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Freshwater Reservoir Offsets Investigated Through Paired Human-Faunal 14C Dating and Stable Carbon and Nitrogen Isotope Analysis at Lake Baikal, Siberia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Rick J Schulting ,
Christopher Bronk Ramsey ,
Vladimir I Bazaliiskii ,
Olga I Goriunova  and
Andrzej Weber
Rick J Schulting*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, Dyson Perrins Building, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Vladimir I Bazaliiskii
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ethnography, Irkutsk State University, Karl Marx Street 1, Irkutsk 664003, Russia
Olga I Goriunova
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology and Ethnography, Irkutsk State University, Karl Marx Street 1, Irkutsk 664003, Russia
Andrzej Weber
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, 13–15 H.M. Tory Building, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2H4, Canada
*
2. Corresponding author email: rick.schulting@arch.ox.ac.uk.
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Abstract

Thirty-three paired accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates on human and terrestrial faunal remains from the same Neolithic and Early Bronze Age graves are used to develop a correction for the freshwater reservoir effect (FRE) at Lake Baikal, Siberia. Excluding two outliers, stable nitrogen isotope (δ15N) values show a positive correlation (r2 = 0.672, p < 0.000) with offsets in 14C yr between paired human and fauna determinations. The highest offset observed in our data set is 622 yr, which is close to the value of ∼700 yr suggested for endemic seals in the lake. For each per mil increase in δ15N, the offset increases by 77 ± 10 yr in the overall data set. However, there are indications that different regression models apply in each of two microregions of Cis-Baikal. In the first, sites on the southwest shore of the lake and along the Angara River show a strong positive correlation between δ15N values and offsets in 14C yr (r2 = 0.814, p < 0.000). In the other, the Little Sea, both δ13C and δ15N values make significant contributions to the model (adjusted r2 = 0.878; δ13C p < 0.001; δ15N p < 0.000). This can be related to the complex 13C ecology of the lake, which displays one of the widest ranges of δ13C values known for any natural ecosystem. The results will be important in terms of refining the culture-history of the region, as well as exploring the dynamic interactions of hunter-gatherer communities both synchronically and diachronically.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , 2014 , pp. 991 - 1008
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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