Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T04:14:41.972Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A New Radiocarbon Pretreatment Method for Molluscan Shell Using Density Fractionation of Carbonates in Bromoform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Christopher M Russo ,
Jennifer A Tripp ,
Katerina Douka  and
Thomas F G Higham
Christopher M Russo
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Scranton, 800 Linden St., Scranton, Pennsylvania 18510, USA
Jennifer A Tripp*
Affiliation:
Department of Chemistry, University of Scranton, 800 Linden St., Scranton, Pennsylvania 18510, USA San Francisco State University, Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, California 94132, USA
Katerina Douka
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, RLAHA, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Thomas F G Higham
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, RLAHA, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

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.

Coastal archaeological sites that lack organic remains for radiocarbon dating are often abundant sources of molluscan shells. As a substitute for materials such as bone and charcoal, shells can be analyzed with 14C dating to determine a site's age. Despite their being convenient, non-mobile archaeological artifacts, molluscan shells are plagued by several issues, including carbonate remodeling, in which aragonite in shells is converted to calcite as predicted by thermodynamics. We present here a carbonate density separation technique that addresses the issue of carbonate remodeling. Using a density fractionation with bromoform, aragonite concentrations are enriched in shells that have undergone significant remodeling. The technique has been applied to archaeological shells and has returned dates that are younger than those previously determined for the same shells.

Type
Sample Preparation
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 3: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 1301 - 1311
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Bathurst, RGC. 1976. Carbonate Sediments and Their Diagenesis. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 658 p.Google Scholar
Bell, LS, Cox, G, Sealy, J. 2001. Determining isotopic life history trajectories using bone density fractionation and stable isotope measurements: a new approach. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 116(1):66–79.Google Scholar
Berger, R, Taylor, RE, Libby, WF. 1966. Radiocarbon content of marine shells from the California and Mexican west coast. Science 153(3738):864–6.Google Scholar
Bøggild, OB. 1930. The shell structure of the mollusks. Det Kongelige Danske videnskabernes selskabs skrifter. Naturvidenskabelig og mathematisk afdeling 9:231–326.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Hedges, REM. 1997. Hybrid ion sources: radiocarbon measurements from microgram to milligram. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 123(1–4):539–45.Google Scholar
Burns, JH, Bredig, MA. 1956. Transformation of calcite to aragonite by grinding. Journal of Chemical Physics 25:1281–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, J, Polach, HA. 1972. Some effects of partial recrystallisation on 14C dating late pleistocene corals and molluscs. Quaternary Research 2(2):244–52.Google Scholar
dal Negro, A, Ungaretti, L. 1971. Refinement of the crystal structure of aragonite. The American Mineralogist 56:768–72.Google Scholar
Douka, K, Hedges, REM, Higham, TFG. 2010. Improved AMS 14C dating of shell carbonates using high-precision X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a novel density separation protocol (CarDS). Radiocarbon 52(2–3):735–51.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, RG, Mortlock, RA, Chiu, T-C, Cao, L, Kaplan, A, Guilderson, TP, Fairbanks, TW, Bloom, AL, Grootes, PM, Nadeau, M-J. 2005. Radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired 230Th/234U/238U and 14C dates on pristine corals. Quaternary Science Reviews 24(16–17):1781–96.Google Scholar
Falini, G, Albeck, S, Weiner, S, Addadi, L. 1996. Control of aragonite or calcite polymorphism by mollusk shell macromolecules. Science 271(5245):67–9.Google Scholar
Goslar, T, Pazdur, MF. 1985. Contamination studies on mollusk shell samples. Radiocarbon 27(1):33–42.Google Scholar
Henderson, GM, Slowey, NC, Fleisher, MQ. 2001. U-Th dating of carbonate platform and slope sediments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 65(16):2757–70.Google Scholar
Higham, TFG, Hogg, AG. 1995. Radiocarbon dating of prehistoric shell from New Zealand and calculation of the ΔR value using fish otoliths. Radiocarbon 37(2):409–16.Google Scholar
Hubbard, F, McManus, J. 1981. Environmental influences on the shell mineralogy of Mytilus edulis. Geo-Marine Letters 1(3–4):267–9.Google Scholar
Jones, TL, Kennett, DJ, Kennett, JA, Codding, BF. 2008. Seasonal stability in Late Holocene shellfish harvesting on the central California coast. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(8):2286–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kato, K, Wada, H, Fujioka, K. 2003. The application of chemical staining to separate calcite and aragonite minerals for micro-scale isotopic analyses. Geochemical Journal 37(2):291–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mangerud, J. 1972. Radiocarbon dating of marine shells, including a discussion of apparent age of recent shells from Norway. Boreas 1(2):143–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellars, PA. 2006. A new radiocarbon revolution and the dispersal of modern humans in Eurasia. Nature 439(7079):931–5.Google Scholar
Morse, JW, Mackenzie, FT. 1990. Geochemistry of Sedimentary Carbonates. Amsterdam: Elsevier. 724 p.Google Scholar
Mutvei, H. 1969. On the micro- and ultrastructure of the conchiolin in the nacreous layer of some recent fossil molluscs. Aca Universitatis Stockholmiensis: Stockholm Contributions in Geology 20:1–17.Google Scholar
Peacock, JD. 1995. Late Devensian to early Holocene palaeoenvironmental changes in the Viking Bank area, northern North Sea. Quaternary Science Reviews 14(10):1029–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peters, W. 1972. Occurrence of chitin in Mollusca. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology B 41(3):541–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pruna, M, Faivre, R, Chaudron, G. 1948. Étude cinétique par dilatométrie isotherme de la transformation de l'aragonite en calcite. Compte rendus de l'Académie des Sciences 227:390–1.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, McCormac, FG. 2002. Marine radiocarbon reservoir corrections for the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. Radiocarbon 44(1):159–66.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW. 2001. A marine reservoir correction database and on-line interface. Radiocarbon 43(2A):461–3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roosevelt, AC, Housely, RA, Imazio da Silveira, M, Maranca, S, Johnson, R. 1991. Eighth millennium pottery from a prehistoric shell midden in the Brazilian Amazon. Science 254(5038):1621–4.Google Scholar
Schmidt, M. 2000. Radiocarbon Dating New Zealand Prehistory Using Marine Shell. BAR International Series 842. Oxford: Hadrian Books. 124 p.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shin, JY. 2007. Studies in extracting isotopic information from archaeological bone [unpublished D Phil thesis]. University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Braziunas, TF. 1993. Modeling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10,000 BC. Radiocarbon 35(1):137–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takenaka, M, Ikeda, M, Terada, S. 1999. The use of microwave digestion method for the determination of chemical forms of sodium and chloride ions in seashell structures. Analytical Communications 36:109–11.Google Scholar
Vagenas, NV, Gatsouli, A, Kontoyannis, CG. 2002. Quantitative analysis of synthetic calcium carbonate polymorphs using FT-IR spectroscopy. Talanta 59(4):831–6.Google Scholar
Watabe, N. 1988. Shell structure. In: Wilbur, KN, Trueman, ER, Clarke, MR, editors. The Mollusca, Volume 11: Form and Function. San Diego: Academic Press. p 69–104.Google Scholar
Wyckoff, RWG. 1964. Crystal Structures, Volume 2. New York: John Wiley & Sons. 362 p.Google Scholar
Yates, T. 1986. Studies of non-marine mollusks for the selection of shell samples for radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 28(2A):457–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar