14C dating (Archaeology)

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Review: Past Times, Changing Fortunes: Proceedings of a Public Seminar on Archaeological Discoveries on National Road Schemes, August 2010' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Review: Of Troughs and Tuyères: The archaeology of the N5 Charlestown Bypass' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

"As lareiras infratumulares" [The fireplaces beneath the mound]

by Marta Diaz-Guardamino Uribe

(Portuguese) In Alcalar 7: Estudo e Reabilitação de um Monumento Megalítico, edited by E. Morán and R. Parreira, pp. 137-147. Lisboa, Instituto Portugués de Patrimonio Arquitectónico.

This is the study of two fireplaces that were documented beneath the megalithic mound of the funerary monument #7 of... more This is the study of two fireplaces that were documented beneath the megalithic mound of the funerary monument #7 of the necropolis of Alcalar (South Portugal). Monument #7 is an impresive corbelled architecture that was built during the 3rd Millenium BC. The detailed excavation of the mound revealed the existence of two fireplaces beneath it. One of the interesting aspects of these fireplaces is that C14 dates (charcoal of the fireplaces) take us to the 5th Millenium BC. Another relevant issue is that in the atrium of the 3rd Millenium BC monument there are two -possibly reused- menhirs. Menhirs are a common feature in settlements and "ritual" places known in this sector of South Portugal during the 5th Millenium BC. Therefore, the fireplaces and menhirs of Alcalar 7 were old pre-existences of the place, maybe one of the reasons why, during the 3rd Millenium BC, this location is selected for the construction of a new monument. 

Chapple, R. M. 2012 'Corrstown: A Coastal Community. Excavations of a Bronze Age village in Northern Ireland: Review' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Review: Creative Minds: Proceedings of a Public Seminar on Archaeological Discoveries on National Road Schemes, August 2009' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Irish National Strategic Research (INSTAR) Programme- Findings From the First Phase 2008-2011. Review' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

Chapple, R. M. 2011 'Irish Copper Age houses in a radiocarbon landscape: a reply to Dr Charles Mount' Blogspot post

by Robert M Chapple

"The Good, the Bad, the Weird": Stone Age and Early Metal Period Radiocarbon Dates and Chronology from the Karelian Isthmus, North-West Russia

by Oula Seitsonen

Co-authored with Kerkko Nordqvist, Dmitrij V. Gerasimov and Sergei N. Lisitsyn, published in Geochronometria 2012.

Promachon-Topolnica: A Typology of Painted Decorations and Its Use as a Chronological Marker

by Ivan Vajsov

In the late Neolithic, at the end of the VI century BC. In the region of Middle and Lower Struma/Strimon establish culture Topolnica-Akropotamos. Its appearance changes radically the appearance of the area and structure of Neolithic habitation system during this period consists of numerous large settlements along the plateaus along the rivers. These concerns and the settlement Promachon-Topolnica. The study is of utmost importance to the prehistory of the Balkans. It's about eponyms object given the name of the late Neolithic culture Topolnica-Akropotamos. The article presents the results of the study of decorated ceramics, as is the focus of bitumen (type Topolnica), black on red pottery (type Strumsko and Akropotamos). Stratigraphy of the neolithic Promachon-Topolnica change current ideas about the development of this type of decoration.

One of the important discoveries made in Promachon-Topolnica is the finding of the earliest in the Balkans graphite drawing. The inspection revealed a genetic link between dark picture "type Strumsko" wide and graphite drawings, which proved to be synchronous. Terms were not only ornamental their schemes, but also ceramic forms. This discovery also changes the traditional view that the homeland of graphite decoration of ceramics is Thrace. This fact is confirmed by our observations on the earlier vessels late Neolithic Graphitized surface of the object Promachon-Topolnica that allowed to trace the process of occurrence of graphite drawing that is near the Middle Struma/Strimon. It is noteworthy that the complex Kaloyanovets (Karanovo IV) in Thrace, a synchronous Topolnica-Akropotamos (Late Neolithic) graphitized vessels are completely unknown.

Overall we can say that in the region of Middle and Lower Struma culture Topolnica-Akropotamos having a decorative canon, which is maintained after the sunset. Thus, this interesting culture leaves its imprint in the form of influences and technical innovation on large parts of Southeast Europe.

