Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-16T16:10:19.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Paired Dating of Pith and Outer Edge (Terminus) Samples from Pre-Hispanic Caribbean Wooden Sculptures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Fiona Brock ,
Joanna Ostapkowicz ,
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ,
Alex Wiedenhoeft  and
Caroline Cartwright
Fiona Brock*
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Joanna Ostapkowicz
Affiliation:
World Museum Liverpool, William Brown Street, Liverpool L3 8EN, United Kingdom
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology & the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Alex Wiedenhoeft
Affiliation:
Center for Wood Anatomy Research, Forest Products Laboratory, USDA Forest Services, One Gifford Pinchot Drive, Madison, Wisconsin 53726-2398, USA
Caroline Cartwright
Affiliation:
Scientific Research Laboratory, British Museum, London WC1B 3DG, 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.

Radiocarbon dating of historical and archaeological wood can be complicated, sometimes involving issues of “inbuilt” age in slow-growing woods, and/or the possibility of reuse or long delays between felling and use of the wood. Terminus dates can be provided by dating the sapwood, or the outermost edge of heartwood, while a date from the pith can give an indication of the first years of growth. A sequence of samples from specific points within the bole can be used to determine the growth rate of the tree. Such a combined dating strategy is particularly useful in cross-referencing dates from a single piece, better placing it in its chronological context. This paper reports paired or multiple dates from 11 wooden sculptures dated as part of the Pre-Hispanic Caribbean Sculptural Arts in Wood project, which studied 66 wooden artifacts attributed to the pre-colonial Taíno, the indigenous peoples of the Caribbean's Greater Antilles. The calibrated ages of the pieces published here range from ∼AD 700–1500, indicating that the Taíno were producing elaborate sculptures much earlier than previously thought. The paired or multiple dates from these carvings confirmed the accuracy of the results, and were also used to construct a growth rate model of what was expected to be a slow-growing species (Guaiacum sp.). This model demonstrates that the boles used to create the sculptures grew on average 1 cm every 6–13 yr.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 54 , Issue 3-4 , 2012 , pp. 677 - 688
Copyright
Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Arrom, JJ. 1999. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Brienen, RJW, Zuidema, PA. 2005. Relating tree growth to rainfall in Bolivian rain forests: a test for six species using tree ring analysis. Oecologia 146(1):1–12.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Higham, T, Ditchfield, P, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2010. Current pretreatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52(1):103–12.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, van der Plicht, J, Weninger, B. 2001. ‘Wiggle matching’ radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 43(2A):381–9.Google Scholar
Calvera, J, Serrano, E, Rey, M, Pedroso, I, Yparraguirre, Y. 1996. El sitio arquelógico Los Buchillones. El Caribe Arquelógico 1:59–67.Google Scholar
Calvera, J, Rojas, V, Cooper, RJ. 2006. Los Buchillones: universo de madera. Revista de Ciencias Sociales ACRD:9–16.Google Scholar
CITES [the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora]. 2011. URL: http://www.cites.org/eng/app/index.php. Accessed 15 July 2011.Google Scholar
Colón, F. 1992. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand. Translated by Keen, Benjamin [1959]. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Conrad, GW, Foster, JW, Beeker, CD. 2001. Organic artifacts from the Manantial de la Aleta, Dominican Republic: preliminary observations and interpretations. Journal of Caribbean Archaeology 2:1–20.Google Scholar
Curet, LA. 1996. Ideology, chiefly power, and material culture: an example from the Greater Antilles. Latin American Antiquity 7:114–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dertian, JR, Duvall, MR. 2009. Biogeography and divergence in Guaiacum sanctum (Zygophyllaceae) revealed in chloroplast DNA: implications for conservation in the Florida Keys. Biotropica 41(1):120–7.Google Scholar
