scholarly journals RELIABILITY OF AMS 14C DATES OF MOSS TEMPER PRESERVED IN NEOLITHIC POTTERY FROM THE SCHELDT RIVER VALLEY (BELGIUM)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Dimitri Teetaert ◽  
Mathieu Boudin ◽  
Eric Goemaere ◽  
Philippe Crombé
Keyword(s):  
Plant Material ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Sample Material ◽  
Organic Residues ◽  
Cultural Groups ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Swifterbant Culture ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir ◽  
Scheldt River

ABSTRACT Direct dates of pottery obtained from food crusts or other organic residues on the vessel surfaces can be affected by a reservoir effect and/or an old wood effect and therefore be unreliable. Hence, there is a need for alternative ways to directly date pottery. Moss is used as temper by several cultural groups of the late 6th to early 4th millennium cal BC in northwestern Europe. After the pottery is fired, charred moss remains are often preserved in the clay, so that relatively short-lived plant material with a direct chronological link to the pottery and human occupation is available for radiocarbon (14C) dating. In this study, charred moss temper is extracted for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating from pottery of the Swifterbant Culture and Spiere group in the Scheldt river valley (Belgium). The moss dates are then compared to reference dates of organic macro-remains from the same sites and food crust dates with or without a reservoir effect of the same pottery. Eleven out of 13 moss dates are in line with the expected pottery age. The paired dates of moss temper and food crusts from the same potsherds confirm a freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) for the latter. We conclude that moss temper has great potential as a sample material for direct pottery dating. However, more research on the extraction and pretreatment of moss temper as well as on the reliability of moss dates is necessary in the future.

scholarly journals New occurrences of the White River Ash (east lobe) in Subarctic Canada and utility for estimating freshwater reservoir effect in lake sediment archives

2017 ◽  
Vol 477 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Timothy Patterson ◽  
Carley A. Crann ◽  
Jamie A. Cutts ◽  
Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi ◽  
Nawaf A. Nasser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Lake Sediment ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
White River ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir ◽  
New Occurrences

scholarly journals Freshwater Reservoir Effect Variability in Northern Germany

Radiocarbon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 1085-1101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bente Philippsen ◽  
Jan Heinemeier
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Potential Problem ◽  
Northern Germany ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
The Past ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Age Correction ◽  
Order Of Magnitude ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir ◽  
Reservoir Age

The freshwater reservoir effect is a potential problem when radiocarbon dating fish bones, shells, human bones, or food crusts on pottery from sites near rivers or lakes. The reservoir age in hardwater rivers can be up to several thousand years and may be highly variable. Accurate 14C dating of freshwater-based samples requires knowing the order of magnitude of the reservoir effect and its degree of variability. Measurements on modern riverine materials may not give a single reservoir age correction that can be applied to archaeological samples, but they show the order of magnitude and variability that can also be expected for the past. This knowledge will be applied to the dating of food crusts on pottery from the Mesolithic sites Kayhude at the Alster River and Schlamersdorf at the Trave River, both in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon and Stable Isotope Evidence of Dietary Change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the Iron Gates: New Results from Lepenski Vir

Radiocarbon ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 293-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Bonsall ◽  
G T Cook ◽  
R E M Hedges ◽  
T F G Higham ◽  
C Pickard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Dietary Change ◽  
Danube River ◽  
Southeast Europe ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Farming Communities ◽  
Dietary Component ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir ◽  
Stable Isotope Study

A previous radiocarbon dating and stable isotope study of directly associated ungulate and human bone samples from Late Mesolithic burials at Schela Cladovei in Romania established that there is a freshwater reservoir effect of approximately 500 yr in the Iron Gates reach of the Danube River valley in southeast Europe. Using the δ15N values as an indicator of the percentage of freshwater protein in the human diet, the 14C data for 24 skeletons from the site of Lepenski Vir were corrected for this reservoir effect. The results of the paired 14C and stable isotope measurements provide evidence of substantial dietary change over the period from about 9000 BP to about 300 BP. The data from the Early Mesolithic to the Chalcolithic are consistent with a 2-component dietary system, where the linear plot of isotopic values reflects mixing between the 2 end-members to differing degrees. Typically, the individuals of Mesolithic age have much heavier δ15N signals and slightly heavier δ13C, while individuals of Early Neolithic and Chalcolithic age have lighter δ15N and δ13C values. Contrary to our earlier suggestion, there is no evidence of a substantial population that had a transitional diet midway between those that were characteristic of the Mesolithic and Neolithic. However, several individuals with “Final Mesolithic” 14C ages show δ15N and δ13C values that are similar to the Neolithic dietary pattern. Provisionally, these are interpreted either as incomers who originated in early farming communities outside the Iron Gates region or as indigenous individuals representing the earliest Neolithic of the Iron Gates. The results from Roman and Medieval age burials show a deviation from the linear function, suggesting the presence of a new major dietary component containing isotopically heavier carbon. This is interpreted as a consequence of the introduction of millet into the human food chain.

