Radiocarbon Dating (Archaeology)

The last investigations made during the excavation of the different levels at this important site to study the solutrean in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, have permited us to make some precisions on its chronostratigraphic position in the upper pleistocene. The calibration of a new radiocarbon date for the level IV (Upper Solutrean) and other six new dates (5 of them AMS) for the level II (Final Upper Solutrean) allows us to place this two cultural phases between the Greenland Stadial GS3 (end of OIS 3) and the end of the Greenland Intersatial GI 2, with a greater occupation of level II after the Heinrich Event H2, agreeing with the intersadial that come just before the last glacial maximum (GS 2). This new data modify clearly the before existing dates, making the whole record very much older. On the other side, the discovery of decorated panels with engravings and paintings, recoverd by Upper Solutrean sediments, allow us to place this representations, with great precision, in the Medium Solutrean (level VI) that must be placed between the GI 5 and the G 3. The excavation of the area that we call the microstratigraphy, included in level II (Final Upper Solutrean or Evolved Upper Solutrean), has provided 21 double layers of hearts, one of them with a stone structure and thousands of very typical solutrean flint implements that includes the characteristic barbed and tanged points, shouldered points and leaf points. The investigations carried out in the Laboratorio de Estudios Paleolíticos with this arrowheads, shows that they must be thrown with a bow.

Based on 92 radiocarbon dates (some unpublished) obtained from 30 sites subjected to dendrochronological calibration, previous chronologies of the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of Yakutia are revised and a new “calendar chronology” proposed. During the Bronze Age, two newly described cultures existed in addition to the Ust-Mil culture: Ulakhan Segelennyakh and Sugunnakh, the latter being a derivative of Ymyiakhtakh. In the 2nd millennium BC, the Ulakhan Segelennyakh culture became distributed throughout southern, southwestern, and southeastern Yakutia. The distinctive feature of this culture is perceived as being its ceramics which are decorated with punched nodes, stamp, and impressed designs. According to radiocarbon dating, the Sugunnakh culture existed in the transpolar regions of Yakutia from the 1st millennium BC at least until the first centuries AD. All the three Bronze Age cultures of Yakutia evidently originated from the Late Neolithic Ymyiakhtakh culture.

Usual  suspects  here  too .  Carnegie , Rothschilds , Rockefeller , Ford , DuPont .
All  of  the  foot  soldiers  are  from  Manhattan  Project –the  so  called  Atomic  Bomb makers .
Radiocarbon dating is not based upon fact, but on three assumptions: 1) that an accurate half-life for carbon-14 is precisely measurable; 2 ) that cosmic radiation has been constant for many thousands of years; and 3 ) that the nitrogen supply available to be acted upon by this radiation has been constant.

The recent salvage excavations in Slovenia have brought to light a number of early medieval settlements. One of the most important is Nova Tabla, near Murska Sobota. A relatively large number of radiocarbon dates obtained from charcoal samples collected from that site have encouraged speculations about the date of the Slavic settlement in Prekmurje (the region along the river Mura). However, both the collection and the publication of the radiocarbon dates are faulty, and the conclusions drawn on such a basis are therefore wrong. The paper addresses those notions and suggests a new interpretation of the site. Over the last few decades, salvage archaeology has completely changed the understanding of the early medieval settlements and cemeteries of East Central Europe. Large-scale infrastructure programs, such as the construction of highways, have led to the discovery of many new sites. In Slovenia, archaeological excavations carried out between 1995 and 2008 along the route of the highway segment between Celja and Lendava (central and eastern Slovenia, respectively) have brought to light a relatively large number of settlement sites in the valley of the river Mura (part of the region known in Slovenia as Prekmurje), south of present-day Murska Sobota. 1 Simultaneously, salvage and systematic excavations have brought to light many more sites in northern Croatia, along the southern bank of the Drava (the region known in Croatia as

SUMMARY: Chapter 4, in Renfrew & Bahn's textbook (Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practice), covers archaeological dating methods and their applicability and limitations, including stratigraphy (relative dating), typologies (e.g., seriation), linguistic dating, climatic clues (e.g., ice & deep=sea cores), absolute dating (e.g., pollen; ancient calendars; tree-ring/dendrochronology; radiocarbon dating; potassium-argon dating; uranium-series dating; thermoluminescence dating; optical dating; electron spin-resonance dating; global events; etc.).  In my view, this is one of the best college textbooks available, and is invaluable for students, archaeologists, and the public in general, to obtain a top notch overview of approaching and interpreting the archaeological record; also including a case study on the instructor's work at a late Old Kingdom fort at Ras Budran, in South Sinai (Egypt).  REVISED: Feb. 2023.

