Did Pre-Clovis People Inhabit the Paisley Caves (and Why Does It Matter)?

The date and processes of initial human colonization of the Americas are crucial issues for the understanding of human biological and cultural development. For example, Soares et al. (2009) cited the American archaeological record to validate their proposed revision of the human mitochondrial molecular clock. Their suggested mutation rate puts the date of rapid expansion of Native American clades at around 13,500–15,000 cal BP. Similarly, Poznik et al. (2013) have used the “high-confidence archaeological dating” of the initial peopling of the Americas to calibrate the rates of both Y-chromosome and mtDNA mutation and thereby to reconcile the ages of the common ancestors of human males and females. They use a date of ca. 15,000, based on purported archaeological evidence from Monte Verde, Chile, dated to 14,600 cal BP

Initial Human Colonization of the Americas: An Overview of the Issues and the Evidence

The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

Radiocarbon Date Frequency as an Index of Intensity of Paleolithic Occupation of Siberia: Did Humans React Predictably to Climate Oscillations?

From the 19th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Keble College, Oxford, England, April 3-7, 2006.Upper Paleolithic humans occupied southern Siberia by about 43,000-38,000 BP (14C yr), and afterward continued to live there despite the very cold climate. If climatic conditions limited expansion of the colonizing population in northern Siberia, the Paleolithic ecumene should have contracted during the coldest episodes within the last 40,000 yr, and fewer 14C-dated sites should be known from those periods. In fact, the human population seems to have remained stable or even expanded during cold periods. Comparison of calibrated 14C dates for Siberian occupations with Greenland ice cores fails to demonstrate a simple correlation between climatic fluctuations and the dynamics of human colonization and persistence in Siberia between about 36,000 and 12,000 BP. Cold climate does not appear to have posed any significant challenge to humans in Siberia in the Late Pleistocene, and a supposed Last Glacial Maximum hiatus in population dynamics seems illusory.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

A laboratory inter-comparison of AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany) and its implications for the date of the Laacher See eruption

We conducted inter-laboratory AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany), buried under Laacher See tephra dated to ca. 11,060 BP (13,000 cal BP). The weighted mean of A laboratory inter-comparison of AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany) and its implications for the date of the Laacher See eruptionthe new dates, which range from 10,920 to 11,270 BP, is 11,092 ± 19 BP. The consistent results from five AMS laboratories are important in two respects. First, they demonstrate that collagen processed by traditional methods can yield accurate ages; the newly obtained 14C dates are in accord with previous hydroxyproline 14C value generated at the Oxford AMS laboratory within the first round of inter-comparison (Fiedel et al., 2013). The results of the first inter-comparison are clearly flawed, except for hydroxyproline 14C date (see Fiedel et al., 2013), and must be affected by the waxy/dark, presumably humic/organic-based contaminant. Second, they provide a new suite of radiocarbon dates for the Laacher See volcanic eruption, a crucial anchor point for Late Glacial chronology in central Europe

A laboratory inter-comparison of AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany) and its implications for the date of the Laacher See eruption

We conducted inter-laboratory AMS 14C dating of bones of the Miesenheim IV elk (Rhineland, Germany), buried under Laacher See tephra dated to ca. 11,060 BP (13,000 cal BP). The weighted mean of the new dates, which range from 10,920 to 11,270 BP, is 11,092 ± 19 BP. The consistent results from five AMS laboratories are important in two respects. First, they demonstrate that collagen processed by traditional methods can yield accurate ages; the newly obtained 14C dates are in accord with previous hydroxyproline 14C value generated at the Oxford AMS laboratory within the first round of inter-comparison (Fiedel et al., 2013). The results of the first inter-comparison are clearly flawed, except for hydroxyproline 14C date (see Fiedel et al., 2013), and must be affected by the waxy/dark, presumably humic/organic-based contaminant. Second, they provide a new suite of radiocarbon dates for the Laacher See volcanic eruption, a crucial anchor point for Late Glacial chronology in central Europe