Aquatic Radiocarbon Reservoir Offsets in the Southeastern Baltic

Radiocarbon ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 539-556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gytis Piličiauskas ◽  
Carl Heron
Keyword(s):  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Curonian Lagoon ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Pike Perch ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Ams Dates

The aim of this article is to discuss radiocarbon dating offsets due to freshwater and marine reservoir effects (FRE and MRE, respectively) in the southeastern Baltic. Thirty-six 14C dates from Lithuanian coastal and inland Subneolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age sites as well as two Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries are presented here. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates, sometimes paired or tripled, have been obtained on samples of various origin, foodcrusts, or visible charred deposits adhering to the surfaces of ceramic vessel walls were also dated and investigated for stable isotope signals. The results argue for a significant freshwater component in the food processed in ceramic vessels during the Subneolithic and Neolithic. Paired dating of ungulate and human bones at the Spiginas and Donkalnis cemeteries (6300–1900 cal BC) does not suggest an FRE, although stable isotope data on human bone collagen strongly suggest a large input of freshwater food in the diet. An FRE in the order of 320–510 yr was estimated for the Šventoji paleolagoon around 3000 cal BC. At the same time, the FRE of the Curonian Lagoon could be larger as implied by large apparent 14C ages of modern pike-perch (981 ± 30 BP) and bream (738 ± 30 BP) bones as well as “foodcrust” offsets (650–530 yr) at Nida (3500–2500 cal BC). An MRE of 190 ± 43 yr was estimated for the southeastern coast of the Littorina Sea according to offsets between dates of seal bones and terrestrial samples at Nida and Šventoji. Any FRE at Lake Kretuonas remains uncertain due to the limited work to date.

scholarly journals Isotopes, Plants, and Reservoir Effects: Case Study from the Caspian Steppe Bronze Age

Radiocarbon ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 749-760 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Shishlina ◽  
E Zazovskaya ◽  
J van der Plicht ◽  
V Sevastyanov
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Human Diet ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Different Types ◽  
C And N ◽  
East And West

Bronze Age human and animal bone collagen from several steppe Bronze Age cultures (i.e. Early Catacomb, East and West Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures) shows large variations in δ13C and δ15N values. In general, we observed that the older the sample, the lower the δ13C and δ15N values. We hypothesize that more positive values of δ13C and δ15N are caused by change in diet and a more arid climate. For ancient sheep during drier periods of the Early Catacomb, East and West Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures, we observed 2 groups with different C and N isotopic compositions, reflecting consumption of different types of fodder. During periods of aridization, C4 and C3 plants with high δ15N values appeared in the vegetation, also influencing bone collagen values. Human bones show reservoir effects, caused by aquatic diet components. These effects can be quantified by paired dating of human bone and associated terrestrial samples. Reservoir corrections have revised chronologies for the region. Some paired dates do not reveal reservoir effects. This can be explained in 2 alternative ways. One is that the human diet did not include aquatic components; rather, the diet was based on C3 vegetation with high δ15N values (13–15‰), and flesh/milk of domesticated animals. An alternative explanation is that humans consumed food from freshwater resources without reservoir effects.

scholarly journals ON THE HANDLES OF CERAMIC VESSELS OF THE EARLY BRONZE PRIMORSKY DAGESTAN (QUESTIONS OF TYPOLOGY AND CHRONOLOGY)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-114
Author(s):  
Arsen L. Budaychiev
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Ceramic Ware ◽  
Distribution Area ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The North ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
Chalcolithic Period ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
Type 3