Stadler, P., Herold, H. 2003, ‘Drei awarenzeitliche Brunnen und sonstige Siedlungsgruben von Brunn am Gebirge, Flur Wolfholz, Bezirk Mödling, Niederösterreich, und die Fundkeramik’ (The Wells and Other Settlement-Features from the Avar Period in Brunn am Gebirge-Wolfholz, District Mödling, Lower Austria, and the Ceramic Finds – in German), Antaeus, Communicationes ex Instituto Archaeologico Academiae Scientiarum Hungariae 26, Budapest, 179–186.

by Hajnalka Herold

First Generation Christians, Second Generation Radiocarbon Dates: The Cemetery at St. Clement's in Oslo

by Sæbjørg Walaker Nordeide

published in Norwegian Archaeological Review Vol.40/1, 2007, 1-25

Dating Danish textiles and skins from bog finds by means of 14C AMS

by Margarita Gleba

With Ulla Mannering, Goeran Possnert and Jan Heineneier, Journal of Archaeological Science 37, 261-268

This study presents the results of 44 new 14C analyses of Danish Early Iron Age textiles and skins. Of 52 Danish bog... more This study presents the results of 44 new 14C analyses of Danish Early Iron Age textiles and skins. Of 52 Danish bog finds containing skin and textile items, 30 are associated with bog bodies. Until now, only 18 of these have been dated. In this paper we add dates to the remaining finds. The results demonstrate that the Danish custom of depositing clothed bodies in a bog is centred to the centuries immediately before and at the beginning of the Common Era. Most of these bodies are carefully placed in the bog – wrapped or dressed in various textile and/or skin garments. The care with which these people were placed in the bog indicates that they represent a hitherto unrecognised burial custom supplementing the more common burial pratice for this period.

Variability in the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect in Muscat (Sultanate of Oman) during the 4th millennium BC: reflection of taphonomy or environment?

by Olivia Munoz

Zazzo A., Munoz O., Saliège J.-F., Moreau J.-C. (forthcoming) - Variability in the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect in Muscat (Sultanate of Oman) during the 4th millennium BC: reflection of taphonomy or environment? Journal of Archaeological Science, accepted Feb. 2012.

Radiocarbon (14C) dating of archaeological coastal sites in arid areas is challenging because of the relative rarity... more Radiocarbon (14C) dating of archaeological coastal sites in arid areas is challenging because of the relative rarity of datable terrestrial artefacts. Marine artefacts provide an abundant source of carbon, which is technically easy to date but radiocarbon dates need to be corrected for local variations from the global average marine 14C reservoir age (ΔR). In archaeological sites, this is usually done by the comparison of the 14C age measured between coeval pairs of terrestrial and marine samples that have no inbuilt age. Here, we present the results of a study that aims to determine the local 14C marine reservoir effect (MRE) along the Eastern coast of the ArabicPeninsula during the 4th millennium BC, a period of important cultural, demographic and social changes in this region. Previous estimates of the MRE based on associated shells and charcoal vary by about 400 14C yr and this is a serious limitation to the establishment of a precise chronology in the area based on marine material. In order to maximize the chances to obtain contemporaneous terrestrial-marine pairs for a new assessment of the MRE in this region we dated charcoal, shells, fish and turtle bones as well as human bones found in three recently and carefully excavated graves from Ra’s al-Hamra RH5. A large variability was found between charcoals (up to 240 14C yr) and marine specimens (up to 785 14C yr) present in the same grave. This variability was attributed to inbuilt ages, diagenesis and possibly environmental factors although taphonomic processes cannot be excluded. We discarded the oldest charcoals and used the 14C ages obtained on human apatite as a cut-off value to remove the marine outliers. Two out of the three graves provided terrestrial and marine assemblages which did not differ statistically and were used to calculate an average MRE of 645±40 14C yr (ΔR= 255±55 14C yr). This value is consistent with previous estimates and suggests stability of the MRE in the Arabian Sea since the 4th millennium BC.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pleistocene palaeoecology and environmental change on the Darling Downs, southeastern Queensland, Australia

by Gilbert Price

Price, G.J., Sobbe, I.H., 2005. Pleistocene palaeoecology and environmental change on the Darling Downs, southeastern Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 51, 171-201.

