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Centuries of Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Age Variation Within Archaeological Mesodesma Donacium Shells from Southern Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Kevin B Jones ,
Gregory W L Hodgins ,
Miguel F Etayo-Cadavid ,
C Fred T Andrus  and
Daniel H Sandweiss
Kevin B Jones*
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E. 4th St., Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Now at: US Geological Survey, 12201 Sunrise Valley Dr., Mail Stop 956, Reston, Virginia 20192, USA
Gregory W L Hodgins
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Facility, 1118 E. 4th St., Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
Miguel F Etayo-Cadavid
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama, Box 870338, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA
C Fred T Andrus
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of Alabama, Box 870338, Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487, USA
Daniel H Sandweiss
Affiliation:
Climate Change Institute/Department of Anthropology, University of Maine, Stodder Hall, Orono, Maine 04469, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Mollusk shells provide brief (<5 yr per shell) records of past marine conditions, including marine radiocarbon reservoir age (R) and upwelling. We report 21 14C ages and R calculations on small (∼2 mg) samples from 2 Mesodesma donacium (surf clam) shells. These shells were excavated from a semi-subterranean house floor stratum 14C dated to 7625 ± 35 BP at site QJ-280, Quebrada Jaguay, southern Peru. The ranges in marine 14C ages (and thus R) from the 2 shells are 530 and 170 14C yr; R from individual aragonite samples spans 130 ± 60 to 730 ± 170 14C yr. This intrashell 14C variability suggests that 14C dating of small (time-slice much less than 1 yr) marine samples from a variable-R (i.e. variable-upwelling) environment may introduce centuries of chronometric uncertainty.

Type
Marine
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 3: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 1207 - 1214
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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