Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:17:59.061Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Revised ‘absolute’ dating of the early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, in the light of changes in the early Holocene tree-ring chronology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Petra Dark*
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 218, Reading RG6 6AA, England

Abstract

Recent revision of the radiocarbon calibration curve for the early Holocene has implications for the ‘absolute’ date of Mesolithic sites such as Star Carr, and for their relationship to the timescale of early Holocene environmental change.

Type
News and notes
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2000

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

Alley, R.B., Meese, D.A. Shuman, C.A. Gow, A.J. Taylor, K.C. Gkootes, P.M. White, J.W.C. Ram, M. Waddington, E.D. Mayewski, P.A. & Zielinski, G.A.. 1993. Abrupt increase in Greenland snow accumulation at the end of the Younger Dryas event, Nature 362: 5279.Google Scholar
Ammann, B. & Lotter, A.F.. 1989. Late-Glacial radiocarbon-and palynostratigraphy on the Swiss Plateau, Boreas 18: 10926.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, B. 1993. An 11,000-year German oak and pine dendrochronology for radiocarbon calibration, Radiocarbon 35: 20113.Google Scholar
Becker, B. & Kromer, B.. 1986. Extension of the Holocene dendrochronology by the Preboreal pine series, 8800 to 10,100 BP, Radiocarbon 28: 9617.Google Scholar
Becker, B. & Kromer, B.. 1993. The continental tree-ring record – absolute chronology, 14C calibration and climatic change at 11 ka, Palaeo-geography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 103: 6771.Google Scholar
Becker, B., Kromer, B. & Trimdorn, P.. 1991. A stable-isotope tree-ring timescale of the Late Glacial/Holocene boundary, Nature 353: 6479.Google Scholar
Bjorck, S., Kromer Johnsen, B. Bennike, O. Hammarlund, D. Lemdahl, G. Possnert, G. Rasmussen, T.L. Wohlfarth, B. Hammer, C.U. & Spurk, M.. 1996. Synchronized terrestrial-atmospheric deglacial records around the North Atlantic, Science 274: 115560.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brauer, A., Endres, C. Gunter, C. Litt, T. Stebich, M. & Negendank, J.F.W.. 1999. High resolution sediment and vegetation responses to Younger Dryas climate change in varved lake sediments from Meerfelder Maar, Germany, Quaternary Science Reviews 18: 3219.Google Scholar
Clark, J.G.D. 1954. Excavations at Star Can. Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Dansgaard, W., White, J.W.C. & Johnsen, S.J.. 1989. The abrupt termination of the Younger Dryas climate event, Nature 339: 5324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dark, P. 1998a. Radiocarbon-dating of the lake-edge deposits, in Mellars & Dark: 11924.Google Scholar
Dark, P. 1998b. Lake-edge sequences: results, in Mellars & Dark: 12546.Google Scholar
Day, S.P. & Mellars, P.A.. 1994. ‘Absolute’ dating of Mesolithic human activity at Star Carr, Yorkshire: new palaeoecological studies and identification of the 9600 BP radiocarbon ‘plateau’, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 60:41722.Google Scholar
Gulliksen, S., Birks, H.H. Possnert, G. & Mangerud, J.. 1998. A calendar age estimate of the Younger Dryas-Holocene boundary at Krakenes, western Norway, The Holocene 8: 24959.Google Scholar
Johnsen, S.J., Clausen, H.B. Dansgaard, W. Fuhrer, K. Gundestrup, N. Hammer, C.U. Iversen, P. Jouzel, J. Stauffer, B. & Steffensen, J.P.. 1992. Irregular glacial interstadials recorded in a new Greenland ice core. Nature 359: 31113.Google Scholar
Kromer, B. & Becker, B.. 1993. German oak and pine 14C calibration, 7200–9439 BC, Radiocarbon 35: 12535.Google Scholar
Kromer, B. & Spurk, M.. 1998. Revision and tentative extension of the tree-ring based “C calibration, 9200–11,955 cal BP, Radiocarbon 40: 111725.Google Scholar
Mangerud, J., Andersen, S.T. Berglund, B. & Donner, J.J.. 1974. Quaternary stratigraphy of Norden, a proposal for terminology and classification, Boreas 3: 10928.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P. 1990. A major ‘plateau’ in the radiocarbon time-scale at c. 9650 b.p.: the evidence from Star Carr (North Yorkshire), Antiquity 64: 83641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, P. & Dark, P.. 1998. Star Carr in context: new archaeological and palaeoecological investigations at the Early Mesolithic site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Spurk, M., Friedrich, M. Hofmann, J. Remmele, S. Fkenzel, B. Leuschner, H.H. & Kromer, B.. 1998. Revisions and extension of the Hohenheim oak and pine chronologies: new evidence about the timing of the Younger Dryas/Preboreal transition, Radiocarbon 40: 110716.Google Scholar
Taylor, K. Lamorney, C.G.W. Doyle, G.A. Alley, R.B. Grootes, P.M. Mayewski, P.A. White, J.W.C & Barlow, L.K.. 1993. The ‘flickering switch’ of late Pleistocene climate change, Nature 361: 4326.Google Scholar