Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T05:56:45.485Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Reassessing the Radiocarbon Date from the Buhl Burial from South-Central Idaho and Its Relevance to the Western Stemmed Tradition–Clovis Debate in the Intermountain West

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 June 2020

Christopher S. Jazwa Open the ORCID record for Christopher S. Jazwa [Opens in a new window] ,
Geoffrey M. Smith ,
Richard L. Rosencrance ,
Daron G. Duke  and
Dan Stueber
Christopher S. Jazwa*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia Street, MS 0096, Reno, NV 89557, USA
Geoffrey M. Smith
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia Street, MS 0096, Reno, NV 89557, USA
Richard L. Rosencrance
Affiliation:
University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, 1224 University of Oregon, 1680 E. 15th Avenue, Eugene, OR 97403, USA
Daron G. Duke
Affiliation:
Desert Branch, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, 1180 Center Point Drive, Suite 100, Henderson, NV 89074, USA
Dan Stueber
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN SCS, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada V8W 2Y2
*
([email protected], corresponding author)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A single radiocarbon date derived from the Buhl burial in south-central Idaho has frequently been used as a data point for the interpretation of the Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) chronology and technology because of the stemmed biface found in situ with the human remains. AMS dating of bone collagen in 1991 produced an age of 10,675 ± 95 14C BP, immediately postdating the most widely accepted age range for Clovis. The Buhl burial has been cited as evidence that stemmed point technology may have overlapped with Clovis technology in the Intermountain West. We discuss concerns about the radiocarbon date, arguing that even at face value, the calibrated date has minimal overlap with Clovis at the 95.4% range. Furthermore, the C:N ratio of 3.69 in the analyzed collagen is outside of the typical range for well-preserved samples, indicating a postdepositional change in carbon composition, which may make the date erroneously older or younger than the age of the skeleton. Finally, the potential dietary incorporation of small amounts of anadromous fish may indicate that the burial is younger than traditionally accepted. For these reasons, we argue that the Buhl burial cannot be used as evidence of overlap between WST and Clovis.

Una fecha por radiocarbono única derivada del entierro de Buhl en la central sur de Idaho se usa frecuentemente como un punto de dato para la interpretación de la cronología y la tecnología de la Tradición de Tallo Occidental (WST) como resultado de la presencia de una herramienta bifacial con tallo encontrada in situ con los restos humanos. El fechado con acelerador para espectrometría de masas (AMS) de colágeno de hueso en 1991 indicó una fecha de 10.675 ± 95 14C BP, inmediatamente después el rango de fechas aceptadas de Clovis. El entierro de Buhl ha sido citado como evidencia que quizás la tecnología de puntos de proyectiles con tallos traslapó con la tecnología de Clovis en la región Oeste Intermontano. Revisamos preocupaciones sobre la fecha por radiocarbono, discutiendo que, incluso a valor aparente, la fecha calibrada tiene superposición mínima con las de Clovis al rango de 95,4%. Además, el proporción de C:N de 3,69 en el colágeno analizado está fuera del rango típico para muestras bien conservadas, que indica un cambio después de deposición en la composición del carbono, cuyo puede hacer erróneamente la fecha aparecer más viejo o más joven que la fecha verdadera de los restos. Finalmente, la incorporación dietaría potencial de cantidades pequeñas de pescados anádromos puede indicar que los restos son más jóvenes que se piensa previamente. Por estas razones, discutimos que el entierro de Buhl no se puede usar como evidencia por el traslapo de WST y Clovis.