The main purpose of this article is a typological and chronological study of the handles of ceramic vessels originating from fairly well-studied sites of the Early Bronze Age of the Primorsky Lowland of Dagestan, including both settlements (Velikent II, Gemetyube I, II, Kabaz-Kutan I, II, Torpakh-kala), and and burial grounds (Velikent I (catacomb No. 8), II (catacomb No. 1), III (catacomb No. 1), Karabudakhkent II, Kayakent VI). The first handles in the North-Eastern Caucasus appeared on ceramic ware back in the Eneolithic era. During the early Bronze Age, handles became a characteristic part of ceramic dishes (bowls, containers, cups, vases) on the considered sites of Primorsky Dagestan. Functionally, they have a utilitarian, decorative, artistic and religious purpose. The handles are of four types, which are characteristic of certain forms of dishes: type 1 - horizontal tubular, type 2 - ribbon, type 3 - pseudo-handles, type 4 - hemispherical. The article provides a description of each type of pens, provides analogues on the sites of the Early Bronze Age both in the Northeast Caucasus and the adjacent regions of the Caucasus, including the territories of modern Iran, Turkey and Palestine and Israel, which were part of the distribution area of ​​the Kuro-Arak cultural and historical community ( including Khirbet-Kerak culture). The work identifies the most common and early, dating back to the Chalcolithic period, types of pens, discusses the issue of their chronology. This article is the first special work devoted to a typological and chronological analysis of ceramic vessel handles.

scholarly journals Diet and Radiocarbon Dating of Tollund Man: New Analyses of an Iron Age Bog Body from Denmark

Radiocarbon ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 60 (5) ◽  
pp. 1533-1545 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina H Nielsen ◽  
Bente Philippsen ◽  
Marie Kanstrup ◽  
Jesper Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Mass Spectrometry ◽  
Stable Isotope ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Scientific Investigations ◽  
Bog Body ◽  
General Diet ◽  
Isotope Analyses ◽  
Isotope Measurements

ABSTRACTTollund Man is one of the most famous Iron Age bog bodies due to his well-preserved head. Since he was unearthed in 1950 in Bjældskovdal, Denmark, he has been subjected to several scientific investigations, but until now no attempts to reconstruct his general diet through isotope analyses have been conducted. Furthermore, previous radiocarbon (14C) analyses have only been able to date him broadly to the 3rd–4th century BC. In this study, stable isotope measurements (δ13C, δ15N) on bone collagen from Tollund Man’s femur and rib showed that the diet of Tollund Man was terrestrial-based and that the crops he ate probably were grown on manured fields. Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dates were obtained on both the <30kDa and >30kDa fractions of ultrafiltered collagen. Results showed that the ultrafiltration removed contamination from older substances from the burial environment. The femur was dated to 2330±23 BP, the rib to 2322±30 BP. These dates statistically agree with a previously published AMS 14C age on skin. By combining the new dates with the previous date of his skin it was possible to narrow down the age of Tollund Man to the period 405–380 cal BC (95.4% confidence interval).

CHICKEN OR EGG? RETHINKING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SILVER AND TINNED CERAMIC VESSEL ASSEMBLAGES

2018 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 75-118
Author(s):  
S. Aulsebrook
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Bronze Age ◽  
Special Relationship ◽  
Strong Connection ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Metal Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessel ◽  
Ceramic Vessels ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Relationship

Since the 1960s, when the existence of tinned ceramic vessels in the Late Bronze Age Aegean was first recognised, our knowledge of this phenomenon and the catalogue of known examples have expanded significantly. Even before the nature of these objects was fully understood, scholars had suggested that their primary purpose was to imitate metal, particularly silver, vessels. Several silver vessel assemblages, including one from the tholos at Kokla, have been singled out for their perceived special relationship with tinned ceramics. However, closer analysis of tinned vessels has suggested that they were less similar to silver vessels than previously thought, especially in terms of their range of forms, details of shape and even colour. Recent scholarship has also emphasised that the concept of imitation is very complex and its investigation requires a more nuanced approach. Yet references to tinned vessels as straightforward imitations of, or even substitutes for, silver vessels remain common. In 2014, an opportunity arose to examine the Kokla silver vessels in greater detail. A strong connection between the Kokla group and tinned vessels is evident, although this does not mean that the latter depended upon assemblages such as the former for inspiration. The unique features of the Kokla group suggest it may have been a local innovation to emulate the usage of tinned vessels while simultaneously stressing the higher social status of its users. This paper concludes that situating tinned vessels within the ceramic tradition and thus regarding them as an enhanced form of ceramic, rather than an inferior form of metal vessel, better explains the nature of this phenomenon.

