts at undated sites—usually projectile points—are coeval with similar artifacts found at Other, dated sites. While typological cross-dating is necessary in regions dominated by open-air lithic scatters, the approach can be problematic when undated and dated sites are separated by significant distances. Here, we present radiocarbon dates on projectile points with organic hafting material still attached or found within organic storage bags. Our results provide unequivocal ages for various morphological projectile point types at several Great Basin locales and should be useful to researchers seeking local age estimates for those point types, which often involves relying on chronological data from more distant sites. The results also highlight potential issues with uncritically applying typological cross-dating using typologies based on metric attributes, and in two cases, suggest the need to revise the age ranges for certain point styles in the western Great Basin.

Insect faunas of late Devensian and Flandrian age from Church Stretton, Shropshire

1972 ◽  
Vol 263 (852) ◽  
pp. 327-367 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Pollen Analysis ◽  
Thermal Environment ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Number Of Species ◽  
Summer Temperatures ◽  
Zone Ii ◽  
Climatic Optimum ◽  
The Church

Invertebrate faunas consisting mainly of insects, from deposits in the Church Stretton valley, are described and discussed. These deposits fall into two periods: ( a ) Late Devensian, which follows an episode of glaciation and precedes a period of accumulation of frost-shattered gravel fans; and ( b ) Flandrian, which post-dates the gravels and has been placed in the post-Glacial pollen zones VI and VII. The faunas of these two episodes are dealt with separately in Parts I and II respectively. Part I. From two sites in which sequences containing clays, peats and silts were examined five radiocarbon dates are available, the oldest being 13 555 ± 620 years B.P. and the most recent 11 000 ± 200 years B.P. The faunas include a substantial number of species not now found in Shropshire, many not in Britain. Inferences on the changing ecology and thermal environment of the area are drawn from these faunas and are compared with the pollen analytical zones. This comparison shows that, according to the insects, the warmest part of the episode was late zone I, and that zone II (the Allerod), often considered to be the climatic optimum of the period, appears to have been a time of gradually deteriorating summer temperatures. Part II. Deposits from three late Flandrian sites are discussed. Although only one radiocarbon date was obtained, of 8101 ± 138 years B.P., pollen analysis was carried out by Rowlands throughout each sequence and this showed that the earliest deposit, at Little Stretton, dated from zone VI a and at all three localities deposition continued into zone VII b. An examination of the insect assemblages shows that completely different biotopes, from open pasture to dense woodland, were existing side by side in the Church Stretton valley in late Flandrian time. Summer temperatures at least as high as those of today are inferred. The possibility exists that during the period represented here the climate was even warmer than that of the present but until more information is available it is not possible to be more definite on this point.

scholarly journals Tree-Ring Records of Near-Younger Dryas Time in Central North America—Preliminary Results from the Lincoln Quarry Site, Central Illinois, Usa

Radiocarbon ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 933-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina P Panyushkina ◽  
Steven W Leavitt ◽  
Alex Wiedenhoeft ◽  
Sarah Noggle ◽  
Brandon Curry ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Ring Width ◽  
Younger Dryas ◽  
Late Glacial ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Initial Sampling ◽  
Central Illinois ◽  
A Site

The abrupt millennial-scale changes associated with the Younger Dryas (YD) event (“chronozone”) near the dawn of the Holocene are at least hemispheric, if not global, in extent. Evidence for the YD cold excursion is abundant in Europe but fairly meager in central North America. We are engaged in an investigation of high-resolution environmental changes in mid-North America over several millennia (about 10,000 to 14,000 BP) during the Late Glacial–Early Holocene transition, including the YD interval. Several sites containing logs or stumps have been identified and we are in the process of initial sampling or re-sampling them for this project. Here, we report on a site in central Illinois containing a deposit of logs initially thought to be of YD age preserved in alluvial sands. The assemblage of wood represents hardwood (angiosperm) trees, and the ring-width characteristics are favorable to developing formal tree-ring chronologies. However, 4 new radiocarbon dates indicate deposition of wood may have taken place over at least 8000 14C yr (6000–14,000 BP). This complicates the effort to develop a single floating chronology of several hundred years at this site, but it may provide wood from a restricted region over a long period of time from which to develop a sequence of floating chronologies, the timing of deposition and preservation of which could be related to paleoclimatic events and conditions.

Location and Position in Archaeology: Revisiting the Original Association of a Folsom Point with Bison Ribs

2015 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 732-744
Author(s):  
R. Lee Lyman
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Site Formation ◽  
Projectile Point ◽  
Site Structure ◽  
Archaeological Interpretation

The proveniences (locations) of artifacts have long been critically important to archaeological interpretation. Although of major importance to site formation studies, positional attributes of artifacts (e.g., orientation, dip, which side is up) are seldom mentioned. When discovered in 1927, the in situ association of a Folsom projectile point with two ribs of a Pleistocene form of bison was interpreted as indicative of the contemporaneity of the three items, and thus was taken as evidence for the Pleistocene age of humans in North America. The locational and positional attributes of the two ribs and the point relative to one another suggest it is improbable that the point was deposited simultaneously with the two ribs as a result of it being embedded in the animal's flank, which is not to say the three items are not depositionally and temporally associated. Previously unmentioned positional attributes of the items making up the original Folsom association exemplify the importance of such attributes. New understanding of the original association underscores that actualistic research is required to identify the kinds of positional attributes important to questions regarding site formation and site structure.

Evaluating the Old Wood Problem in a Temperate Climate: A Fort Ancient Case Study

2014 ◽  
Vol 79 (04) ◽  
pp. 763-775 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert A. Cook ◽  
Aaron R. Comstock
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
American Southwest ◽  
Wood Charcoal ◽  
Arid Climate ◽  
Temperate Climate ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Eastern Woodlands ◽  
Fort Ancient

Abstract Schiffer (1986) first identified the old wood problem for wood charcoal-based dates from archaeological contexts in the American Southwest. The potential for dates to be skewed toward excessively old calendar ages in this region has recently generated reticence in part of the archaeological community towards including wood charcoal dates in general. Some scholars have even begun to cleanse the radiocarbon databases of regions throughout North America, partly with this presumed limitation in mind. However, the issues that contribute to the old wood problem have not been closely examined outside the arid climate of the American Southwest, resulting in some studies excluding hundreds of radiocarbon dates. The present study fills that void by examining the radiocarbon record from four well-dated Fort Ancient sites in southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana. Specifically, we test whether or not there are significant differences between wood charcoal and non-wood charcoal assays. Our findings suggest that wood charcoal dates should not be excluded. We explore reasons for this difference in the Eastern Woodlands and propose an ideal dating regime.

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