The Significance of Differences between Radiocarbon Dates

1958 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert C. Spaulding

Presumably all archaeologists know that radiocarbon dates are estimates of true dates, or, more precisely, that they are derived from estimates of the true rate of emission of electrons from radioactive carbon. If it were possible to keep each specimen in the counter for an indefinitely long period or if the emissions occurred with the regularity of clock ticks, there would be no need to talk of estimates of rates. Unfortunately, the emissions do not occur at regular intervals nor is it practical to count for a very long time, so there is no escape from the uncertainty of estimation.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1768
Author(s):  
Roosa Piitulainen ◽  
Ilyena Hirskyj-Douglas

Computer systems for primates to listen to audio have been researched for a long time. However, there is a lack of investigations into what kind of sounds primates would prefer to listen to, how to quantify their preference, and how audio systems and methods can be designed in an animal-focused manner. One pressing question is, if given the choice to control an audio system, would or could primates use such a system. In this study, we design an audio enrichment prototype and method for white-faced sakis that allows them to listen to different sounds in their regular zoo habitat while automatically logging their interactions. Focusing on animal-centred design, this prototype was built from low fidelity testing of different forms within the sakis’ enclosure and gathering requirements from those who care for and view the animal. This process of designing in a participatory manner with the sakis resulted in an interactive system that was shown to be viable, non-invasive, highly interactive, and easy to use in a zoo habitat. Recordings of the sakis’ interactions demonstrated that the sakis triggered traffic audio more than silence, rain sounds, zen, and electronic music. The data and method also highlight the benefit of a longitudinal study within the animals’ own environment to mitigate against the novelty effect and the day-to-day varying rhythm of the animals and the zoo environment. This study builds on animal-centred methods and design paradigms to allow the monitoring of the animals’ behaviours in zoo environments, demonstrating that useful data can be yielded from primate-controlled devices. For the Animal-Computer Interaction community, this is the first audio enrichment system used in zoo contexts within the animals own environment over a long period of time that gives the primate control over their interactions and records this automatically.



Africa ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Fyfe

Opening ParagraphSeen in the widest perspective, 1787 is only one date among the uncounted tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of years during which the present Sierra Leone has been inhabited. Archaeologists have done disappointingly little work there. But it is clear from their findings (and by implication from findings in the rest of forest-belt West Africa) that people have lived there a very long time. Though traditional historiography always tends to present the peoples of Sierra Leone as immigrants from somewhere else, the language pattern suggests continuous occupation over a very long period. As Paul Hair (1967) has shown, there has been a striking linguistic continuity in coastal West Africa since the fifteenth century. Nor is there evidence to suggest that before that period stability and continuity were not the norm.



2017 ◽  
Vol 34 (5) ◽  
pp. 400-414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Alexanderson ◽  
Elisabet Näsman

This article is based on interviews with fifteen children, whose parents have addiction problems. Purpose: To contribute to in-depth understanding of children's situation when parents have ceased abusing drugs or alcohol. Method: An explorative interview study with childhood sociology and symbolic interactionism as theoretical framework. Outcome: The end of the abuse gives children space to feel how they feel, to reflect on the impact of the addiction on their health and personality, and to try changing themselves and their lives. Their need for processing may last for a long time. It can take time and be difficult to build up the relationship with the parent. Children can still feel care responsibility but also distrust and worry about relapses. However, teenagers can see opportunities to move on with their own life. If the abuse ends only for one of two parents with addiction problems, children are still affected by addiction. Conclusion: Children's need for processing in relation to the parents can both be time consuming and last for a long period of time, regardless of if the child lives with the parent or not. Children may need help for their own part but also in relation to the parent. Professionals should be encouraged to work with a family perspective, regardless of organizational divisions and if parents and children live together or not. This requires structures, procedures and resources for collaboration across organizational boundaries.



2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-84
Author(s):  
Vicente Esteve ◽  
Maria A. Prats

Abstract In this article, we use tests of explosive behavior in real house prices with annual data for the case of Australia for the period 1870–2020. The main contribution of this paper is the use of very long time series. It is important to use longer span data because it offers more powerful econometric results. To detect episodes of potential explosive behavior in house prices over this long period, we use the recursive unit root tests for explosiveness proposed by Phillips et al. (2011), (2015a,b). According to the results, there is a clear speculative bubble behavior in real house prices between 1997 and 2020, speculative process that has not yet been adjusted.



