Radiocarbon Dating and Lower Mississippi Valley Archaeology

Our understanding of prehistory is increasingly conditioned by absolute dates, particularly radiocarbon age determinations. Sample selection and date interpretation procedures are therefore important to productive archaeological research. Guidelines for those procedures are described and illustrated with archaeological examples from the Lower Mississippi Valley. Recommendations are made for the improved interpretability and reliability of absolute dates from archaeological contexts.

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Radiocarbon Dating of the Temple of the Monkey—The Next Step Towards a Comprehensive Absolute Chronology of Pachacamac, Peru

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/s0033822200042478 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 565-578 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Adam Michczyński ◽

Peter Eeckhout ◽

Anna Pazdur ◽

Jacek Pawlyta

Keyword(s):

General Framework ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Sample Selection ◽

Archaeological Site ◽

Current Understanding ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

Monumental Architecture ◽

And Function ◽

The Temple ◽

Shed Light

The ongoing Ychsma Project aims to shed light on the chronology and function of the late Prehispanic period at the well-known archaeological site of Pachacamac, Peru, through extensive archaeological research. The Temple of the Monkey is a special building that has been cleared, mapped, and excavated within the general framework of the study of “pyramids with ramps,” the most common form of monumental architecture at the site. Through the application of radiocarbon measurements, it can be shown that the temple has been used for around 150 yr and therefore is quite different from other pyramids with ramps previously studied (see Michczyński et al. 2003). Details of the temple, 14C sample selection, and methodology, as well as results, are discussed in this paper. The research has allowed us to make significant advances in the current understanding of pyramids with ramps and the function of the site of Pachacamac as a whole.

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Anomalous Radiocarbon Ages from a Holocene Detrital Organic Lens in Alaska and their Implications for Radiocarbon Dating and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions in the Arctic

Quaternary Research ◽

10.1016/0033-5894(88)90072-5 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 66-71 ◽

Cited By ~ 41

Author(s):

Robert E. Nelson ◽

L. David Carter ◽

Stephen W. Robinson

Keyword(s):

Coastal Plain ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Plant Macrofossils ◽

The Arctic ◽

Size Fractions ◽

Radiocarbon Age ◽

Organic Debris ◽

Arctic Coastal Plain ◽

Alaskan Arctic ◽

Age Determinations

Eleven radiocarbon age determinations clearly show that a lens of Holocene fluvial organic debris on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain contains mostly pre-Holocene organic material. Radio-carbon ages of identified plant macrofossils indicate the material was deposited about 9000 to 9500 yr B.P. Radiocarbon analyses of bulk samples from this deposit, however, range from 13,300 to 30,300 yr B.P. Most of the old organic matter seems to be in the smaller size fractions in the deposit, particularly in the fraction between 0.25 and 0.5 mm, but all size fractions are contaminated. Particular caution must be exercised in submitting bulk samples for radiocarbon dating from areas where conditions favor redeposition of isotopically “dead” carbon.

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Radiocarbon dating of walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) remains from Greenland

Polar Record ◽

10.1017/s0032247407006754 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 43 (4) ◽

pp. 361-365 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ole Bennike ◽

Claus Andreasen

Keyword(s):

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Archaeological Sites ◽

Radiocarbon Age ◽

Middle Holocene ◽

Odobenus Rosmarus ◽

Age Determinations

ABSTRACTRadiocarbon age determinations of 32 walrus (Odobenus rosmarus) remains show that the species has been a member of the Greenland fauna since at least the middle Holocene. The oldest date is 7280–7160 calendar years BP. However, most dated remains come from archaeological sites and are of late Holocene age

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Radiocarbon dating of samples collected during the 1984 expedition to North Greenland

Rapport Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse ◽

10.34194/rapggu.v135.7991 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 135 ◽

pp. 8-10

Author(s):

O Bennike ◽

M Kelly

Keyword(s):

Plant Material ◽

Radiocarbon Dating ◽

Radiocarbon Age ◽

North Greenland ◽

Age Determinations

The results of 18 radiocarbon age determinations on shelIs (14), plant material (2) and bone (2) are summarised here. The samples were collected during the GGU expedition to central and western North Greenland in 1984 (Henriksen, 1985). This list adds to the list published by Kelly & Bennike (1985). In addition, a series of dates from Hall Land and Nyeboe Land has recently been published by England (1985).

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American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley: Social and Economic Histories, par Daniel H. Usner, Jr.American Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley: Social and Economic Histories, par Daniel H. Usner, Jr. Lincoln, Nebraska, University of Nebraska Press, 1998. xvi, 189 pp. $45.00 U.S. (cloth).

Canadian Journal of History ◽

10.3138/cjh.35.1.177 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 35 (1) ◽

pp. 177-178

Author(s):

Nelson Ouellet

Keyword(s):

American Indians ◽

Mississippi Valley ◽

Lower Mississippi Valley

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Presumed Trade and Aberrant Pottery

Memoirs of the Society for American Archaeology ◽

10.1017/s0081130000004901 ◽

1949 ◽

Vol 5 ◽

pp. 130-145

Author(s):

Alex D. Krieger

Keyword(s):

Mississippi Valley ◽

Lower Mississippi Valley ◽

Great Range ◽

Source Areas ◽

Site Occupation ◽

Foreign Origin ◽

Pronounced Deviation

The pottery in the following sections is not considered to belong to the Alto Focus complex, but to occur with it at different points in the Davis site occupation by trade or other means. If the writer appears to vacillate over what is and what is not trade pottery here, it is due in part to the problem of separating what could have been produced at the site (as extreme variations of resident styles) from what probably was not (because of some distinctive attribute which would mark it as foreign). In certain cases of pronounced deviation, a foreign origin is obvious enough, particularly when the source areas are well known. But where the whole tradition is similar as in the clay-tempered pottery of the lower Mississippi Valley region, and a great range of decorative techniques was employed for long periods of time, the problem is not easy.

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