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CLARIFYING THE AGE OF INITIAL SETTLEMENT HORIZON IN THE MARIANA ISLANDS AND THE IMPACT OF HARD WATER: A RESPONSE TO CARSON (2020)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2021

Fiona Petchey Open the ORCID record for Fiona Petchey [Opens in a new window]  and
Geoffrey Clark
Fiona Petchey*
Affiliation:
Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory, Te Aka Mātuatua – School of Science, University of Waikato, New Zealand ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia
Geoffrey Clark
Affiliation:
Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: fpetchey@waikato.ac.nz
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Abstract

This paper is a response to criticism by Carson (2020) concerning the age of the Unai Bapot archaeological site in the Mariana Islands. Of specific contention are supposed errors in the marine radiocarbon (14C) research reported by Petchey et al. (2017). According to Carson, this work produced marine reservoir offsets (ΔR) of “suspiciously wide variance from each other … and those results were incompatible with the site’s reported stratigraphy and dating (Carson 2008) as well as with other previously calculated marine reservoir corrections in the Mariana Islands (Carson 2010: 3).” This statement is misleading on all three points. Our reply discusses the problems encountered when dating shells from near-shore “marine” environments where terrestrial input, in particular hard water, may complicate date interpretation. We outline a cautionary tale relevant to any researcher using “marine” shell dates to develop regional archaeological chronologies in regions dominated by limestone.

Keywords

hard water effectMariana Islandsmarine reservoir effect

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Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 63 , Issue 3 , June 2021 , pp. 905 - 913
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press for the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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References

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