Keywords

Buhl burialWestern Stemmed TraditionIntermountain WestSnake RiverAMS datingClovisIdaho archaeologyPaleoindian archaeologyel entierro de BuhlTradició n de Tallo Occidental (WST)regió n Oeste IntermontanoRio Snakefechado con acelerador para espectrometrı́ a de masas (AMS)Clovisarqueología de Idahoarqueología paleoindia
Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 1 , January 2021 , pp. 173 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by the Society for American Archaeology

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

Ambrose, Stanley H. 1990 Preparation and Characterization of Bone and Tooth Collagen for Isotopic Analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 17:431–451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arneborg, Jette, Heinemeier, Jan, Lynnerup, Niels, Nielsen, Henrik L., Rud, Niels, and Sveinbjornsdottir, Arny E. 1999 Change of Diet of the Greenland Vikings Determined from Stable Carbon Istotope Analysis and 14C Dating of Their Bones. Radiocarbon 41:157–168.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becerra-Valdivia, Lorena, Waters, Michael R., Stafford, Thomas W. Jr., Anzick, Sarah L., Comeskey, Daniel, Diviése, Thibaut, and Higham, Thomas 2018 Reassessing the Chronology of the Archaeological Site of Anzick. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America 115:7000–7003.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Beck, Charlotte, and Jones, George T. 2009 The Archaeology of the Eastern Nevada Paleoarchaic, Part I: The Sunshine Locality. University of Utah Anthropological Paper No. 126. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Beck, Charlotte, and Jones, George T. 2010 Clovis and Western Stemmed: Population Migration and the Meeting of Two Technologies in the Intermountain West. American Antiquity 75:81–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, Charlotte, and Jones, George T. 2013 Complexities of the Colonization Process: A View from the North American West. In Paleoamerican Odyssey, edited by Graf, Kelly E., Ketron, Caroline V., and Waters, Michael R., pp. 273–291. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Beck, Charlotte, and Jones, George T. 2015 Lithic Analysis. In The Paleoarchaic Occupation of the Old River Bed Delta, edited by Madsen, David B., Schmitt, David N., and Page, David. University of Utah Anthropological Papers. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Bement, Leland C., and Carter, Brian J. 2010 Jake Bluff: Clovis Bison Hunting on the Southern Plains of North America. American Antiquity 75:907–933.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, Thomas J., Gilmour, Daniel M., Solimano, Paul S., and Ames, Kenneth M. 2019 The Radiocarbon Record of the Western Stemmed Tradition on the Southern Columbia Plateau of Western North America. American Antiquity 84:471–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatters, James C. 2017 Making Archaeological Sense of Kennewick Man. Quaternary International 444:83–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, Brian S., Nelson, D. Erle, and Schwarcz, Henry P. 1982 Stable-Carbon Isotope Ratios as a Measure of Marine versus Terrestrial Protein in Ancient Diets. Science 216:1131–1132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cook, Gordon T., Ascough, Philippa L., Bonsall, Clive, Derek, W.. Hamilton, Nicola Russell, Kerry L. Sayle, E. Marian. Scott, and Jessica. M. Bownes, 2015 Best Practice Methodology for 14C Calibration of Marine and Mixed Terrestrial/Marine Samples. Quaternary Geochronology 27:164–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Loren G., Bean, Daniel W., and Nyers, Alexander J. 2017 Morphometric and Technological Attributes of Western Stemmed Tradition Projectile Points Revealed in a Second Artifact Cache Discovered at the Cooper's Ferry Site, Idaho. American Antiquity 82:536–557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Loren G., Madsen, David B., Becerra-Valdivia, Lorena, Higham, Thomas, Sisson, David A., Skinner, Sarah M., Stueber, Daniel, Nyers, Alexander J., Keen-Zebert, Amanda, Neudorf, Christina, Cheyney, Melissa, Izuho, Masami, Iizuka, Fumie, Burns, Samuel R., Epps, Clinton W., Willis, Samuel C., and Buvit, Ian 2019 Late Upper Paleolithic Occupation at Cooper's Ferry, Idaho, USA, ~16,000 Years Ago. Science 365:891–897.