One of the most impressive structures in Jerusalem’s ancient landscape is the tower that was built to surround and protect the Gihon Spring, Jerusalem’s perennial water source. The structure, first discovered by Reich and Shukron (2004), encompasses the cave in which the spring sprouts from, with walls 7 m thick built of large boulders. The Spring Tower, along with the other features relating to it, were all attributed to the Middle Bronze Age II, based on their architectural and stratigraphical relationship, the type of architecture, and the pottery found. In the continued excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority along the outer, eastern face of the Spring Tower, it was noted that at least the northeast side of the tower was not built on bedrock, but rather on layers of sediment, which were sealed by the massive boulders at the base of the tower. In order to provide an absolute dating for the structure, two sections were sampled for radiocarbon (14C) dating benea...

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 agr...

Nalanda was a renowned Buddhist monastery which is believed to have been active for 800 years from around 4th/5th to 12th centuries AD. We know about the site from the accounts of 7th century Chinese traveler (Xuanzang) and later from 19th century British surveyors (Buchanan, Cunningham and Broadley). There are many studies on this site, recent one among them is a geospatial analysis which has revealed a larger extent (~7.25 sq. km) of the site compared to what is protected at present as World Heritage (WH) inscribed by UNESCO (0.23 sq. km. as core zones and 0.58 sq. km. as buffer zone) and has identified several unprotected archaeological mounds in the vicinity. Since we have a range of period when the site was active, it is possible that the dates of structures in each unexcavated mound are decades or centuries apart. To understand the time sequence in which the site existed one could use absolute dating method. This paper reports result of preliminary dating analysis using the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) technique on bricks collected from unprotected mounds in the environs of Nalanda. This paper also reports methods and issues in sample collection, preparation and discusses challenges to overcome in future efforts.

Reporting two radiocarbon C14 dates on the supposedly late Roman cemetery at Bradley Hill. The dates show that the cemetery continued in use into the fifth and sixth centuries AD

Gerrard, J. 2010 New radiocarbon dates from the cemetery at Bradley Hill, Somerton. Somerset  Archaeology and Natural History 154, 189-192

As demonstrated by Shennan et al. (2013), Downey et al. (2014), Crema et al. (2016) and others, bootstrapped Monte-Carlo summed probability distributions (MCSPD) of radiocarbon dates can serve as a proxy for prehistoric populations.  Hypothesis testing can be implemented using permutation tests of the MCSPDs.  This talk looks at applying this methodology to part of the radiocarbon date assemblage from the Ruby pipeline excavations.  Ruby is a 680 mile natural gas pipeline stretching from Malin, Oregon to Kemmer, Wyoming.  The 124 radiocarbon dates analyzed here come from 110 sites located in Oregon and northern Nevada.  These sites are spread across the following five geomorphic regions (from west to east): Northern Modoc Plateau, the High Rock Country, Upper Lahontan Basin, Upper Humboldt Plains, and Thousand Springs Valley.  Permutation tests indicate that the differences between the MCSPDs for each geomorphic region are not statistically significant.  The overall trend in the MCSPDs is an increasing population through the Holocene with a drop during the Medieval Warm Period and in the Contact Period (circa 150 BP).  The High Rock Country has the earliest occupation and the highest population densities during the Terminal Pleistocene?Early Holocene.  Hiatuses in each regional MCSPD will be discussed in terms of known climatic events and phases.

This paper presents direct dating evidence for the manufacture of some of the gold artefacts from the Iron Age archaeological site of Mapungubwe Hill (South Africa). The results confirm that the artefacts are contemporaneous with the occupation of the site and are the product of a mature indigenous metalworking tradition. The Mapungubwe Hill gold artefacts were manufactured at a time when a substantial reorganisation of society led to the separation of royals and commoners and a change in the role of cattle as a form of wealth. These changes are clearly manifest in the use of gold. Whereas gold had previously been traded with the East coast, it became symbolic of power, wealth and status at Mapungubwe Hill.

Radiocarbon dates for the ancient drawings in the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave revealed ages much older than expected. These early ages and nature of this Paleolithic art make this United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) site indisputably unique. A large, multidisciplinary dating program has recently mapped the anthropological evolution associated with the cave. More than 350 dates (by 14C, U-Th, TL and 36Cl) were obtained over the last 15 y. They include 259 radiocarbon dates, mainly related to the rock art and human activity in the cave. We present here more than 80 previously unpublished dates. All of the dates were integrated into a high-precision Bayesian model based on archaeological evidence to securely reconstruct the complete history of the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave on an absolute timescale. It shows that there were two distinct periods of human activity in the cave, one from 37 to 33,500 y ago, and the other from 31 to 28,000 y ago. Cave bears al...