A diverse Pleistocene fossil assemblage was recovered from a site (QML1396) exposed in the southern banks of Kings... more A diverse Pleistocene fossil assemblage was recovered from a site (QML1396) exposed in the southern banks of Kings Creek, Darling Downs, southeastern Queensland. The site includes both high-energy lateral channel deposits and low-energy vertical accretion deposits. The basal fossil-bearing unit is laterally extensive, fines upward and its geometry and sedimentary structures suggest deposition within a main channel. The coarse channel fill passes upward into overbank levee deposits made up of lenticular sandy-shelly strata alternating with muds. Several taphonomic biases relating to preservation of different faunal groups and skeletal elements was discerned. Biases may be related to fluvial sorting of the assemblage, but causes for differences between the preservation and accumulation of mammal versus non-mammal terrestrial vertebrates remain unclear. In general, the vertebrate material was accumulated and transported into the deposit from the surrounding proximal floodplain. The assemblage is composed of 44 species including molluscs, teleosts, anurans, chelids, squamates, and small and large-sized mammals. Palaeoenvironmental analysis suggests that a mosaic of habitats, including vine thickets, scrublands, open sclerophyllous woodlands interspersed with sparse grassy understories, and open grasslands, were present on the floodplain during the late Pleistocene. From sedimentological and ecological data, it is evident that increasing aridity during the late Pleistocene led to woodland and vine thicket habitat contraction, and grassland expansion on the floodplain. At present, there is no evidence to support the suggestion that the retraction of late Pleistocene Darling Downs habitats was due to anthropogenic factors.

New U/Th ages for Pleistocene megafauna deposits of southeastern Queensland, Australia

by Gilbert Price

Price, G.J., Zhao, J.-x., Feng, Y.-x., Hocknull, S.A., 2009. New U/Th ages for Pleistocene megafauna deposits of southeastern Queensland, Australia. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34, 190-197.

Arguments over the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna have become particularly polarised in recent years. Causes for... more Arguments over the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna have become particularly polarised in recent years. Causes for the extinctions are widely debated with climate change, human hunting and/or habitat modification, or a combination of those factors, being the dominant hypotheses. However, a lack of a spatially constrained chronology for many megafauna renders most hypotheses difficult to test. Here, we present several new U/Th dates for a series of previously undated, megafauna-bearing localities from southeastern Queensland, Australia. The sites were previously used to argue for or against various megafauna extinction hypotheses, and are the type localities for two now-extinct Pleistocene marsupials (including the giant koala, Phascolarctos stirtoni). The new dating allows the deposits to be placed in a spatially-
and temporally constrained context relevant to the understanding of Australian megafaunal extinctions. The results indicate that The Joint (Texas Caves) megafaunal assemblage is middle Pleistocene or older (>292 ky); the Cement Mills (Gore) megafaunal assemblage is late Pleistocene or older (>53 ky); and the Russenden Cave Bone Chamber (Texas Caves) megafaunal assemblage is late Pleistocene (55 ky). Importantly, the new results broadly show that the sites date prior to the hypothesised megafaunal extinction ‘window’ (i.e., 30–50 ky), and therefore, cannot be used to argue exclusively for or against human/climate change extinction models, without first exploring their palaeoecological significance on wider temporal and spatial scales.

Cryptic Meteoric Diagenesis In Freshwater Bivalves: Implications for Radiocarbon Dating

by Gilbert Price

Webb, G.E., Price, G.J., Nothdurft, L.D., Deer, L., Rintoul, L., 2007. Cryptic meteoric diagenesis in freshwater bivalves: Implications for radiocarbon dating. Geology 35, 803-806.

Shells of freshwater bivalves are commonly used for radiocarbon dating of late Pleistocene archaeological and... more Shells of freshwater bivalves are commonly used for radiocarbon dating of late Pleistocene archaeological and vertebrate fossil sites, thus providing important constraints on late Pleistocene human dispersal and megafauna extinction hypotheses. The reliability of bivalve shells for dating rests partly on the ease with which subsequent diagenetic alteration can be recognized, typically, wherein original shell aragonite is replaced by calcite in meteoric environments. Here we document late Pleistocene freshwater bivalve shells wherein meteoric diagenesis involved syntaxial overgrowth of aragonite cement on original aragonite shell biocrystals. Aragonite cement was identified in situ using Raman microspectroscopy and formed rather than calcite as a result of unusually high Mg:Ca ratios in local groundwaters. Thus, altered shells contain diagenetic 14C, rendering their dates unreliable, but they may slip past common vetting techniques because: 1) epitaxial cements are not readily apparent petrographically because they do not alter existing crystallographic axes in the biogenic carbonate; 2) X-ray diffraction indicates that no calcite is present; 3) alteration is not apparent in cathodo-luminescence studies; and 4) stable isotopes of C and O are difficult to interpret in shells that originate in terrestrial-meteoric environments. Hence, although freshwater with a high Mg:Ca ratio is not common, groundwater chemistry should be considered before accepting bivalve-based radiocarbon dates uncritically. More broadly, meteoric diagenesis in carbonate rocks is almost unexceptionally characterised by the dissolution of aragonite or its conversion to calcite. Our data show that such is not invariably the case, even in fully terrestrial, freshwater systems.