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davis, Loren G., Nyers, Alex J., and Willis, Samuel C. 2014 Context, Provenance and Technology of a Western Stemmed Tradition Artifact Cache from the Cooper's Ferry Site, Idaho. American Antiquity 79:596–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeNiro, Michael J. 1985 Postmortem Preservation and Alteration of In Vivo Bone Collagen Isotope Ratios in Relation to Palaeodietary Reconstruction. Nature 317:806–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeNiro, Michael J., and Epstein, Samuel 1981 Influence of Diet on the Distribution of Nitrogen Isotopes in Animals. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 45:341–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deviése, Thibaut, Stafford, Thomas W. Jr., Waters, Michael R., Wathen, Crista, Comeskey, Daniel, Becerra-Valdivia, Lorena, and Higham, Thomas 2018 Increasing Accuracy for the Radiocarbon Dating of Sites Occupied by the First Americans. Quaternary Science Reviews 198:171–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duke, Daron G. 2011 If the Desert Blooms: A Technological Perspective on Paleoindian Ecology in the Great Basin from the Old River Bed, Utah. PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno.Google Scholar
Duke, Daron G., and King, Jerome 2014 A GIS Model for Predicting Wetland Habitat in the Great Basin at the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition and Implications for Paleoindian Archaeology. Journal of Archaeological Science 49:276–291.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiedel, Stuart J. 2014 Did Pre-Clovis People Inhabit the Paisley Caves (and Why Does it Matter)? Human Biology 86:69–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fiedel, Stuart J., and Morrow, Juliet E. 2012 Comment on “Clovis and Western Stemmed: Population Migrations and the Meeting of Two Technologies in the Intermountain West” by Charlotte Beck and George T. Jones. American Antiquity 77:376–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goebel, Ted, Hockett, Bryan, Adams, Kenneth D., Rhode, David, and Graf, Kelly 2011 Climate, Environment, and Humans in North America's Great Basin during the Younger Dryas, 12,900–11,600 Calendar Years Ago. Quaternary International 242:479–501.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goebel, Ted, and Keene, Joshua L. 2014 Are Great Basin Stemmed Points as Old as Clovis in the Intermountain West? A Review of the Geochronological Evidence. In Archaeology in the Great Basin and Southwest: Papers in Honor of Don D. Fowler, edited by Parezo, Nancy J. and Janetski, Joel C., pp. 35–60. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Green, Thomas J., Cochran, Bruce, Fenton, Todd W., Woods, James C., Titmus, Gene L., Tieszen, Larry, Davis, Mary Anne, and Miller, Susanne J. 1998 The Buhl Burial: A Paleoindian Woman from Southern Idaho. American Antiquity 63:437–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Herrmann, Nicholas P., Jantz, Richard L., and Owsley, Douglas W. 2006 Buhl Revisited: Three-Dimensional Photographic Reconstruction and Morphometric Reevaluation. In El Hombre Temprano en América y sus Implicaciones en el Poblamiento de la Cuenca de México, edited by José Antonio Pompa y Padilla and Pedraza, Francisco Ortiz, pp. 211–220. Instituto Nacional de Anthropologia e Historia, Mexico City.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Dennis L., Davis, Loren G., Stafford, Thomas W., Campos, Paula F., Connolly, Thomas J., Cummings, Linda Scott, Hofreiter, Michael, Hockett, Bryan S., McDonough, Katelyn N., Luthe, Ian, O'Grady, Patrick W., Swisher, Mark E., White, Frances, Yates, Bonnie, Yohe, Robert M. II, Yost, Chad, and Willerslev, Eske 2013 Geochronology, Archaeological Context, and DNA at the Paisley Caves. In Paleoamerican Odyssey, edited by Graf, Kelly E., Ketron, Caroline V., and Waters, Michael R., pp. 485–510. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Jenkins, Dennis L., Davis, Loren G., Stafford, Thomas W., Campos, Paula F., Hockett, Bryan S., Jones, George T., Cummings, Linda Scott, Yost, Chad, Connolly, Thomas J., Yohe, Robert. M. II, Gibbons, Summer C., Raghavan, Maanasa, Rasmussen, Morten, Paijmans, Johanna L. A., Hofreiter, Michael, Kemp, Brian M., Barta, Jodi Lynn, Monroe, Cara, Gilbert, M. Thomas P., and Willerslev, Eske 2012 Clovis Age Western Stemmed Projectile Points and Human Coprolites at the Paisley Caves. Science 337:223–228.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lafayette, Linsie M., and Smith, Geoffrey M. 2012 Use-Wear Traces on Experimental (Replicated) and Prehistoric Stemmed Points from the Great Basin. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 32:141–160.Google Scholar
