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Re: Early diets
Jon. Feinstein (jfeinstein@UMASSD.EDU)
Sat, 7 May 1994 05:08:20 GMT
>>What would the effect be on the radiocarbon dating of human material which
>came from someone who ate shellfish? Would the date be thrown off?
>
>--
>
Good question. I don't see why there would be that big a difference in
C14 levels between shellfish and non-shelfish eaters. Would the hypothetical
someone have eaten shellfish exclusively (not too likely)? Of course, we should
also keep in mind that radiocarbon dating is limited in scope (is the limit
50 or 55,000 years? and with a rather wide plus/minus range at that end).
Pre-human hominids are radio-dated by the potassium-argon, which is actually
conducted on volcanic rock found in association with find levels and not on
the actual fossils.
Jonathan Feinstein
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* * *
* Jon. Feinstein * "Uuuhhh, Wakko, I don't think this is *
* / Yosef Alaric * Six Flags Over Flushing." *
* * *
* JFeinstein@UMassD.edu * Yakko Warner *
* *
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