Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T09:07:44.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Major Revisions in the Pleistocene Age Assignments for North American Human Skeletons by C-14 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: None Older Than 11,000 C-14 Years B.P.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. E. Taylor
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside
L. A. Payen
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside
C. A. Prior
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside
P. J. Slota Jr.
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside
R. Gillespie
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University
J. A. J. Gowlett
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University
R. E. M. Hedges
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Oxford University
A. J. T. Jull
Affiliation:
NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis, University of Arizona
T. H. Zabel
Affiliation:
NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis, University of Arizona
D. J. Donahue
Affiliation:
NSF Accelerator Facility for Radioisotope Analysis, University of Arizona
R. Berger
Affiliation:
Isotope Laboratory, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Departments of Anthropology and Geography, University of California, Los Angeles

Abstract

Radiocarbon analyses by accelerator mass spectrometric (AMS) techniques on organic fractions of human bone from various North American localities previously assigned ages ranging from about 70,000 to 15,000 years B.P. now suggest that none of these skeletons is older than 11,000 C-14 years B.P.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Austin, J. 1976 A Test of Birdsell's Hypothesis on New World Migrations. Paper presented at Meeting of Society for California Archaeology, April, 1976.Google Scholar
Bada, J. L., and Finkel, R. 1983 The Upper Pleistocene Peopling of the New World: Evidence Derived from Radiocarbon, Amino Acid Racemization and Uranium Series Dating. In Quaternary Coastlines and Marine Archaeology,, edited by Masters, P. M. and Flemming, N. C., pp. 463479. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bada, J. L., Gillespie, R., Gowlett, J. A. J., and Hedges, R. E. M. 1984 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon Ages of Amino Acid Extracts from Californian Paleo Indian Skeletons. Nature,, 312: 442444.Google Scholar
Bada, J. L., and Helfman, P. M. 1975 Amino Acid Racemization Dating of Fossil Bones. World Archaeology 7: 160183.Google Scholar
Bada, J. L., Masters, P. M., Hoopes, E., and Darling, D. 1979 The Dating of Fossil Bones Using Amino Acid Racemization. In Radiocarbon Dating,, edited by R. Berger and Suess, H. E., pp. 740756. University of California Press, Berkeley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bada, J. L., Schroeder, R. A., and Carter, G. F. 1974 New Evidence for the Antiquity of Man in North America Deduced from Aspartic Acid Racemization. Science 184: 791793.Google Scholar
Berger, R. 1975 Advances and Results in Radiocarbon Dating: Early Man in America. World Archaeology 7: 174184.Google Scholar
Berger, R. 1983 Direct Bone Dating in a Small C02 Counter. Radiocarbon 25: 655659.Google Scholar
Berger, R., and Libby, W. F. 1969 UCLA Radiocarbon Dates IX. Radiocarbon 11: 194209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berger, R., Protsch, R., Reynolds, R., Rozaire, R., and Sackett, J. R. 1971 New Radiocarbon Dates Based on Bone Collagen of California Paleoindians. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility 12: 4349.Google Scholar
Bischoff, J. L., and Childers, W. M. 1979 Temperature Calibration of Amino Acid Racemization: Age Implications for the Yuha Skeleton. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 45: 172180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bischoff, J. L., Merriam, R., Childers, W. M., and Protsch, R. 1976 Antiquity of Man in America Indicated by Radiometric Dates on the Yuha Burial Site. Nature 261: 128129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bischoff, J. L., and Rosenbauer, R. J. 1981 Uranium Series Dating of Human Skeletal Remains from the Del Mar and Sunnyvale Sites, California. Science 213: 1003-1005. Carlisle, R. C, and Adovasio, J. M. Google Scholar
Bischoff, J. L., and Rosenbauer, R. J. 1982 Archaeology of Meadowcroft Rockshelter and the Cross Creek Drainage. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Carter, G. F. 1980 Earlier Than You Think: A Personal View of Man in America. Texas A & M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Davis, D. M. 1978 Some Observations on the Otovalo Skeleton and Other Remains of Early Man in South America. Journal of Human Evolution 7: 279281.Google Scholar
Dillehay, T. D., Pino, Q. M., Davis, E. M., Valastaro, S., Jr., Valrela, A. G., and Casamiquela, R. 1982 Monte Verde: Radiocarbon Dates from an Early-Man Site in South-central Chile. Journal of Field Archaeology 9: 547550.Google Scholar
Donahue, D. J., Jull, A. J. T., and Zabel, T. H. 1985 Results of Radioisotope Measurements at the NSF-University of Arizona Tandem Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Facility. Nuclear Instruments and Methods,, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillespie, R., Gowlett, J. A. J., Hall, E. T., and Hedges, R. E. M. 1984 Radiocarbon Measurement by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: An Early Selection of Dates. Archaeometry 26(1): 1520.Google Scholar
Hare, P. E. 1974 Amino Acid Dating—A History and an Evaluation. MASCA Newsletter 10(1): 47.Google Scholar
Kaufman, T. S. 1980 Early Prehistory of the Clear Lake Area, Lake County, California. Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Payen, L. A., Rector, C. H., E. Ritter, Taylor, R. E., and Ericson, J. E. 1978 Comments on the Pleistocene Age Assignment and Associations of Human Burial from the Yuha Desert, California. American Antiquity 43: 448453.Google Scholar
Prior, C. A., Ennis, P. J., Noltmann, E. A., Hare, P. E., and Taylor, R. E. 1985 Variations in D/L Aspartic Acid Ratios in Bones of Similar Age and Temperature History. Proceedings of 1984 International Archaeometry Symposium,, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., in press.Google Scholar
Shotton, F. W., and Williams, R. E. G. 1973 Birmingham University Radiocarbon Dates VII. Radiocarbon 15(3): 451468.Google Scholar
Stalker, A. MacS. 1969 Geology and Age of the Early Man Site at Taber, Alberta. American Antiquity 34: 425428.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stafford, T. W., Jull, A. J. T., Zabel, T. H., Donahue, D. J., Duhamel, R. C., K. Brendel, Haynes, C. V. Jr., Bischoff, J. L., Payen, L. A., and Taylor, R. E. 1984 Holocene Age of the Yuha Burial: Direct Radiocarbon Determinations by Accelerator Mass Spectrometry. Nature 308: 446447.Google Scholar
Taylor, D. C. 1969 The Wilsall Excavations: An Exercise in Frustration. Proceedings of the Montana Academy of Science 29: 147150.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E. 1983 Non-Concordance of Radiocarbon and Amino Acid Racemization Deduced Age Estimates on Human Bone. Radiocarbon 25: 647654.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E., Payen, L. A., Gerow, B., Donahue, D. J., Zabel, T. H., Jull, A. T. J., and Damon, P. E. 1983 Middle Holocene Age of the Sunnyvale Human Skeleton. Science 220: 12711273.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E., Payen, L. A., and Slota, P. J., Jr. 1985 Impact of AMS 14C Determinations on Considerations of the Antiquity of Homo sapiens in the Western Hemisphere. Nuclear Instruments and Methods,, in press.Google Scholar