Late Holocene human occupation of the Patagonian forests: a case study in the Cisnes river basin

Antiquity ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 82 (317) ◽  
pp. 560-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
César A. Méndez M. ◽  
Omar R. Reyes B.
Keyword(s):  
River Basin ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Compare And Contrast ◽  
Sea Coast

How early did steppe dwellers penetrate the forests? The authors compare and contrast settlement on the steppe, in the forest and on the steep sea coast of western Patagonia, finding that the steppe is occupied first, from 11400 calendar years BP. But around 2800 calendar years BP settlements enter the forest almost simultaneously for a brief period along the length of the Cisnes river valley. Within a few centuries the experiment appears to be abandoned, and the focus of prehistoric peoples returns to the steppe.

scholarly journals Chronology of middle Holocene hunter–gatherers in the Cis-Baikal region of Siberia: Corrections based on examination of the freshwater reservoir effect

2016 ◽  
Vol 419 ◽  
pp. 74-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrzej W. Weber ◽  
Rick J. Schulting ◽  
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ◽  
Vladimir I. Bazaliiskii ◽  
Olga I. Goriunova ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Baikal Region ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Middle Holocene ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir

Late Holocene human occupation of the Quequén Grande River valley bottom

2003 ◽  
Vol 2003 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gustavo Martínez ◽  
Quentin Mackie
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Human Occupation ◽  
Valley Bottom

scholarly journals Temporal and Spatial Variations of Freshwater Reservoir Ages in the Loire River Watershed

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-563 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Coularis ◽  
N Tisnérat-Laborde ◽  
L Pastor ◽  
F Siclet ◽  
M Fontugne
Keyword(s):  
Inorganic Carbon ◽  
River Flow ◽  
Dissolved Inorganic Carbon ◽  
Dominant Factor ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Flow Discharge ◽  
Temporal And Spatial ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Loire River

AbstractIn order to map the freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) variability of the Loire River and its tributaries, spatial and temporal carbon isotope (13C and 14C) analyses of the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) were conducted. Sites were selected to represent the diversity of geological settings, soil type, and land use. Results show a large spatial variability of 14C FRE ranging between 135 and 2251±30 yr, objectively correlated to DIC contents and alkalinity. Deeper investigations of the relationship between 14C activity of DIC and environmental variables show that the geological substrate is the dominant factor in the 14C reservoir effect, and far more influential than the river flow discharge.

scholarly journals The Freshwater Reservoir and Radiocarbon Dates on Cooking Residues: Old Apparent Ages or a Single Outlier? Comments on Fischer and Heinemeier (2003)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 1403-1410 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P Hart ◽  
William A Lovis
Keyword(s):  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Sufficient Evidence ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Fossil Carbon ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir

Fischer and Heinemeier (2003) present a hypothesis that the freshwater reservoir effect produces old apparent ages for radiocarbon dates run on charred cooking residues in regions where fossil carbon is present in groundwater. The hypothesis is based in part on their analysis of dates on charred cooking residues from 3 inland archaeological sites in Denmark in relation to contextual dates from those sites on other materials. A critical assessment of the dates from these sites suggests that rather than a pattern of old apparent dates, there is a single outlying date—not sufficient evidence on which to build a case for the freshwater reservoir effect.

scholarly journals New 14C Dates of Neolithic and Early Metal Period Ceramics in Lithuania

Radiocarbon ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 629-643 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gytis Piličiauskas ◽  
Mika Lavento ◽  
Markku Oinonen ◽  
Gytis Grižas
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Accelerator Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Three Samples ◽  
Absolute Dating ◽  
Freshwater Reservoir ◽  
Prehistoric Ceramics ◽  
Ams Dates

Twenty-three samples of charred food remains, charcoal, burned animals, and human bones from 14 Lithuanian prehistoric sites were dated by radiocarbon as part of a dating project oriented towards renewing the prehistoric ceramics chronology. The new dates modified the dating of ceramic styles by hundreds to a thousand years. Three Textile Ware sherds were dated to 4230–2920 cal BC—the oldest known dates of Textile Ware pottery in the East Baltic. The organic-tempered pointed-bottomed Narva and Combed-like Wares were dated to 3970–3370 cal BC, while Bay Coast Ware (Haffküstenkultur, Rzucewo), including vessels decorated with cord impressions, were dated to 3940–3540 cal BC, i.e. to a period well preceding the Corded Ware/Battle Axe horizon in Europe. Three dates of Globular Amphorae Ware placed the phenomenon directly beyond the Bay Coast chronology, i.e. in 3450–2920 cal BC. Chamotte-tempered Corded Ware from SE Lithuania was dated to 2840–2570 cal BC. The first absolute dating of coarse ware of the Žalioji type pointed to a period of 760–515 cal BC instead of the previously assumed 2nd millennium cal BC. Cremated human bones from urns found at Paveisininkai, Kernavė, and Naudvaris cemeteries were dated to 790–380 cal BC. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates obtained from charred food remains should be treated with a certain caution due to a possible freshwater reservoir effect that has not yet been examined in Lithuania.

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