Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Radiocarbon
Publisher
American Journal of Science
Publication Date
2010
Publisher location
New Haven, CT
First Page
1207
Last Page
1214
Issue Number
2-3
Volume Number
52
Abstract/ Summary
Mollusk shells provide brief (<5 yr per shell) records of past marine conditions, including marine radiocarbon reservoir age (R) and upwelling. We report 21 14C ages and R calculations on small (~2 mg) samples from 2 Mesodesma donacium (surf clam) shells. These shells were excavated from a semi-subterranean house floor stratum 14C dated to 7625 ± 35 BP at site QJ-280, Quebrada Jaguay, southern Peru. The ranges in marine 14C ages (and thus R) from the 2 shells are 530 and 170 14C yr; R from individual aragonite samples spans 130 ± 60 to 730 ± 170 14C yr. This intrashell 14C variability suggests that 14C dating of small (time-slice much less than 1 yr) marine samples from a variable-R (i.e. variable-upwelling) environment may introduce centuries of chronometric uncertainty.
Repository Citation
Jones, Kevin B.; Hodgins, Gregory W. L.; Etayo-Cadavid, Miguel F.; Andrus, C. Fred T.; and Sandweiss, Daniel H., "Centuries of Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Age Variation Within Archaeological Mesodesma donacium Shells From Southern Peru" (2010). Anthropology Faculty Scholarship. 8.
https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/ant_facpub/8
Citation/Publisher Attribution
Jones, Kevin B, Gregory W L Hodgins, Miguel F Etayo-Cadavid, C Fred, T Andrus, and Daniel H Sandweiss. 2010. "Centuries of Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Age Variation within Archaeological Mesodesma donacium Shells from Southern Peru". Radiocarbon. 52 (2): 1207.
Version
publisher's version of the published document
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.