Francis, JK. 1993. Guaiacum officinale L. Lignumvitae. Guayacan. Zygophyllacea. Caltrop Family. Washington: USDA Forest Service, International Institute of Tropical Forestry (SO-ITF-SM; 67).Google Scholar
Grabner, M, Salaberger, D, Okochi, T. 2009. The need of high resolution μ-X-ray CT in dendrochronology and in wood identification. In: Proceedings of the 6th International Symposium on Image and Signal Processing and Analysis. New York: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, p 349–52.Google Scholar
Inside Wood Database. 2011. URL: http://inside-wood,lib.ncsu.edu/search. Accessed 13 December 2011.Google Scholar
Lieberman, D, Lieberman, M. 1987. Forest tree growth and dynamics at La Selva, Costa Rica (1969–82). Journal of Tropical Ecology 3:347–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
López-Toledo, L. 2009. A conservation assessment of endangered tropical tree species: Guiaiacum sanctum and G. coulteri in Mexico [PhD thesis]. University of Aberdeen, UK.Google Scholar
López-Toledo, L, Burslem, DFRP, Martínez-Ramos, M, García-Naranjo, A. 2008. Non-detriment findings report on Guaiacum sanctum in Mexico. NDF Workshop case studies; WG1 Trees, Case Study 7.Google Scholar
Manuels, M. 2001. Condition and analysis report of four Taíno carvings at the National Gallery of Jamaica. Report on file at National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston.Google Scholar
Martyr D'Anghera, P. 1970. De Orbe Novo: The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr D'Anghera. Translated by MacNutt, Francis August. New York: Burt Franklin.Google Scholar
Oliver, J. 2009. Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.Google Scholar
Ostapkowicz, J. 1998. Taino wooden sculpture: rulership and the visual arts in the 12–16th century Caribbean [unpublished PhD thesis]. Centre for the Visual Arts. Norwich: University of East Anglia, UK.Google Scholar
Ostapkowicz, J, Wiedenhoeft, A, Bronk Ramsey, C, Ribechini, E, Wilson, S, Brock, F, Higham, T. 2011. “Treasures… of black wood, brilliantly polished': five examples of Taíno sculpture from the tenth–sixteenth century Caribbean. Antiquity 85(329):942–59.Google Scholar
Ostapkowicz, J, Bronk Ramsey, C, Brock, F, Higham, T, Wiedenhoeft, AC, Ribechini, E, Lucejko, JJ, Wilson, S. 2012. Chronologies in wood and resin: AMS 14C dating pre-Hispanic Caribbean wood sculpture. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(7):2238–51.Google Scholar
de Oviedo y Valdés, GF. 1959. Historia General y Natural de las Indias. 2 volumes. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Ediciones Atlas.Google Scholar
Parry, JH, Keith, RG, editors. 1984. New Iberian World: A Documentary History of the Discovery and Settlement of Latin America to the Early 17th Century. New York: Times Books.Google Scholar
Patrut, A, von Reden, KF, Lowry, DA, Mayne, DH, Elder, KE, Roberts, ML, McNichol, AP. 2010. Comparative AMS radiocarbon dating of pretreated versus non-pretreated tropical wood samples. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 268(7–8):910–3.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rouse, I. 1992. The Taínos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Speer, JH, Orvis, KH, Grissino-Mayer, HD, Kennedy, LM, Horn, SP. 2004. Assessing the dendrochronological potential of Pinus occidentalis Swartz in the Cordillera Central of the Dominican Republic. The Holocene 14(4):563–9.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, PB. 1980. The Biology of Trees Native to Tropical Florida. Allston: Harvard University Publishing.Google Scholar
Wilson, EO, Eisner, T. 1968. Lignumvitae – Relict Island. Natural History 77:52–7.Google Scholar
Wilson, S. 2007. The Archaeology of the Caribbean. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, K. 2010. Growth Rates of Common Tress Species in Westminster, Colorado. Colorado State Forest Service, USA.Google Scholar
Worbes, M. 2002. One hundred years of tree-ring research in the topics – a brief history and an outlook to future challenges. Dendrochronologia 20:217–31.Google Scholar
Zamudio, F, Baettyg, R, Vergara, A, Guerra, F, Rozenberg, P. 2002. Genetic trends in wood density and radial growth with cambial age in a radiata pine progeny test. Annals of Forest Science 59(5–6):541–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar