A Mesolithic Scatter from Littlehill Bridge, Girvan, Ayrshire

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
GAVIN MACGREGOR ◽  
MICHAEL DONNELLY ◽  
J. MILLER ◽  
S. RAMSAY ◽  
D. ALLDRITT
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Date

An assemblage of 366 lithics was recovered during the characterisation of archaeological deposits, from deposits which appear to represent a scooped occupation. Analysis of the assemblage and a radiocarbon date range of 6355-6012 cal BC indicate that it belongs to the Mesolithic. The site is significant because it is the first Mesolithic material to have been recovered by excavation in the Girvan area. It also provides additional evidence for a class of semipermanent Mesolithic sites consisting of shallow scoops surrounded by turf or earthen banks.

Excavation of sub-peat agricultural features on Machrie Moor, Arran

2000 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-186
Author(s):  
KEVIN J TAYLOR ◽  
TARA HUNTER
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Agricultural Activity ◽  
Early Agriculture

Excavations near two upstanding hut circles overlooking Machrie Moor revealed traces of early agriculture in the form of narrow, or 'cord' rig associated with a small cairn. Sealed beneath this were traces of earlier agricultural activity in the form of ard marks. A radiocarbon date from a basal sample of the overlying peat spanned the fifth to seventh centuries AD.

Age and architecture of the largest African Baobabs from Mayotte, France

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Patrut ◽  
Roxana Patrut ◽  
Laszlo Rakosy ◽  
Karl von Reden
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Cluster Structure ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
General State ◽  
Adansonia Digitata ◽  
Open Ring ◽  
The Indian Ocean ◽  
Ring Shaped Structure ◽  
Comoro Islands

The volcanic Comoro Islands, located in the Indian Ocean in between mainland Africa and Madagascar, host several thousand African baobabs (Adansonia digitata). Most of them are found in Mayotte, which currently belongs to France, as an overseas department. We report the investigation of the largest two baobabs of Mayotte, the Big baobab of Musical Plage and the largest baobab of Plage N’Gouja. The Big baobab of Musical Plage exhibits a cluster structure and consists of 5 fused stems, out of which 4 are common stems and one is a false stem. The baobab of Plage N’Gouja has an open ring-shaped structure and consists of 7 partially fused stems, out of which 3 stems are large and old, while 4 are young. Several wood samples were collected from both baobabs and analyzed via radiocarbon dating. The oldest dated sample from the baobab of Musical Plage has a radiocarbon date of 275 ± 25 BP, which corresponds to a calibrated calendar age of 365 ± 15 yr. On its turn, the oldest sample from Plage N’Gouja has a radiocarbon date of 231 ± 20 BP, which translates into a calibrated age of 265 ± 15 yr. These results indicate that the Big baobab of Musical Plage is around 420 years old, while the baobab of Plage N’Gouja has an age close to 330 years. In present, both baobabs are in a general state of deterioration with many broken or damaged branches, and the Baobab of Plage N’Gouja has several missing stems. These observations suggest that the two baobabs are in decline and, most likely, close to the end of their life cycle.

scholarly journals ANU Radiocarbon Date List VII

Radiocarbon ◽  
1979 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
H A Polach ◽  
B G Thom ◽  
G M Bowman ◽  
Stella Wilkie
Keyword(s):  
Age Structure ◽  
Environmental Effect ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Terrestrial Environment ◽  
Depositional Sequences ◽  
Preliminary Attempt

Along SE coast of Australia a variety of Holocene barriers composed of siliceous sand and shell detritus occur within bedrock-confined embayments. On basis of morphostratigraphy 4 barrier types are recognized: prograded, stationary, receded and episodic transgressive dunes. Several subtypes are also distinguished. Composite bay barriers involving partial eolian reworking of a prograded barrier constitute most complex examples of Holocene depositional sequences on this coast. The present list is a preliminary attempt at defining the age structure of a group of such barriers (excepting receded type). Ages are reported in conventional years bp. Text references to ages and age ranges are environmental effect corrected ages bp* and yr* (as recommended by Stuiver and Polach, 1977), using 450 ± 35 yr as postulated by Gillespie and Polach (in press) in order to relate Australian oceanic environment shells to terrestrial environment wood. δ13C errors, where based on measurement, are always ± 0.2% and are not shown in the text; when based on estimated values (Est) the error is given.

The Age of Common Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in the Northeastern United States

1999 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 653-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Hart ◽  
C. Margaret Scarry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Zea Mays ◽  
Phaseolus Vulgaris ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Common Beans ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Northeastern United States ◽  
Susquehanna River ◽  
Ams Dates

AbstractA radiocarbon date of A.D. 1070 ± 60 was linked to the remains of maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucñrbita pepo) at the Roundtop site in the Susquehanna River valley of New York by William Ritchie in 1969 and 1973 publications. This date established the presence of beans in the Northeast at an earlier time than in most other areas of the eastern United States, where they are generally rare before A.D. 1300. Subsequently beans have been reported in pre-A.D.1300 contexts from at least eight other sites in the Northeast. Recent calibrated AMS dates on beans from Roundtop are no earlier than A.D. 1300 (Hart 1999a). Given that the original Roundtop date was responsible for the acceptance of early beans in the Northeast, the AMS dates suggested that beans may not become archaeologically visible there until ca. A.D. 1300. AMS dates on beans from four other sites, reported here, substantiate the Roundtop results. Beans and by extension maize-beans-squash intercropping are not evident in the Northeast before ca. A.D. 1300.