Lepper, Bradley T. 2014 The People Who Peopled America. In Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton, edited by Owsley, Douglas W. and Jantz, Richard L., pp. 7–29. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Miller, D. Shane, Holliday, Vance T., and Bright, Jordon 2013 Clovis across the Continent. In Paleoamerican Odyssey, edited by Graf, Kelly E., Ketron, Caroline V., and Waters, Michael R., pp. 207–220. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Murphy, Brett P., and Bowman, David M. J. S. 2009 The Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Composition of Australian Grasses in Relation to Climate. Functional Ecology 23:1040–1049.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oviatt, Charles G. 2015 Chronology of Lake Bonneville, 30,000 to 10,000 yr B.P. Quaternary Science Reviews 110:166–171.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, Paula J., Bard, Edouard, Bayliss, Alex, Warren Beck, J., Paul Blackwell, G., Ramsey, Christopher Bronk, Buck, Caitlin E., Cheng, Hai, Lawrence Edwards, R., Friedrich, Michael, Grootes, Pieter M., Guilderson, Thomas P., Haflidason, Haflidi, Hajdas, Irka, Hatté, Christine, Heaton, Timothy J., Hoffmann, Dirk L., Hogg, Alan G., Hughen, Konrad A., Felix Kaiser, K., Kromer, Bernd, Manning, Sturt W., Niu, Mu, Reimer, Ron W., Richards, David A., Marian Scott, E., Southon, John R., Staff, Richard A., Turney, Christian S. M., and van der Plicht, Johannes 2013 IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50,000 Years Cal BP. Radiocarbon 55:1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosencrance, Richard L. 2019 Assessing the Chronological Variation within Western Stemmed Tradition Projectile Points. Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno.Google Scholar
Schwarcz, Henry P., Stafford, Thomas W. Jr., Knyf, Martin, Chisholm, Brian, Longstaffe, Fred J., Chatters, James C., and Owlsley, Douglas W. 2014 Stable Isotopic Evidence for Diet and Origin. In Kennewick Man: The Scientific Investigation of an Ancient American Skeleton, edited by Owsley, Douglas W. and Jantz, Richard L., pp. 301–322. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.Google Scholar
Smith, Geoffrey M., Duke, Daron, Jenkins, Dennis L., Goebel, Ted, Davis, Loren G., O'Grady, Patrick, Stueber, Dan, Pratt, Jordan, and Smith, Heather 2020 The Western Stemmed Tradition: Problems and Prospects in Paleoindian Archaeology in the Intermountain West. PaleoAmerica 6:23–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stafford, Thomas W. Jr. 1994 Radiocarbon Dating of Bone Using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry: Current Direction and Future Directions. In Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of the Americas, edited by Bonnichsen, Robson and Steele, D. Gentry, pp. 45–55. Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Stuiver, Minze, Reimer, Paula J., and Reimer, Ron W. 2020 CALIB 7.1. Electronic document, http://calib.org, accessed February 24, 2020.Google Scholar
Tuohy, Donald R. 1969 Breakage, Burin Facets, and the Probable Link among Lake Mohave, Silver Lake, and Other Varieties of Paleo-Indian Projectile Points in the Desert West. In Miscellaneous Papers on Nevada Archaeology, edited by Rendall, Doris L. and Tuohy, Donald R., pp. 132–152. Nevada State Museum Anthropology Papers 14. Nevada State Museum/Nevada Archaeological Survey, Carson City.Google Scholar
Van Klinken, G. J. 1999 Bone Collagen Quality Indicators for Palaeodietary and Radiocarbon Measurements. Journal of Archaeological Science 26:687–695.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walker, Phillip L., and DeNiro, Michael J. 1986 Stable Nitrogen and Carbon Isotope Ratios in Bone Collagen as Indices of Prehistoric Dietary Dependence on Marine and Terrestrial Resources in Southern California. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 71:51–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Waters, Michael R., and Stafford, Thomas W. 2007 Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the Peopling of the Americas. Science 315:1122–1126.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed