Search results for "radiocarbon"
showing 10 items of 134 documents
A mitogenome sequence of an Equus hydruntinus specimen from Late Quaternary site of San Teodoro Cave (Sicily, Italy)
2020
Abstract Equus hydruntinus was a small equid that ranged from the Iberian Peninsula to Middle East. In Italy it has been considered present from the Middle Pleistocene to its extinction in the Middle-Late Holocene. E. hydruntinus shares plesiomorphic traits with other known Pleistocene equids. As a consequence, its classification has always been problematic. Genetic analyses on few fossil remains from Iran and Crimea have revealed that E. hydruntinus was more closely related to extant hemiones. To further investigate its systematic position, using target-enrichment capture and next-generation sequencing, we reconstructed a near complete mitogenome of a specimen from San Teodoro Cave from Si…
Investigating the Local Reservoir Age and Stable Isotopes of Shells from Southeast Arabia
2016
AbstractWe recently started a systematic approach to determine the reservoir age in southeast Arabia and its dependence on mollusk species and their environment. This part of the study concentrates on local reservoir age and stable isotopes of the lagoonal species Terebralia palustris and Anadara uropigimelana at Khor Kalba, Oman Sea. Environmental and nutritive influences on mollusks are reflected in the radiocarbon and stable isotope signal. We found a local reservoir age of A. uropigimelana of about 940 yr and that of T. palustris as 800 yr. Sclerochronological analyses yielded information about seasonality of growth and death in A. uropigimelana. The modern shell of Periglypta reticulat…
Dating Bulk Sediments from Limnic Deposits Using a Grain-Size Approach
2013
Radiocarbon measurements on bulk subaqueous sediments typically provide ages significantly older than actual time of deposition. This is generally caused by the presence of reworked organic compounds, which are depleted in 14C. To explore this issue of age heterogeneity, we collected 4 organic-rich samples from varying depths in a lake sediment core at the Gemündener Maar (Eifel, Germany), a lake of volcanic origin. We divided each sample into 5 standard grain-size fractions: gravel, sand, silt, clay, and 1 fraction smaller than 0.45 μm. These were cleaned separately using a standard acid-alkali-acid treatment. The highly organic gravel-size fraction provided the youngest 14C ages of all gr…
Dietary freshwater reservoir effects and the radiocarbon ages of prehistoric human bones from Zvejnieki, Latvia
2016
Abstract Aquatic food resources (fish and molluscs) were exploited intensively at Riņņukalns, a Neolithic freshwater shell midden at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, north-eastern Latvia. Stable isotope data (δ 15 N and δ 13 C) from a rich fishbone assemblage and a wide range of terrestrial species complement published results on faunal samples from the famous prehistoric cemetery and settlement at Zvejnieki, on the same lake. Stable isotope data show that freshwater food resources made substantial but varying contributions to human diets at Zvejnieki and Riņņukalns throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic. Our research has also shown significant radiocarbon freshwater reservoir effects (FRE) i…
Potential Freshwater Reservoir Effects in a Neolithic Shell Midden at Riņņkalns, Latvia
2014
Riņņukalns is the only known prehistoric shell midden in the eastern Baltic, and is one of the few middens in northern Europe consisting mainly of freshwater mussel shells. Situated on the Salaca River at the outlet of Lake Burtnieks, in northeastern Latvia, the site was originally excavated in the 1870s, and reinvestigated several times over the following decades. A new excavation in 2011 showed that part of the midden remained intact. The new exposure, dated to the later 4th millennium cal BC, yielded rich fishbone and mollusk shell assemblages, herbivore, human and bird bones, and a wide range of artifacts typical of a subsistence economy based on fishing, hunting, and gathering. Human r…
Annual 14C Tree-Ring Data Around 400 AD: Mid- and High-Latitude Records
2019
ABSTRACTTwo tree-ring series, one from a high-latitude pine tree (located in northern Scandinavia) and one from a mid-latitude oak tree (located in eastern Germany) were analyzed for radiocarbon (14C) at annual resolution. The new records cover the calendar date ranges 290–460 AD and 382–486 AD, respectively, overlapping by 79 yr. The series show similar trends as IntCal13. However, some significant deviations around 400 AD are present with lower Δ14C (higher 14C ages). An average offset between the two new series and IntCal13 of about 20 years in conventional 14C age is observed. A latitudinal 14C offset between the tree sites in central and northern Europe, as would be expected due to the…
New tree-ring evidence for the Late Glacial period from the northern pre-Alps in eastern Switzerland
2018
Abstract The rate and magnitude of temperature variability at the transition from the Last Glacial Maximum into the early Holocene represents a natural analog to current and predicted climate change. A limited number of high-resolution proxy archives, however, challenges our understanding of environmental conditions during this period. Here, we present combined dendrochronological and radiocarbon evidence from 253 newly discovered subfossil pine stumps from Zurich, Switzerland. The individual trees reveal ages of 41–506 years and were growing between the Allerod and Preboreal (∼13′900–11′300 cal BP). Together with previously collected pines from this region, this world's best preserved Late…
Luminescence dating of aeolian–coastal events on the Kristianstad plain, SE Sweden
2016
Aeolian–coastal sediments and landforms are excellent palaeoenvironmental archives, but chronological studies of coastal records are scarce in Sweden. In this study, we provide luminescence and radiocarbon ages of aeolian activity and coastal landscape evolution on the Kristianstad plain, SE Sweden, based on the investigations of two foredunes and two inland dunes at Åhus and Vittskövle. Additionally, we do a laboratory intercomparison of five young luminescence samples. The comparison shows a significant age difference most likely due to an instrumental difference. The equivalent dose cannot be determined accurately with the low irradiation times, and therefore, the results obtained from …
The Maya wall paintings from Chajul, Guatemala
2020
The recent renovation of a house in Chajul in western Guatemala has revealed an unparalleled set of wall paintings, most probably from the Colonial period (AD 1524–1821). The iconography of the murals combines pre-Columbian elements with imported European components in a domestic rather than a religious setting, making them a unique example of Colonial-period art. Here, the authors present the results of iconographic, chemical and radiocarbon analyses of the Chajul house paintings. Dating to the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries AD, the paintings may be connected to a revival of the local religious organisation (cofradías) in the context of waning Spanish colonial control.
Dating of the hominid (Homo neanderthalensis) remains accumulation from El Sidrón cave (Piloña, Asturias, North Spain): an example of multi-methodolo…
2010
The age of Neanderthal remains and associated sediments from El Sidrón cave has been obtained through different dating methods (14CAMS, U/TH, OSL, ESR and AAR) and samples (charcoal debris, bone, tooth dentine, stalagmitic flowstone, carbonate-rich sediments, sedimentary quartz grains, tooth enamel and land snail shells). Detrital Th contamination rendered Th/U dating analyses of flowstone unreliable. Recent 14C contamination produced spurious age-values from charcoal samples as well as from inadequately pretreated tooth samples. Most consistent 14C dates are grouped into two series: one between 35 and 40 ka and the other between 48 and 49 ka. Most ESR and AAR samples yielded concordant age…