New Light on the Midland Discovery

1959 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fred Wendorf ◽  
Alex D. Krieger
Keyword(s):  
Small Mammals ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
High Plains ◽  
Faunal Assemblage ◽  
Southern High Plains ◽  
Stratigraphic Sequence ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Cultural Events ◽  
Animal Bones

AbstractAdditional excavation in 1955 confirmed the previously reported stratigraphic sequence at Midland, Texas. Within the gray sand, which had yielded a fragmentary human calvarium, there were found additional flint flakes, burned rocks, and animal bones. Besides several small mammals, a four-horned antelope (probably Capromeryx) was present in the gray sand; horse bones occurred in the gray sand and overlying red sand. These finds make the two radiocarbon dates published in the 1955 Midland report, giving an age of about 7000 years to the gray sand, even less acceptable than previously thought. Experimental dating by the uranium daughter products technique suggests an age of about 20,000 years for the gray sand, somewhat excessive in terms of cultural correlations although supported by a single radiocarbon date and not unreasonable for the faunal assemblage. Ten radiocarbon dates from the Midland, Blackwater Draw, Lubbock Lake, and Plainview sites are discussed in terms of three possible correlations of the geological, climatic, faunal, and cultural events in the Southern High Plains.

Pleistocene Mammals from Gold Run Creek, Yukon Territory

1973 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 697-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Harington ◽  
F. V. Clulow
Keyword(s):  
Yukon Territory ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Common Elements ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Equus Asinus ◽  
Wild Ass ◽  
Pleistocene Mammals ◽  
First Time

Remains of thirteen species of mammals are reported from Pleistocene deposits at Gold Run Creek near Dawson, Yukon Territory. Eight of the thirteen species are extinct and two are no longer living in the Yukon. The most common elements of the fauna are Equus (Asinus) lambei (Yukon wild ass), and Bison crassicornis (large-horned bison). Taxidea (badger) and Bison alaskensis (Alaskan bison) are reported for the first time from the Yukon Pleistocene. A kiang-like horse is also reported from deposits at Gold Run Creek.These mammals may have inhabited a cool grassland or open parkland during late Wisconsin time. Bison crassicornis and mammoth bone from deposits at Gold Run Creek have yielded radiocarbon dates of 22 200 ± 1400 yr B.P. and 32 250 ± 1750 yr B.P. respectively. Bison alaskensis is evidently older than the remainder of the fauna as bone from the specimen yielded a radiocarbon date of over 39 900 yr B.P.

“Gods… Adorned with the Embroiderer’s Needle”: The Materials, Making and Meaning of a Taino Cotton Reliquary

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 300-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanna Ostapkowicz ◽  
Lee Newsom
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Intrinsic Value ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Skeletal Remains ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Lesser Antilles ◽  
Hispanic Caribbean ◽  
Manufacture Process ◽  
Animal Hair

AbstractA unique cotton Taíno reliquary—the only extant example currently known—provides an unprecedented window onto the complex mortuary and ritual ceremonies of the pre-Hispanic Caribbean. This study explores its cultural context as recorded by the early Spanish and French chroniclers and missionaries who were witness to the use and beliefs surrounding these objects in both the Greater and Lesser Antilles. It provides the first AMS radiocarbon date for the reliquary, placing it within a firmer historical context. It also examines the woven sculpture in some detail, providing a review of the manufacture process and a detailed study of the components—cotton, animal hair, lianas, gourd, resins and shell—that went into its creation. From the wrapping of important cemís (representations of spirits) in cotton, to the binding of the skeletal remains of venerated ancestors within elaborate weavings, cotton had an intrinsic value as a material that wrapped and bound the ancestors to the living and the living to each other.

scholarly journals Evaluating Bayesian radiocarbon-dated event-count [REC] models for the study of long-term human and environmental processes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Christopher Carleton
Keyword(s):  
Forest Fires ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Radiocarbon Date ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
New Class ◽  
Environmental Processes ◽  
Growth Decline ◽  
Marine Ingression ◽  
Event Times

Chronological uncertainty complicates attempts to use radiocarbon dates as proxies for processes like human population growth/decline, forest fires, and marine ingression. Established approaches involve turning databases of radiocarbon-date densities into single summary proxies that cannot fully account for chronological uncertainty. Here, I use simulated data to explore an alternate Bayesian approach that instead models the data as what they are, namely radiocarbon-dated event-counts. The approach involves assessing possible event-count sequences by sampling radiocarbon date densities and then applying MCMC to estimate the parameters of an appropriate count-based regression model. The regressions based on individual sampled sequences were placed in a multilevel framework, which allowed for the estimation of hyperparameters that account for chronological uncertainty in individual event times. Two processes were used to produce simulated data. One represented a simple monotonic change in event-counts and the other was based on a real palaeoclimate proxy record. In both cases, the method produced estimates that had the correct sign and were consistently biased toward zero. These results indicate that the approach is widely applicable and could form the basis of a new class of quantitative models for use in exploring long-term human and environmental processes.

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