Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-wq2xx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T16:49:31.197Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database (Card): Archaeological 14C Dates in North America and Their Paleoenvironmental Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

K Gajewski ,
S Munoz ,
M Peros ,
A Viau ,
R Morlan  and
M Betts
K Gajewski*
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Paleoclimatology and Climatology, Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
S Munoz
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Paleoclimatology and Climatology, Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
M Peros
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Paleoclimatology and Climatology, Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
A Viau
Affiliation:
Laboratory for Paleoclimatology and Climatology, Department of Geography, University of Ottawa, Ottawa ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
R Morlan
Affiliation:
Archaeology and History Division, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Box 3100, Station B, Gatineau QC, J8X 4H2, Canada. Deceased.
M Betts
Affiliation:
Archaeology and History Division, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Box 3100, Station B, Gatineau QC, J8X 4H2, Canada.
*
Corresponding author. Email: gajewski@uottawa.ca.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Databases of accumulated paleoecological and archaeological records provide a means for large-scale syntheses of environmental and cultural histories. We describe the current status of the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database (CARD), a searchable collection of more than 36,000 14C dates from archaeological and paleontological sites from across North America. CARD, built by the late Dr Richard Morlan of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, consists of uncalibrated 14C data as well as information about the material dated, the cultural association of the date (e.g. Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland), and its geographic location. The database can be used to study questions relating to prehistoric demography, migrations, human vulnerability to environmental change, and human impact on the landscape, but biases relating to sampling intensity and taphonomy must first be accounted for. Currently, Canada and the northern United States are well represented in the database, while the southern United States is underrepresented. The frequency of 14C dates associated with archaeological sites increases through time from 15,000 cal yr BP until European contact, which likely reflects, among other factors, both the destruction of older cultural carbon due to erosion and dissolution and increasing population numbers through time. An exploratory analysis of the dates reveals their distribution in both time and space, and suggests that the database is sufficiently complete to enable quantitative analysis of general demographic trends.

Type
Databases and Date Lists
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , 2011 , pp. 371 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Anderson, DG. 2001. Climate and culture change in prehistoric and early historic eastern North America. Archaeology of Eastern North America 29:143–86.Google Scholar
Anderson, DG, Meeks, SC, Goodyear, AC, Miller, DS. 2008. Southeastern data inconsistent with Paleoindian demographic reconstruction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 105(50): E108.Google Scholar
Asch, DL, Asch, NB. 1985. Prehistoric plant cultivation in west-central Illinois. In: Ford, RI, editor. Prehistoric Food Production in North America. Anthropological Papers No. 75. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. p 149–204.Google Scholar
Banfield, AWF. 1977. The Mammals of Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 438 p.Google Scholar
Barnosky, AD. 2008. Megafauna biomass tradeoff as a driver of Quaternary and future extinctions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(Supplement 1):11,543–8.Google Scholar
Bartlein, PJ, Edwards, MD, Shafer, SL, Barker, ED Jr. 1995: Calibration of radiocarbon ages and the interpretation of paleoenvironmental records. Quaternary Research 44(3):417–24.Google Scholar
Berry, CF, Berry, MS. 1986. Chronological and conceptual models of the southwestern Archaic. In: Condie, CJ, Fowler, DD, editors. Anthropology of the Desert West: Essays in Honor of Jesse D. Jennings. Anthropological Papers No. 110. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. p 253–327.Google Scholar
Buchanan, B. 2003. The effects of sample bias on Paleoindian fluted point recovery in the United States. North American Archaeologist 24:311–38.Google Scholar
