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Marine Reservoir Effects in Eastern Oyster (Crassostrea Virginica) from Southwestern Florida, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2019

Carla S Hadden*
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Margo Schwadron
Affiliation:
National Park Service, Southeast Archeological Center, 2035 E. Paul Dirac Drive, Johnson Building, Suite 120, Tallahassee, FL 32310, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: hadden@uga.edu.

Abstract

In southwestern Florida, USA, terraformed landscapes built almost entirely of oyster shells (Crassostrea virginica) reflect a unique pre-Columbian tradition of shell-built architecture. The ability to reliably date oyster shells is essential to identifying spatial, temporal, and functional relationships among shellworks sites, yet to date there has been no systematic attempt to quantify or correct for carbon reservoir effects in this region. Here we present 14 radiocarbon (14C) ages for 5 known-age, pre-bomb oyster shells collected between AD 1932–1948, as well as 6 14C ages for archaeological oyster/charcoal pairs from the Turner River Mound Complex, Everglades National Park. We report our current best estimate of ΔR = 92 ± 74 yr for Greater Southwest Florida, and ΔR = –15 ± 42 yr for the Turner River archaeological site. Future research should focus on paired archaeological specimens to obtain spatially and temporally relevant estimates of ΔR.

Information

Type
Conference Paper
Copyright
© 2019 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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