scholarly journals Bomb Radiocarbon Dating of Animal Tissues and Hair

Radiocarbon ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 43 (2B) ◽  
pp. 723-730 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mebus A Geyh
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Geriatric Medicine ◽  
Biological Tissues ◽  
Turnover Time ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Court Cases ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
One Year ◽  
Growth And Aging

Initially, radiocarbon dating by bomb 14C was used to check vintages of wine and whisky and to estimate the turnover times of carbon in various biological tissues. However, this technique has never been widely used for routine dating, although it has a wide field of application in geriatric medicine and forensic investigations. Fifteen years' experience in this field has shown the potential and limits of this technique. Taking into account the decisive biological factors, such as growth and aging, a complicated picture is obtained. Recent human bones cannot be dated with a constant precision. Despite an incomplete understanding of the process of incorporation of 14C into human bones, the present dating technique is still more precise than most estimates by geriatric experts, for conventional 14C dating follows that 14C dates of bone collagen represent the years of the termination of puberty rather than those of death.Another application is the identification of furs of illegally hunted animals on the “Red List of threatened species” of the World Conservation Union (IUCN). For court cases, the year the animals were killed must be precisely determined. Due to the long and variable turnover time of more than one year of leather hair is the best dating material for animals.

scholarly journals Revision of the materials from the Riigiküla I Stone Age settlement site (Estonia)

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-262
Author(s):  
Irina Yurievna Khrustaleva ◽  
Aivar Kriiska ◽  
Margarita Alekseevna Kholkina
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Stone Age ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Multi Temporal ◽  
Settlement Site ◽  
Source Of Information ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Eastern Baltic ◽  
Ams Dates

The Riigikla I settlement site in northeast Estonia, which was found and excavated at the beginning of 1950s, is an important source of information about the life and households of the Stone Age population in the Eastern Baltic and one of the few settlement sites in Estonia that includes the remains of dwellings. Besides two pit-houses, a few fireplaces, two entire human skeletons and the disarticulated bones of at least three more individuals, as well as a rich inventory comprised of pottery fragments, tools and waste from the production of quartz, bone, antler, flint, etc., were discovered here. At first, the site was interpreted as a single long-term dwelling site. Nevertheless, the discovery of new data at other sites in the region, as well as a partial re-analysis of the pottery and new AMS dates obtained from the human bones, indicated the necessity to revise all the materials. The preliminary results of this work are presented in our paper. It was established that at least four buildings correlated to Narva and Comb Ware cultures existed on the settlement site, indicating that, at least partially, they existed at different times. Find materials in the occupation layer are obviously mixed vertically because of the existence of multi-temporal settlement sites in this area, but they are also clearly correlated to objects horizontally. For a while, this place was apparently visited by the representatives of the Corded Ware culture (judging by the few fragments of pottery). And in the middle of the Bronze Age, people buried their dead here.

scholarly journals Reservoir Effect of Archaeological Samples from Steppe Bronze Age Cultures in Southern Russia

Radiocarbon ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (02) ◽  
pp. 767-778 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Shishlina ◽  
V Sevastyanov ◽  
E Zazovskaya ◽  
J van der Plicht
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Bone Collagen ◽  
Arid Climate ◽  
Reservoir Effect ◽  
Human Bones ◽  
Animal Bone ◽  
Southern Russia

Human and animal bone collagen from different Steppe Bronze Age cultures, including the Yamnaya, East Manych Catacomb, and Lola cultures, show large variations in δ13C and δ15N values. More positive values of δ13C and δ15N are caused by change in diet and/or a more arid climate. Human bones show reservoir effects caused by aquatic diet components. These effects can be quantified by paired dating of human bone and associated terrestrial samples. Previous research showed reservoir corrections for several cultures of the Eurasian steppes Bronze Age, leading to a revision of the local chronologies. Additional investigations showed that some paired dates do not reveal reservoir effects. Recently, our database was extended significantly with new13C,l5N, and14C analyses of the Lola, Krivaya, and Babino cultures. The size of the reservoir offset for the studied cultures is discussed.

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