Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-94d59 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-18T20:07:24.723Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Late Prehistoric Petroleum Collection in Pennsylvania: Radiocarbon Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Karen A. Selsor
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
Richard R. Burky
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
Donna L. Kirner
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521
Judith E. Thomas
Affiliation:
Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute, Mercyhurst College, Erie, Pennsylvania 16546
John R. Southon
Affiliation:
Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550
R. E. Taylor
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Laboratory, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521

Abstract

Previous reports using archaeological, ethnohistoric, and historic data have proposed that petroleum was extracted by pre-contact aboriginal populations in western Pennsylvania employing wood-lined pits. A suite of AMS-based 14C analyses on total amino acid extracts on nine duplicate samples from a homogenized decadal (10-year) sample of wood taken from a single stake removed from a pit feature at Drake Well Park, Titusville, Pennsylvania, has permitted the calibration of a mean 14C age of 480 ± 15 B.P. to a 2 sigma (95.4%) confidence interval of A.D. 1415-1440. An early fifteenth-century age for this feature supports the view that petroleum exploitation in this region occurred during Late Woodland times.

Resumen

Resumen

Informes anteriores, empleando informaciones arqueológicas, etnohistóricas e históricas, han propuesto que el petróleo fue extraído por las poblaciones indígenas en Pensilvania occidental, por medio de hoyos forrados de madera. Una sene de análisis radiocarbónicos basados en AMS, sobre extractos aminoácidos totales de nueve muestras duplicadas de una muesta, decadal (de diez años) homogenizada, de madera sacada de una sola estaca removida de un pozo en Drake Well Park, Pensilvania, ha permitido la calibración de una edad radiocarbónica media de 480±15 BP, a un intervalo de confidencia de 2 sigma (95.4%) de A.D. 1414-1440. Una edad del siglo quince para este pozo apoya la opinión de que la explotación del petróleo en esta región ocurrió durante la época Woodland Tardía.

Type
Reports
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Curtis, S. A. 1971 The Cultural Ecology of Early Late Woodland, Venango County, Pennsylvania. Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Curtis, S. A. 1994 Prehistoric Oil Production in Western Pennsylvania. Paper presented at the 65th annual meeting of the Society for Pennsylvania Archaeology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Davis, W. H. 1848 Crawford County and Its History. Lecture Delivered before the Meadville Literary Union. The Crawford Democrat, April 1, 1848.Google Scholar
Hunt, J. 1995 Geochemistry of Oil. 2° ed. Freeman, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Kirner, D. LBurky, R., Taylor, R. E., and Southon, J. R. 1997 Radiocarbon Dating Organic Residues at the Microgram Level. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research 23: 214217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirner, D. L., Southon, J. R., Hare, P. E., and Taylor, R. E. 1996 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Radiocarbon Measurement of Submilligram samples. In Archaeological Chemistry: Organic, Inorganic, and Biochemical Analysis, edited by Orna, M., pp. 434–142. American Chemical Society, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Kirner, D. L., Taylor, R. E., and Southon, J. R. 1995 Reduction in Backgrounds in Microsamples for AMS Radiocarbon Dating. Radiocarbon 37: 697704.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, W. 1905 Early History of the Petroleum Industry. Meandeville Historical Society, Meandeville, Pennsylvania.Google Scholar
Roberts, M. W. Caffee, R. C. Finkel, I. D., Heikkinen, D. W., Berno, A. J., and Hornady, R. S. 1992 Progress in AMS Measurements at the LLNL Spectrometer. Radiocarbon 34: 47377.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Becker, B. 1993 High-Precision Decadal Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time Scale, AD 1590-6000 BC. Radiocarbon 35: 3566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. 1993 Extended l4C Data Base and Revised Calib 3.0 l4C age Calibration Program. Radiocarbon 35: 215230.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E. 1987 Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E., Hare, P. E., Prior, C. A., Kirner, D. L., Wan, L., and Burky, R. 1995 Radiocarbon Dating of Biochemically Characterized Hair. Radiocarbon 37: 319330.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E., Stuiver, M., and Reimer, P. J. 1996 Development and Extension of the Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time Scale: Archaeological Implications. Quaternary Geochronology 14: 114.Google Scholar
Thomas, J. E. 1997 Prehistoric Petroleum Production in Pennsylvania: A Review of the Evidence. Paper presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, 2-6 April, Nashville, Tennessee. Google Scholar
Thomas, J. E., Kirner, D. L., Burky, R., Selsor, K., Taylor, R. E., and Southon, J. R. 1998 Documentary, Archaeological, and Radiocarbon Evidence of Prehistoric and Protohistoric Petroleum Production in Pennsylvania. Paper presented at the 1998 Annual Convention of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 1720, 1998.Google Scholar
Tissot, B. P., and Welte, D. H. 1984 Petroleum Formation and Occurrence. Springer-Verlag, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar