Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T03:56:37.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Comment On “Diet-Derived Variations in Radiocarbon and Stable Isotopes: A Case Study from Shag River Mouth, New Zealand”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Nancy Beavan Athfield
Nancy Beavan Athfield*
Affiliation:
Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, National Isotope Centre, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Higham et al.'s (2005) recent article in Radiocarbon 47(3) concerning diet-induced anomalies on radiocarbon ages for various faunal samples from Shag River Mouth is a well-considered study, building upon methodologies and research questions examining the phenomena of dietary anomalies addressed by Beavan Athfield and coauthors (cf. Beavan-Athfield et al. 1999, 2001a; Beavan-Athfield and Sparks 2001a,b,c). However, exception must be taken with one comment appearing in Higham et al. (2005) that suggests to the reader that there is a problem with the laboratory practice associated with rat bone dates measured at the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory of GNS Science, New Zealand.

Type
Comments and Letters
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , 2006 , pp. 117 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Anderson, AJ. 1991. The chronology of colonization in New Zealand. Antiquity 65(249):767–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, AJ. 2000. Differential reliability of 14C AMS ages of Rattus exulans bone gelatin in South Pacific prehistory. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30(3):243–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, A. 2004. The age disconformity in AMS radiocarbon results on Rattus exulans bone. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology 24(2002):149–56.Google Scholar
Beavan, NR, Sparks, RJ. 1998. Factors influencing the radiocarbon ages of the rat Rattus exulans. Radiocarbon 40(2):601–13.Google Scholar
Beavan-Athfield, N, Sparks, RJ. 2001a. Dating of Rattus exulans bone from Pleasant River (Otago, New Zealand): testing the effect of burial contamination. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 31(4):795–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beavan-Athfield, NR, Sparks, RJ. 2001b. Dating of Rattus exulans and bird bone from Pleasant River (Otago, New Zealand): radiocarbon anomalies from diet. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 31(4):801–9.Google Scholar
Beavan-Athfield, N, Sparks, RJ. 2001c. Bomb carbon as a tracer of dietary carbon sources in omnivorous mammals. Radiocarbon 43(2B):711–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beavan-Athfield, N, McFadgen, BG, Sparks, RJ. 1999. Reliability of bone gelatin AMS dating: Rattus exulans and marine shell radiocarbon dates from Pauatahanui midden sites in Wellington, New Zealand. Radiocarbon 41(2):119–26.Google Scholar
Beavan-Athfield, N, McFadgen, B, Sparks, R. 2001a. Radiocarbon age variation in bone and tissue from variable dietary effects. In: Proceedings of the 7th Australasian Archaeometry Conference. Auckland: University of Auckland. p 31–44.Google Scholar
Beavan-Athfield, N, McFadgen, BG, Sparks, RJ. 2001b. Environmental influences on dietary carbon and 14C ages in rats and other species. Radiocarbon 43(1):7–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beavan Athfield, N. 2004. Reliability of 14C AMS dating of rat and bird bone: implications for the timing of New Zealand Holocene vertebrate extinctions. In: Higham, T, Bronk Ramsey, C, Owen, C, editors. 14 Cand Archaeology: Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium, Oxford. Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph 62. Oxford: Oxbow Books. p 105–18.Google Scholar
Beavan Athfield, N, Sparks, R, Holdaway, R, Cooper, J. 2003. Testing possible processing contamination associated with the AMS dating of rat bone. Abstracts and Programme of the 18th International Radiocarbon Conference, Wellington 2003. p 187.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, TFG, Bowles, A, Hedges, R. 2004. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46(1):155–63.Google Scholar
Hedges, REM. 2000. Appraisal of radiocarbon dating of kiore bones (Pacific rat Rattus exulans) in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30:385–98.Google Scholar
Higham, T, Petchey, F. 2001. Response to “Publication of supplementary data for 14C AMS ages.” Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand 31:454–6.Google Scholar
Higham, T, Anderson, A, Bronk Ramsey, C, Tompkins, C. 2005. Diet-derived variations in radiocarbon and stable isotopes: a case study from Shag River Mouth, New Zealand. Radiocarbon 47(3):367–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdaway, RN. 1996. Arrival of rats in New Zealand. Nature 384(6606):225–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdaway, RN. 1999. A spatio-temporal model for the invasion of the New Zealand Archipelago by the Pacific rat Rattus exulans. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 29(2):91–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdaway, RN, Anderson, AJ. 1998. 14C AMS dates on Rattus exulans bones from natural and archaeological contexts on Norfolk Island South-west Pacific. Archaeology in New Zealand 41(3):195–8.Google Scholar
Holdaway, RN, Beavan, NR. 1999. Reliable 14C AMS dates on bird and Pacific rat Rattus exulans bone gelatin, from a CaCO3-rich deposit. Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand 29(3):185–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdaway, RN, Worthy, TH. 2001. Publication of supplementary data for 14C AMS ages. Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand 31:453–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holdaway, RN, Roberts, RG, Beavan-Athfield, NR, Olley, JM, Worthy, TH. 2002. Optical dating of quartz sediments and accelerator mass spectrometry 14C dating of bone gelatin and moa eggshell: a comparison of age estimates for non-archaeological deposits in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 32(3):463–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, IWG, Anderson, AJ. 1998. Radiocarbon dates from archaeological rat bones: the Pleasant River case. Archaeology in Oceania 33:88–91.Google Scholar