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FROM LAND AND SEA: OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF DIRECTLY DATING DOG REMAINS ON POLYNESIAN ISLANDS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 August 2020

Justin Cramb Open the ORCID record for Justin Cramb [Opens in a new window]  and
Carla S Hadden
Justin Cramb*
Affiliation:
University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology University of Georgia, Center for Applied Isotope Studies
Carla S Hadden
Affiliation:
University of Georgia, Center for Applied Isotope Studies
*
*Corresponding author. Email: jecramb@alaska.edu.
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Abstract

Recent archaeological excavations on Rakahanga Atoll, Northern Cook Islands, produced one of the earliest examples of dog (Canis familiaris) remains found on East Polynesian atolls. Direct dating of these and other Pacific Island fauna by AMS is complicated by a number of factors. (1) The animals’ diets may consist of marine and terrestrial protein. (2) Marine 14C is itself a mix of carbon pools with localized offsets that vary over time and space. (3) The region is potentially impacted by inter-hemispheric mixing of atmospheric 14C. Stable isotope analysis of gelatin extracted from dog teeth was used to estimate marine/terrestrial dietary components and paired terrestrial and marine samples were used to constrain local atmospheric and marine carbon offsets. The dates were modeled as a phase in a Bayesian chronological framework using mixed calibration curves. The resulting models confirm the presence of dogs on Rakahanga shortly after the initial colonization of the region and suggest that dogs were among the species that accompanied voyagers as they discovered and settled new islands. These methods can be applied to accurately date any marine-influenced terrestrial vertebrate remains in Remote Oceania.

Keywords

AMS datingBayesian modelingdogPolynesiastable isotopes
Type
Conference Paper
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 62 , Issue 6: Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium , December 2020 , pp. 1651 - 1665
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Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 9th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Athens, GA, USA, 20–24 May 2019

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