Dating megafaunal extinction on the Pleistocene Darling Downs, eastern Australia: the promise and pitfalls of dating as a test of extinction hypotheses

by Gilbert Price

Price, G.J., Webb, G.E., Zhao, J.-x., Feng, Y.-x., Murray, A.S., Cooke, B.N., Hocknull, S.A., Sobbe, I.H., 2011. Dating megafaunal extinction on the Pleistocene Darling Downs, eastern Australia: the promise and pitfalls of dating as a test of extinction hypotheses. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 899-914.

A key to understanding Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction dynamics is knowledge of megafaunal ecological... more A key to understanding Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinction dynamics is knowledge of megafaunal ecological response(s) to long-term environmental perturbations. Strategically, that requires targeting fossil deposits that accumulated during glacial and interglacial intervals both before and after human arrival, with subsequent palaeoecological models underpinned by robust and reliable chronologies. Late Pleistocene vertebrate fossil localities from the Darling Downs, eastern Australia, provide stratigraphically-intact, abundant megafaunal sequences, which allows for testing of anthropogenic versus climate change megafauna extinction hypotheses. Each stratigraphic unit at site QML796, Kings Creek Catchment, was previously shown to have had similar sampling potential, and the basal units contain both small-sized taxa (e.g., land snails, frogs, bandicoots, rodents) and megafauna. Importantly, sequential faunal horizons show stepwise decrease in taxonomic diversity with the loss of some, but not all, megafauna in the geographically-small palaeocatchment. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of our intensive, multidisciplinary dating study of the deposits (>40 dates). Dating by means of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C (targeting bone, freshwater molluscs, and charcoal) and thermal ionisation mass spectrometry U/Th (targeting teeth and freshwater molluscs) do not agree with each other and, in the case of AMS 14C dating, lack internal consistency. Scanning electron microscopy and rare earth element analyses demonstrate that the dated molluscs are diagenetically altered and contain aragonite cements that incorporated secondary young C, suggesting that such dates should be regarded as minimum ages. AMS 14C dated charcoals provide ages that occur out of stratigraphic order, and cluster in the upper chronological limits of the technique (~40-48 ka). Again, we suggest that such results should be regarded as suspicious and only minimum ages. Subsequent OSL and U/Th (teeth) dating provide complimentary results and demonstrate that the faunal sequences actually span ~120-83 ka, thus occurring beyond the AMS 14C dating window. Importantly, the dates suggest that the local decline in biological diversity was initiated ~75,000 years before the colonisation of humans on the continent. Collectively, the data are most parsimoniously consistent with a pre-human climate change model for local habitat change and megafauna extinction, but not with a nearly simultaneous extinction of megafauna as required by the human-induced blitzkrieg extinction hypothesis. This study demonstrates the problems inherent in dating deposits that lie near the chronological limits of the radiocarbon dating technique, and highlights the need to cross-check previously-dated archaeological and megafauna deposits within the timeframe of earliest human colonisation and latest megafaunal survival.

Göbekli Tepe Radiocarbon Dates – A Short Comment

by Oliver Dietrich

All radiocarbon data for Göbekli Tepe are available now in Marion Benz comprehensive online database on PPN C14 data:
Benz, M. Comments on radiocarbon dates of Epipalaeolithic and Early Neolithic sites of
the Near East.
http://www.exoriente.org/associated_projects/ppnd_site.php?s=25.

I also uploaded a pdf comprising data and comments here.

Concepts of Probability in Radiocarbon Dating

by Lee Clare

Weninger, B., Edinborough, K., Clare, L., Jöris, O. (2011) Concepts of Probability in Radiocarbon Dating. Documenta Praehistorica XXXVIII.

In this paper we explore the meaning of the word probability, not in general terms, but restricted to the field of... more In this paper we explore the meaning of the word probability, not in general terms, but restricted to the field of radiocarbon dating, where it has the meaning of ‘dating probability assigned to calibrated 14C-ages’. The intention of our study is to improve our understanding of certain properties of radiocarbon dates, which – although mathematically abstract – are fundamental both for the construction of age models in prehistoric archaeology, as well as for an adequate interpretation of their reliability.

Das Kastell "contra Magadaburg" von 806 AD und die karolingischen Kastelle an der Elbe-Saale-Grenze: Ausgrabungen auf dem Weinberg von Hohenwarthe“, in: Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt – Sonderband 16, 2011, pp. 133 – 144.

by Joachim Henning