Tollund 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 ( ¹⁴ C) analyses have only been able to date him broadly to the 3rd–4th century BC. In this study, stable isotope measurements (δ ¹³ C, δ ¹⁵ N) 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) ¹⁴ C 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 ¹⁴ C 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).

The first detailed investigation of the human remains from the Carrowkeel passage tomb complex since their excavation in 1911 has revealed several new and important insights about life, death, and mortuary practice in Neolithic Ireland. Osteological analysis provides the first conclusive proof for the occurrence of dismemberment of the dead at Irish passage tombs, practised contemporarily with cremation as one of a suite of funerary treatments. The research also highlights changes in burial tradition at the complex over the course of the Neolithic. Providing a chronology for these changes allows them to be linked to wider trends in monument construction, which may relate to changes in both land use and climate during the period. Multi-isotope analysis hints at the presence of non-local individuals among the interred and the possible existence of different food sourcing areas at the onset of the later Neolithic period. Preliminary results from ancient DNA sequencing of six individual...

Reports the results of archaeological mitigation efforts conducted in advance of construction of the Los Vaqeruos Reservoir at previously recorded sites CA-CCO-447/H, -458/H, -459, -468, -469, -621/H, -636, -637, and a newly discovered site, CA-CCO-696, the later which contained two buried components. The upper buried component at CCO-696 contained a diverse assemblage of artifacts, numerous residential features, and about 150 human burials, with most dating to between about 1500 and 2500 cal BP. The lower deeply buried component at CCO-696 contained a human burial radiocarbon dated to about 7400 cal BP and an artifact assemblage of handstones, millingslabs, and a wide-stem projectile point radiocarbon dated between about 9400 and 9800 cal BP, which are among the oldest known cultural remains in the region.

Die klassische Mayakultur wird in der zur Zeit verwendeten
Standardchronologie von Goodman, Martínez und Thompson in die Zeit von ca. 300 bis 900 n. Chr. datiert. Sie beruht auf dem Vergleich von Kalenderangaben im Mayakalender und in der christlichen Zeitrechnung, die zusammen auf kolonialzeitlichen Dokumenten zu finden sind. Allerdings beruht diese Datierung auf der Annahme der Kalenderkontinuität von der Klassik bis in die Kolonialzeit. Diese Annahme wird in der vorliegenden Arbeit an Hand der Mondserien widerlegt, so dass sich die Notwendigkeit ergibt, die klassische Mayakultur neu zu datieren.
Dafür bieten sich astronomische Daten aus der Klassik an, die man mit modernen astronomischen Berechnungen vergleichen kann. Die Interpretationen von vier astronomischen Ereignissen sind durch den Vergleich von verschiedenen Quellen vorab auf ihre Genauigkeit und Zuverlässigkeit überprüft worden, um sie anschließend mit einer neu entwickelten Korrelationssuchmethode für die astronomische Datierung zu verwenden. Das Ergebnis ist, dass es nur eine einzige Lösung bei der Korrelationssuche gibt: Die Korrelationskonstante 660208.
Die neue Datierung verschiebt die klassische Mayakultur (ca. 8.13.0.0.0 - 10.4.0.0.0) um 208 Jahre in der Zeit von ca. 500 bis 1100 n. Chr. Naturwissenschaftliche Datierungsverfahren, stilistische Entwicklungen in den Mayaglyphen und mögliche Querverbindungen zu Zentralmexiko bestätigen die neue Datierung, so dass Unstimmigkeiten und Brüche in der historischen Entwicklung der klassischen Mayakultur wegfallen. Die Promotion diskutiert an vielen Beispielen die Implikationen einer um 208 Jahre verschobenen Mayachronologie und beschreibt die Höhepunkte in der Geschichte der Maya-Astronomie.

In den mehr als 10 Jahren seit Veröffentlichung der ersten Auflage sind einige wichtige Forschungsarbeiten veröffentlicht worden, die nun berücksichtigt werden konnten. Dies betrifft die 2012 publizierten Klimadaten aus der Höhle von Yuk Balum in Belize. Außerdem ist die Entstehung der GMT-Korrelation aus einer wissenschaftshistorischen Perspektive hinzugefügt worden, die klarstellt, dass bei der Berechnung der Korrelationskonstante durch Goodman (1905), Martinéz Hernández (1926) und auch später durch Thompson (1927, 1935) erhebliche Manipulationen an den kolonialzeitlichen Kalenderdaten durchgeführt wurden. Als Konsequenz muss festgestellt werden, dass die GMT-Korrelation jeglicher Datengrundlage entbehrt, die es erlauben würde sie überhaupt zu berechnen, wodurch die Notwendigkeit für eine neue Korrelation durch die Datierung der klassischen Mayakultur noch dringender wurde.
Zur Verifizierung der astronomischen Datierung sind seit 2012 hochgenaue AMS Radiokarbondatierungen eines Türsturzes aus Tempel 1 in Tikal bekannt, die nun berücksichtigt wurden. Die Liste der Mondserien ist auf der Grundlage von einer umfangreichen Mondseriensammlung überarbeitet und zahlreiche neue Inschriften sind hinzugefügt worden. Im Rahmen der Überarbeitung der Mondserien ist die Analyse des Mondalters um viele Aspekte erweitert worden.