Buchanan, B, Collard, M, Edinborough, K. 2008. Paleoindian demography and the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(33):11,651–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cochran, WG. 1963. Sampling Techniques. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Collard, M, Buchanan, B, Edinborough, K. 2008. Reply to Anderson et al., Jones, Kennett and West, Culleton, and Kennett et al.: Further evidence against the extraterrestrial impact hypothesis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(50):E112–E114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collard, M, Edinborough, K, Shennan, S, Thomas, MG. 2010. Radiocarbon evidence indicates that migrants introduced farming to Britain. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(4):866–70.Google Scholar
Conrad, N, Asch, DL, Asch, NB, Elmore, D, Gove, HE, Rubin, M, Brown, JA, Wiant, MD, Farnsworth, KB, Cook, TG. 1984. Accelerator radiocarbon dating of evidence for prehistoric horticulture in Illinois. Nature 308(5958):443–6.Google Scholar
Culleton, BJ. 2008. Crude demographic proxy reveals nothing about Paleoindian population. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(50):E111.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Denevan, WM. 1992. The Pristine myth: the landscape of the Americas in 1492. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 82:369–85.Google Scholar
Dyke, AS. 2004. An outline of North American deglaciation with emphasis on central and northern Canada. In: Ehlers, J, Gibbard, PL, editors. Quaternary Glaciations—Extent and Chronology, Part II. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p 373–424.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, RG, Mortlock, RA, Chiu, T-Z, Cao, L, Kaplan, A, Guilderson, TP, Fairbanks, TW, Bloom, AL, Grootes, PM, Nadeau, M-J. 2005. Marine radiocarbon calibration curve spanning 0 to 50,000 years BP based on paired 230Th/234U/238U and 14C dates on pristine corals. Quaternary Science Reviews 24(16–17):1781–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiedel, SJ. 1999. Older than we thought: implications of corrected dates for Paleoindians. American Antiquity 64(1):95–115.Google Scholar
Gajewski, K. 2008. The global pollen database in biogeographical and paleoclimatic studies. Progress in Physical Geography 32:379–402.Google Scholar
Gajewski, K, Viau, A, Sawada, M, Atkinson, D, Fines, P. 2006. Synchronicity in climate and vegetation transitions between Europe and North America during the Holocene. Climatic Change 78:341–61.Google Scholar
Gamble, C, Davies, W, Pettitt, P, Richards, M. 2004. Climate change and evolving human diversity in Europe during the last glacial. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Biological Sciences 359:243–54.Google Scholar
Graham, RW, Lundelius, EL Jr. 1994. FAUNMAP: A Database Documenting Late Quaternary Distributions of Mammal Species in the United States. Springfield: Illinois State Museum, Scientific Papers 25. 690 p.Google Scholar
Grimm, C, Keltner, J, Cheddadi, R, Hicks, S, Lézine, A-M, Berrio, JC, Williams, JW. 2007. Databases and their applications. In: Elias, SA, editor. Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Volume 3. Amsterdam: Elsevier. p 2521–8.Google Scholar
Guthrie, RD. 2006. New carbon dates link climatic change with human colonization and Pleistocene extinctions. Nature 441(7090):207–9.Google Scholar
Harington, CR. 1978. Quaternary Vertebrate Faunas of Canada and Alaska and Their Suggested Chronological Sequence. Ottawa: National Museum of Natural Sciences.Google Scholar
Harington, CR. 2003. Annotated Bibliography of Quaternary Vertebrates of Northern North America. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 539 p.Google Scholar
Hughen, KA, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004b. Marine04 marine radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1059–86.Google Scholar
Kaplan, JO, Krumhardt, KM, Zimmerman, N. 2009. The prehistoric and preindustrial deforestation of Europe. Quaternary Science Reviews 28(27–28):3016–34.Google Scholar
Kra, R. 1988a. The first American workshop on the International Radiocarbon Data Base. Radiocarbon 30(2):259–60.Google Scholar
Kra, R. 1988b. Updating the past: the establishment of the International Radiocarbon Data Base. American Antiquity 53(1):118–25.Google Scholar
Kurtén, B, Anderson, E. 1980. Pleistocene Mammals of North America. New York: Columbia University Press. 443 p.Google Scholar
McGhee, R. 2000. Radiocarbon dating and the timing of the Thule migration. In: Appelt, M Berglund, J, Gulløv, H, editors. Identities and Cultural Contacts in the Arctic. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Centre. p 181–91.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 1987. Archaeology as palaeobiology. Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada Series V(2): 117–24.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 1988. Avonlea and radiocarbon dating. In: Davis, LB, editor. Avonlea Yesterday and Today: Archaeology and Prehistory. Saskatoon: Saskatchewan Archaeological Society. p 291–309.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 1993. A compilation and evaluation of radiocarbon dates in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan Archaeology 13:2–84.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 1999. Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database: establishing conventional ages. Canadian Journal of Archaeology 23:3–10.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE. 2005. Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database. Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization.Google Scholar
