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Radiocarbon Dating of a Speleothem Record of Paleoclimate for Angkor, Cambodia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2017

Quan Hua Open the ORCID record for Quan Hua [Opens in a new window] ,
Duncan Cook ,
Jens Fohlmeister ,
Dan Penny ,
Paul Bishop  and
Solomon Buckman
Quan Hua*
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Locked Bag 2001, Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia
Duncan Cook
Affiliation:
National School of Arts, Australian Catholic University, PO Box 456, Virginia, QLD 4014, Australia
Jens Fohlmeister
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Potsdam, Karl-Liebknecht Str. 24-25, 14476 Potsdam, Germany GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Section 5.2 Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, Telegrafenberg Building C, D-14473 Potsdam, Germany
Dan Penny
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, Madsen F09, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
Paul Bishop
Affiliation:
School of Geographical and Earth Sciences, East Quad, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom
Solomon Buckman
Affiliation:
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: qhx@ansto.gov.au.
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Abstract

We report the chronological construction for the top portion of a speleothem, PC1, from southern Cambodia with the aim of reconstructing a continuous high-resolution climate record covering the fluorescence and decline of the medieval Khmer kingdom and its capital at Angkor (~9th–15th centuries AD). Earlier attempts to date PC1 by the standard U-Th method proved unsuccessful. We have therefore dated this speleothem using radiocarbon. Fifty carbonate samples along the growth axis of PC1 were collected for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis. Chronological reconstruction for PC1 was achieved using two different approaches described by Hua et al. (2012a) and Lechleitner et al. (2016a). Excellent concordance between the two age-depth models indicates that the top ~47 mm of PC1 grew during the last millennium with a growth hiatus during ~1250–1650 AD, resulting from a large change in measured 14C values at 34.4–35.2 mm depth. The timing of the growth hiatus covers the period of decades-long droughts during the 14th–16th centuries AD indicated in regional climate records.

Keywords

Angkorchronological constructionradiocarbonSoutheast Asiatropical speleothems
Type
Method Development
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 6: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 2 of 2 , December 2017 , pp. 1873 - 1890
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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