Author(s):  
Vitaly A. Stolbov ◽  
Victoria V. Stolbova ◽  
Sergey D. Sheykin

Temporary ponds are specific freshwater habitats in which the characteristic fauna of aquatic organisms is formed. One of the large groups of invertebrates in temporary water bodies is water mites. In this work, water mites were studied in three different types of temporary ponds in the vicinity of the city of Tyumen, Western Siberia. The studies were carried out in two periods with a long time interval between them: in 2008–2010 and 2018–2019. In total, 33 species of water mites from 7 families were identified in the studied ponds. All ponds were dominated by vernal mite species typical for this type of water bodies. Also, they were characterized by similar seasonal dynamics of numbers. The species composition and the number of mites in different ponds varied, which is associated with different physicochemical parameters and the fauna of invertebrates, which served as food objects and hosts for the adults and larvae. Despite the small size and periodic drying of the ponds, the fauna of the mites inhabiting them has changed little over the long period of time that separates the studies. Only in one pond, which became permanent due to the rise of groundwater, significant changes in acarofauna were observed. Considering such constancy of the fauna of water mites of temporary ponds, they can be used as bioindicators of the ecological state of water bodies.



Author(s):  
Maxim V. Skorokhodov ◽  

“Estate topos” is usually considered in the works of authors who had estates or for a long time were living in estates of their relatives and friends. Significantly less attention is paid to the characterization of the “estate topos” in the texts of the authors, who, due to class restrictions, were not the owners of the estates and their frequent guests. In the literature of the Russian Silver Age, these are primarily the poets of the “peasant concord” group: N. Klyuev, S. Ese nin, A. Shiryaevets, S. Klychkov and oth- ers. For them, the most important and often the earliest in time of development of the source of knowledge about the Russian estate was Russian literature. The poets got an idea of estate complexes from personal experience. Elements of these complexes become symbols, each of which has a semantic filling formed over a long period. Revolutionary events of 1917–1921 lead to the rapid death of the estate world. If Klyuev in the early post-revolutionary years welcomed this process, then for Shiryaevets the Russian estate is inseparable from peasant life, Esenin is characterized by the transfer of elements of landlord complexes to the space of the peasant estate, in the heritage of Klychkov, like some other authors, an important role is played by a garden connected not only with the landowner estate, but also with peasant life, with the Garden of Eden.



2021 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Kristin Swenson

This chapter discusses seven reasons why the Bible is problematic—in other words, more complicated than it appears at first glance. One is that the Bible is not a single book. As such, one cannot expect to read through the Bible, cover to cover, and encounter a neat dramatic structure defining a single story. Another reason is that there is more than one Bible, since what constitutes the whole of the Bible depends on the process of canonization. From there, the chapter argues that the Bible is problematic because the texts themselves were composed, and collected, over a long period of time. The Bible has a lot of different authors and editors, most of whom are anonymous. Even the latest texts come from a very long time ago. The Bible was written in languages that are utterly unfamiliar to most readers today. Finally, the chapter raises its final point: that most of the Bible's readers today “believe in” it.



2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 493-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvie LeBlanc

Abstract This paper describes a Middle Dorset dwelling in Trinity Bay Newfoundland. The dwelling features an extended flagstone pavement and a well defined lateral cooking area. The vast amount of refuse associated with the dwelling, as well as the radiocarbon dates ranging between 1880 and 1300 B.P., suggest that the house was occupied for a long period of time. The occupation of the dwelling was intense and complex and stratigraphic evidence points to at least five occupational or use episodes of the dwelling site.



Antiquity ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 69 (264) ◽  
pp. 582-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Patton

A series of dates for La Hougue Bie, the Jersey passage-grave, shows its complex history of abandonment as well as construction. People were a long time leaving, as well as making, this sacred place.



2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (11) ◽  
pp. 1385-1400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan F Arbogast ◽  
Randall J Schaetzl ◽  
Joseph P Hupy ◽  
Edward C Hansen

A very prominent buried soil crops out in coastal sand dunes along an ~200 km section of the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. This study is the first to investigate the character of this soil — informally described here as the Holland Paleosol — by focusing on six sites from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore north to Montague, Michigan. Most dunes in this region are large (>40 m high) and contain numerous buried soils that indicate periods of reduced sand supply and comcomitant stabilization. Most of these soils are buried in the lower part of the dunes and are thin Entisols. The soil described here, in contrast, is relatively well developed, is buried in the upper part of many dunes, and formed by podzolization under forest vegetation. Radiocarbon dates indicate that this soil formed between ~3000 and 300 calibrated years BP. Pedons of the Holland Paleosol range in development from thick Entisols (Regosols) with A–Bw–BC–C horizonation to weakly developed Spodosols (Podzols) with A–E–Bs–Bw–BC–C profiles. Many profiles have overthickened and (or) stratified A horizons, indicative of slow and episodic burial. Differences in development are mainly due to paleolandscape position and variations in paleoclimate among the sites. The Holland Paleosol is significant because it represents a relatively long period of landscape stability in coastal dunes over a broad (200 km) area. This period of stability was concurrent with numerous fluctuations in Lake Michigan. Given the general sensitivity of coastal dunes to prehistoric lake-level fluctuations, the soil may reflect a time when the lake shore was farther west than it is today. The Holland Paleosol would probably qualify as a formal pedostratigraphic unit if it were buried by a formal lithostratgraphic or allostratigraphic unit.



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