Morlan, RE, McNeely, R, Schreiner, BT. 1996. Saskatchewan radiocarbon dates and vertebrate faunas. Geological Survey of Canada Open File Report no. 3366 (1 diskette).Google Scholar
Morlan, RE, McNeely, R, Nielsen, E. 1999. Manitoba radiocarbon dates and vertebrate faunas. Geological Survey of Canada Open File Report (1 diskette).Google Scholar
Munoz, SE. 2010. Prehistoric human-environment interaction in eastern North America [unpublished MSc dissertation]. Ottawa: University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
Munoz, S, Gajewski, K. 2010. Distinguishing prehistoric human influence on late-Holocene forests in southern Ontario, Canada. The Holocene 20(6):967–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munoz, SE, Gajewski, K, Peros, MC. 2010. Synchronous environmental and cultural change in the prehistory of the northeastern United States. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) 107:22,008–13.Google Scholar
Peros, MC, Munoz, SE, Gajewski, K, Viau, AE. 2010. Prehistoric demography of North America inferred from radiocarbon data. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(3):656–64.Google Scholar
Pongratz, J, Reick, C, Raddatz, T, Claussen, M. 2008. A reconstruction of global agricultural areas and land cover for the last millennium. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 22, GB3018, doi:10.1029/2007GB003153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Power, MJ, Marlon, J, Oritz, N, Bartlein, PJ, Harrison, S, Mayle, F, Ballouche, A, Bradshaw, R, Carcaillet, C, Cordova, C, et al. 2008. Changes in fire regimes since the last glacial maximum: an assessment based on a global synthesis and analysis of charcoal data. Climate Dynamics 30(7–8):887–907.Google Scholar
Riede, F. 2009. Climate and demography in early prehistory: using calibrated 14C dates as population proxies. Human Biology 81(2–3):309–37.Google ScholarPubMed
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1029–58.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, FG, Manning, SW, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, WR. 2003. The anthropogenic greenhouse era began thousands of years ago. Climatic Change 61:261–93.Google Scholar
Steele, J. 2010. Radiocarbon dates as data: quantitative strategies for estimating colonization front speeds and event densities. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(8):2017–30.Google Scholar
Stoltman, JB, Baerris, D. 1983. The evolution of human ecosystems in the eastern United States. In: Wright, HE, editor. Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States. Volume 2: The Holocene. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p 252–68.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C database and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Braziunas, TF, Becker, B, Kromer, B. 1991. Climatic, solar, oceanic and geomagnetic influences on Late-Glacial and Holocene atmospheric 14C/12C change. Quaternary Research 35(1):1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ, Reimer, R. 2009. CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration Program. Available online: http://calib.qub.ac.uk/calib/.Google Scholar
Surovell, TA, Brantingham, PJ. 2007. A note on the use of temporal frequency distributions in studies of prehistoric demography. Journal of Archaeological Science 34(11):1868–77.Google Scholar
Surovell, TA, Finley, JB, Smith, GM, Brantingham, PJ, Kelley, R. 2009. Correcting temporal frequency distributions for taphonomic bias. Journal of Archaeological Science 36(8):1715–24.Google Scholar
Telford, RJ, Heegaard, E, Birks, HJB. 2004. The intercept is a poor estimate of a calibrated radiocarbon age. The Holocene 14(2):296–8.Google Scholar
Ubelaker, DH. 1992. Patterns of demographic change in the Americas. Human Biology 64:361–79.Google Scholar
Ubelaker, DH. 2006. Population size, contact to nadir. In: Ubelaker, DH, editor. Environment, Origins, and Population, Volume 3, Handbook of North American Indians. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p 694–701.Google Scholar
Viau, AE, Gajewski, K, Fines, P, Atkinson, DE, Sawada, MC. 2002. Widespread evidence of 1500 yr climate variability in North America during the past 14,000 yr. Geology 30(5):455–8.Google Scholar
Viau, AE, Gajewski, K, Sawada, M, Fines, P. 2006. Millennial scale temperature variations in North America during the Holocene. Journal of Geophysical Research 111: D09102.Google Scholar
Warrick, G. 2008. A Population History of the Hurton-Petun, A.D. 500–1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Google Scholar
Waters, MR, Stafford, TW Jr. 2007. Redefining the age of Clovis: implications for the peopling of the Americas. Science 315(5815):1122–6.Google Scholar
Wilmeth, R. 1971. Canadian archaeological radiocarbon dates. National Museum of Canada Bulletin 232:68–127.Google Scholar
Wilmeth, R. 1978. Canadian archaeological radiocarbon dates (revised version). Archaeological Survey of Canada, Mercury Series Paper No. 77. Ottawa: National Museum of Man. 204 p.Google Scholar