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Re: Early diets
Jon. Feinstein (jfeinstein@UMASSD.EDU)
Sat, 7 May 1994 05:11:58 GMT
In article <rjy.8.2DCA7180@uct.ac.za>, rjy@uct.ac.za writes:
>In article <2qc0e3$l67@samba.oit.unc.edu> David.Bibb@launchpad.unc.edu (David Darryl Bibb) writes:
>
>>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?
>
>marine shellfish certainly would affect a radiocarbon date on the
>bone collagen of the eater. There is an effect sometimes termed "the
>apparent age of sea water" which requires that dates on shell be corrected
>as they are too old. The amount to be subtracted varies regionally as one
>can see if using the Calib. programme (Minze Stuiver et al)( and it will
>also have cjanged with time). Eating the the flesh of molluscs will have an
>effect roughly proportional to the amount of shellfood in the overall
>protein diet. Excavators of shellmiddens should be aware of this if well
>contextualised burials are obtained which appear to be slightly discrepant
>in dated age compared to the horizons from which they came. FYI in S Africa
>the subtracted time is 400 years.
>
Thank you for this clarification. Others please disregard the conjecture
in my previous post. J.F.
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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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