Radiocarbon dates obtained for the coastal hilltop settlement of Aghios Antonios Potos in south Thasos are statistically treated to define the absolute chronology for the start and the end of the various habitation and cultural phases at the site. The location was first occupied during the Final Neolithic (FN) between 3800 and 3600 BC, extending this much contested phase to the lowest up to now record for Thasos and the northern Greece. The site is continuously inhabited from Early Bronze Age I until the early Late Bronze Age (LBA; 1363 BC) when it was abandoned. Comparison with other sites in Thasos and particularly with the inland site of Kastri Theologos showed that the first occupation at Aghios Antonios came soon after the abandonment of Kastri in the beginning of the 4th millennium. In fact, after the decline and abandonment of Aghios Antonios in the LBA, the site of Kastri was reinhabited, leading to the hypothesis that part of the coastal population moved inland. The presumed chronological sequence of alternate habitation between the two settlements may evoke explanations for sociocultural and/or environmental dynamics behind population movements in prehistoric Thasos. A major conclusion of the project is that the 4th millennium occupation gap attested in many sites of Greece, especially in the north, is probably bridged in south Thasos, when the data from all sites are taken together. The mobility of people in Final Neolithic south Thasos may explain the general phenomenon of limited occupational sequences in the FN of north Greece.

Climate and palaeoeconomy in the Neolithic of Turgai
Animal farming of Sintashta Culture by the data of rituals
Sacral meaning of gaming culture in the early history of Eurasia
Razor in warriors’ culture of the Bronze Age
Snake-Man in African myths and fairy tales

Климат и палеоэкономика в неолите Тургая
Скотоводство синташтинской культуры по обрядовым данным
Сакральный смысл игровой культуры в древней истории Евразии
Бритва в воинской культуре бронзового века
Человек-змея в африканских мифах и сказках

Новые радиоуглеродные даты позволили существенно скорректировать хронологию ымыяхтахской культуры позднего неолита Восточной Сибири и сугуннахской пережиточно-ымыяхтахской культуры бронзового века сибирского Заполярья. Ключевые даты для ымыяхтахской культуры были получены в последние годы для нижних культурных горизонтов многослойной стоянки Улахан Сегеленнях (Южная Якутия), а для сугуннахской культуры – на памятниках Нижней Индигирки, в том числе на стоянке Сугуннах. Согласно новым данным, ымыяхтахская культура относится к календарному промежутку 2960±60 – 1185±185 гг. до н.э., а сугуннахская пережиточно-ымыяхтахская культура – к 955±125 г. до н.э. – 335±205 г. н.э. Продолжительность ымыяхтахской культуры составляет около 1775 лет, сугуннахской – около 1290 лет.

The radiocarbon dating of pottery corrects traditional views on a periodization of the Bug-Dniester culture and its synchronization with some neighboring cultures. It eliminates a part of contradictions between series of the dates made earlier on bone and antler samples.
Published in: A. Mazurkevich, M. Polkovnikova,  E. Dolbunova (eds.), Archaeology of lake settlements IV–II mill. BC: Chronology of cultures, environment and palaeoclimatic rhythms. - Saint-Petersburg, 2014. - P. 50-54.

Our knowledge about the age of the prehistoric salt mine in Hallstatt, Austria, is based on a complex system of archaeological findspots, 14C-datings and dendrochronology. In general, the oldest mining started at the so-called “North group” findspots and the Christian-Tusch-Werk, which are dated between 1600-1200 BC. The “East group” sites are contemporary to the Hallstatt cemetery and cover a time-span between 900-300 BC. Textiles from Hallstatt – as other finds from the mine – are usually dated according to their find context. But there are some woven items which - for special reasons - require a radiocarbon date.

Investigation of paint samples from rock paintings at Laura, north Queensland, has revealed the presence of fibrous material which appears to be derived from plants. This paper outlines recent research into the nature and source of this material. Ethnobotanic data and the analyses conducted so far suggest that fibres may occur as by-products or as integral components of the painting process. This study presents direct evidence in the archaeological record for the physical involvement of plants in the creation of Aboriginal rock paintings.