Related Papers
American Antiquity
Three Generations Under One Roof? Bayesian Modeling of Radiocarbon Data from Nunalleq, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
2018 •
Rick Knecht
This article presents the results of a program of radiocarbon dating and Bayesian modeling from the precontact Yup'ik site of Nunalleq (GDN-248) in subarctic southwestern Alaska. Nunalleq is deeply stratified, presenting a robust relative chronological framework of well-defined individual house floors abundant in ecofacts suitable for radiocarbon dating. Capitalizing on this potential, we present the results of one of the first applications of Bayesian statistical modeling of radiocarbon data from an archaeological site in the North American Arctic. Using these methods, we demonstrate that it is possible to generate robust, high-resolution chronological models from Arctic archaeology. Radiocarbon dates, procured prior to the program of dating and modeling presented here, suggested an approximately three-century duration of occupation at the site. The results of Bayesian modeling nuance this interpretation. While it is possible that there may have been activity for almost three c...
Radiocarbon
Towards a First Chronology for the Middle Settlement of Norse Greenland: 14C and Related Studies of Animal Bone and Environmental Material
2013 •
Gordon Cook
The so-called Middle Settlement (Mellembygden) of Norse/Viking Greenland has received far less attention than either of its larger Eastern and Western counterparts. The Greenlandic Norse occupation is nominally taken to date between AD 985 and about AD 1450 and it is generally assumed that the Western Settlement was abandoned prior to the Eastern, but where the Middle Settlement fits into the pattern temporally has hitherto been completely unknown. This paper presents the first absolute dating evidence from the Middle Settlement. In addition to providing the results (14C, δ13C, δ15N) of a radiocarbon dating and stable isotope measurement program from domesticated (Bos, Ovis/Capra) and wild (Rangifer) animal bone and cultural-environmental (coastal, possibly midden) samples, the paper also addresses some problems of 14C estimation for the period of Norse occupation in Greenland. Investigations show a Medieval Scandinavian presence close to the start of the conventional landnám period...
First people in Greenland.IN: Human Colonization of the Arctic: The Interaction Between Early Migration and the Paleoenvironment Ed: V.M. Kotlyakov, A.A. Velichko and S.A. Vasil’ev
Jens F Jensen
Greenland was first settled in the Holocene by the same Paleoeskimo peoples of the Arctic Small Tool tradition (ASTt) as are known from Eastern Canadian Arctic. The Paleoeskimos migrated into the Eastern Arctic (Northeastern Canada and Greenland)nearly 5000 years ago. They inhabited this vast area for around 3500 years, but they seem to have disappeared when the Thule culture (the ancestors of present Inuit) expanded to this region around AD 1200. The archaeological remains, especially the stone tools, of the earliest Paleoeskimos have been typologically divided into three material cultures: “Independence I,” “Saqqaq,” and “Predorset.” This paper will give a picture of Saqqaq, who represent the first people in West Greenland, and Independence I, which is the pioneer culture in Northeast Greenland. In Greenland, Pre-Dorset is only known from a few localities along the Nares Strait, and for the moment, it seems as if this culture only settled the Nares Strait region and never dispersed to other parts of Greenland. Therefore we will only discuss the two pioneering cultures of Saqqaq and Independence I.
Radiocarbon
An Assessment of Marine Reservoir Corrections for Radiocarbon Dates on Walrus from the Foxe Basin Region of Arctic Canada
Arthur Dyke
ABSTRACTArchaeological sites in the Canadian Arctic often contain substantial quantities of marine mammal bones and in some cases completely lack terrestrial mammal bones. A distrust of radiocarbon (14C) dates on marine mammal bones among Arctic archaeologists has caused many sites to be insufficiently dated. The goal of this study was to investigate the marine reservoir effect on Atlantic walrus in the Foxe Basin region of the Canadian Arctic through a two-pronged approach: dating of live-harvested specimens of known age collected prior to AD 1955 and dating of pairs of animal remains (walrus and caribou) from stratigraphically contemporaneous levels within archaeological features. 14C dates on pre-bomb, live-harvested walrus indicate that a ΔR value of 160±50 yr be used in calibrating dates on walrus from this region. These results differed significantly from a similar set of pre-bomb mollusks, which argues against applying mollusk-based corrections to marine mammals. The results ...
First people in Greenland (Russian and English)
Svend Funder
Uivvaq: A Stratified Iñupiaq Occupation at Cape Lisburne, Northwest Alaska
2012 •
Diane Hanson
The Uivvaq site, near Cape Lisburne in Northwest Alaska, was abandoned in 1950 after its acquisition by the U.S. Air Force. In 2000 and 2002, reconnaissance archaeological investigations (15 m 2 ) were
The Holocene
Species-specific reservoir effect estimates: A case study of archaeological marine samples from the Bering Strait
Arkady Savinetsky
Due to the marine reservoir effect, radiocarbon dates of marine samples require a correction. Marine reservoir effects, however, may vary among different marine species within a given body of water. Factors such as diet, feeding depth and migratory behaviour all affect the 14C date of a marine organism. Moreover, there is often significant variation within single marine species. Whilst the careful consideration of the Δ R values of a single marine species in a given location is important, so too is the full range of Δ R values within an ecosystem. This paper illustrates this point, using a sample pairing method to estimate the reservoir effects in 17 marine samples, of eight different species, from the archaeological site of Ekven (Eastern Chukotka, Siberia). An OxCal model is used to assess the strength of these estimates. The marine reservoir effects of samples passing the model range from Δ R (Marine20) = 136 ± 41–Δ R = 460 ± 40. Marine reservoir effect estimates of these samples...
Arctic
Paleoeskimo Demography and Holocene Sea-level History, Gulf of Boothia, Arctic Canada
2011 •
Arthur Dyke
Arctic Anthropology
A High-Resolution Chronology for the Cape Krusenstern Site Complex, Northwest Alaska
2013 •
Shelby Anderson
Maritime Adaptations and Dietary Variation in Prehistoric Western Alaska: Stable Isotope Analysis of Permafrost-Preserved Human Hair
Rick Knecht
