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Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Composition of Early Holocene Olivella Shell Beads from the Northwest Coast, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2017

Carla S Hadden ,
Alexander Cherkinsky ,
Geoffrey M Smith ,
Aaron P Ollivier  and
Hai Pan
Carla S Hadden*
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Alexander Cherkinsky
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Geoffrey M Smith
Affiliation:
Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia St.,Reno, NV 89557, USA
Aaron P Ollivier
Affiliation:
Logan Simpson, 8 Broadway #300, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, USA
Hai Pan
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hadden@uga.edu.
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Abstract

Archaeological investigations of the age and origins of marine shell beads are important for understanding the emergence and maintenance of long-distance trade networks in prehistory. In this paper we expand upon and re-examine the incremental carbon (14C and δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope data from two Olivella biplicata shell beads from the LSP-1 Rockshelter, Oregon, USA, to address two common problems in dating marine shell trade goods: (1) the source region is large, adding to uncertainty regarding the appropriate specification of ΔR; and (2) the 14C activity within individual specimens is variable. Although this combination of factors severely limits the dating precision that is possible, we recommend a sampling and calibration approach that accounts for these added sources of uncertainty and minimizes the loss of precision. We recommend (1) sequential sampling in order to quantify the range of variability in 14C within shells; (2) a Bayesian calibration procedure that models the 14C dates as an ontogenetic sequence, in this case constrained by stable isotope sclerochronology; and (3) specifying ΔR in a manner that accounts for the full range of possible reservoir offsets in the source region.

Keywords

Bayesian modelingmarine shellshell ornamentsstable isotopes
Type
Method Development
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 5: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 1 of 2 , October 2017 , pp. 1507 - 1519
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

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