Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T02:31:20.820Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating Human Occupation on Diatom-Phytolith-Rich Sediment: Case Studies of Mustang Spring and Lubbock Lake, Texas, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Christine Hatté ,
Gregory Hodgins ,
Vance T Holliday  and
A J Timothy Jull
Christine Hatté*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR CEA-CNRS-UVSQ 1572, Domaine du CNRS, bâtiment 12, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France
Gregory Hodgins
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, Physics Building, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
Vance T Holliday
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
A J Timothy Jull
Affiliation:
NSF-Arizona AMS Laboratory, Physics Building, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: hatte@lsce.ipsl.fr.
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.

The Great Plains of North America have a rich archaeological record that spans the period from Late Glacial to Historic times, a period that also witnessed significant changes in climate and ecology. Chronometric dating of archaeological sites in many areas of the Great Plains, however, is often problematic, largely because charcoal and wood—the preferred materials for radiocarbon dating—are scarce in this grassland environment with few trees. Two reference archaeological sites are studied here: Mustang Spring and Lubbock Lake, Texas, USA. We carry out a geochronological approach based on a cross-study of carbon-derived data: combustion yield, δ13C, 14C age differences between high temperature and low temperature released carbon, and the 14C age itself. A study that incorporates multiple approaches is required to solve issues induced by the sedimentological context, which is rich in both freshwater diatoms and phytoliths from quite different origins. Analysis of carbon-derived data allows us to draw a succession model of dry and wet episodes and to associate it with a chronological framework. In this way, we can assert that, for the Mustang Spring site, several human occupations existed from ∼11 kyr BP to ∼8.7 kyr BP along the 110-cm-long series with an interruption of ∼150 yr that is associated with a palustrine environment between the Plainview and Firstview occupations.

Type
Archaeology
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , 2010 , pp. 13 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Feathers, JK, Holliday, VT, Meltzer, DJ. 2006. Optically stimulated luminescence dating of Southern High Plains archaeological sites. Journal of Archaeological Science 33(12):1651–65.Google Scholar
Hatté, C, Hodgins, G, Jull, AJT, Bishop, B, Tesson, B. 2008. Marine chronology based on 14C dating on diatoms proteins. Marine Chemistry 109(1–2):143–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, CV Jr. 1975. Pleistocene and recent stratigraphy. In: Wendorf, F, Hester, JJ, editors. Late Pleistocene Environments of the Southern High Plains. Taos, New Mexico: Fort Burgwin Research Center. p 57–96.Google Scholar
Haynes, CV Jr. 1992. Contribution of radiocarbon dating the geochronology of the peopling of the New World. In: Taylor, RE, Long, A, Kra, RS, editors. Radiocarbon After Four Decades: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. New York: Springer-Verlag. p 335–74.Google Scholar
Haynes, CV Jr. 1995. Geochronology of paleoenvironmental change, Clovis type site, Blackwater Draw, New Mexico. Geoarchaeology 10(5):317–88.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT. 1987. Eolian processes and sediments on the Great Plains. In: Graff, W, editor. Geomorphic Systems of North America. The Geology of North America Centennial Special Volume 2. Boulder: Geological Society of America. p 195–202.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT. 1989. The Blackwater Draw Formation (Quaternary): a 1.4-plus m.y. record of eolian sedimentation and soil formation on the Southern High Plains. Geological Society of America Bulletin 101(12):1598–607.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holliday, VT. 1995. Stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of Late Quaternary valleys fills on the Southern High Plains Geological Society of America Memoir 186. Boulder: Geological Society of America.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT. 2000a. Folsom drought and episodic drying on the Southern High Plains from 10,900–10,200 14C yr B. P. Quaternary Research 53 (1):1–12.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT. 2000b. The evolution of Paleoindian geochronology and typology on the Great Plains. Geoarchaeology 15(3):227–90.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT, Gustavson, TC. 1991. Quaternary stratigraphy and soils in Southern High Plains. In: Morrison, RB, editor. Quaternary Nonglacial Geology: Conterminous United States. Centennial Special Volume. Boulder: Geological Society of America. p 479–84.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT, Johnson, E, Haas, R, Stuckenrath, R. 1983. Radiocarbon ages from the Lubbock Lake Site, 1950–1980: framework for cultural and ecological change on the Southern High Plains. Plains Anthropologist 28:65–70.Google Scholar
Holliday, VT, Johnson, E, Haas, R, Stuckenrath, R. 1985. Radiocarbon ages from the Lubbock Lake Site, 1981–1984. Plains Anthropologist 30:277–92.Google Scholar
Johnson, E. 1987. Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary studies on the Southern High Plains. College Station: Texas A&M University Press.Google Scholar
Jull, AJT, Burr, GS, Beck, JW, Donahue, DJ, Biddulph, D, Hatheway, AL, Lange, TE, McHargue, LR. 2003. Using accelerator mass spectrometry for geochronology of the climatic record and connections with the ocean. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 63:3–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jull, AJT, Burr, GS, McHargue, LR, Lange, TE, Lifton, NA, Beck, JW, Donahue, DJ, Lal, D. 2004. New frontiers in dating of geological, paleoclimatic and anthropological applications using accelerator mass spectrometric measurements of 14C and 10Be in diverse samples. Global and Planetary Change 41(3–4):309–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krull, ES, Skjemstad, JO, Graetz, D, Grice, K, Dunning, W, Cook, G, Parr, JF. 2003. 13C-depleted charcoal from C4 grasses and the role of occluded carbon in phytoliths. Organic Geochemistry 34(9):1337–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGeehin, J, Burr, GS, Jull, AJT, Reines, D, Gosse, J, Davis, PT, Muhs, D, Southon, JR. 2001. Stepped-combustion 14C dating of sediment: a comparison with established techniques. Radiocarbon 43(2A):255–61.Google Scholar
Meltzer, DJ. 1991. Altithermal archaeology and paleoecology at Mustang Spring, on the Southern High Plains of Texas. American Antiquity 56(2):236–7.Google Scholar
Meltzer, DJ, Collins, MB. 1987. Prehistoric water wells on the Southern High Plains: clues to Altithermal climate. Journal of Field Archeology 14:9–27.Google Scholar
Stout, JE, Zobeck, TM, Gill, TE. 1996. The ambient dust study at Lubbock Lake Landmark. In: Fifth International Conference on Desert Development. Lubbock: Texas Tech University. p 718–23.Google Scholar
Walker, WG, Davidson, GR, Lange, TE, Wren, D. 2007. Accurate lacustrine and wetland sediment accumulation rates determined from 14C activity of bulk sediment fractions. Radiocarbon 49(2):983–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar