Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T17:51:46.918Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon and Stratigraphic Chronology of Canímar Abajo, Matanzas, Cuba

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Mirjana Roksandic ,
William Mark Buhay ,
Yadira Chinique de Armas ,
Roberto Rodríguez Suárez ,
Matthew C Peros ,
Ivan Roksandic ,
Stephanie Mowat ,
Luis M Viera ,
Carlos Arredondo  and
Antonio Martínez Fuentes
...Show all authors
Mirjana Roksandic*
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue R3B2E9, Canada
William Mark Buhay
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue R3B2E9, Canada
Yadira Chinique de Armas
Affiliation:
University of Havana, Calle 25 #4553ntre JeI, Vedado Habana, C.P. 10400, Cuba
Roberto Rodríguez Suárez
Affiliation:
University of Havana, Calle 25 #4553ntre JeI, Vedado Habana, C.P. 10400, Cuba
Matthew C Peros
Affiliation:
Bishop's University, 2600 Rue College, Sherbrooke, QC, J1M 0C8, Canada
Ivan Roksandic
Affiliation:
University of Winnipeg, 515 Portage Avenue R3B2E9, Canada
Stephanie Mowat
Affiliation:
University of Manitoba, 727 McDermot Ave, MB, R3E 3T5, Canada
Luis M Viera
Affiliation:
University of Havana, Calle 25 #4553ntre JeI, Vedado Habana, C.P. 10400, Cuba
Carlos Arredondo
Affiliation:
University of Havana, Calle 25 #4553ntre JeI, Vedado Habana, C.P. 10400, Cuba
Antonio Martínez Fuentes
Affiliation:
University of Havana, Calle 25 #4553ntre JeI, Vedado Habana, C.P. 10400, Cuba
David Gray Smith
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Mississauga, 3359 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, ON, L5L 1C6, Canada
*
Corresponding author. Email: m.roksandic@uwinnipeg.ca.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Twelve accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates from the shell-matrix site of Canímar Abajo (Matanzas, Cuba) are reported. Eleven were obtained directly from human bone collagen in burials and one was obtained from charcoal recovered from a burial context. The site stratigraphy presents two episodes of burial activity separated by a shell midden layer. The AMS dates fall into two compact clusters that correlate remarkably well with the stratigraphy. The older burial dates to between 1380–800 cal BC (2σ) and the younger one to between cal AD 360–950 (2σ). The AMS dates are compared to eight conventional 14C dates previously obtained on shell and charcoal. One of the conventional dates on charcoal (5480–5380 cal BC; 2σ) has been reported as the oldest 14C date in the Caribbean region; its context and reliability are clarified. The suite of AMS dates provides one of the most reliable chronometric dating of a cultural context during this timeframe in Cuba. The correlation of 14C and stratigraphy establishes a solid chronology for investigating the important economic and ritual features of Canímar Abajo.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 57 , Issue 5 , 2015 , pp. 755 - 763
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Buhay, WM, Chinique de Armas, Y, Rodriguez Suarez, R, Arredondo, C, Smith, DG, Armstrong, SD, Roksandic, M. 2013. A preliminary carbon and nitrogen isotopic investigation of bone collagen from skeletal remains recovered from a Pre-Columbian burial site, Matanzas Province, Cuba. Applied Geochemistry 32:76–84.Google Scholar
Chinique de Armas, Y, Buhay, WM, Rodríguez Suárez, R, Bestel, S, Smith, D, Mowat, SD, Roksandic, M. 2015. Starch analysis and isotopic evidence of consumption of cultigens among fisher-gatherers in Cuba: the archaeological site of Canímar Abajo, Matanzas. Journal of Archaeological Science 58:121–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, J. 2010. Pre-Columbian archaeology of Cuba: a study of site distribution patterns and radiocarbon chronologies. In: Fitzpatrick, S, Ross, A, editors. Island Shores, Distant Pasts: Archaeological and Biological Approaches to the Pre-Columbian Settlement of the Caribbean. Gainesville: University of Florida Press. p 81–107.Google Scholar
Cooper, J, Thomas, KD. 2011. Constructing Caribbean chronologies: comparative radiocarbon dating of shell and wood artefacts from Pre-Colombian sites in Cuba. Achaeometry 54(2):401–25.Google Scholar
Druffel, EM. 1982. Banded corals: changes in oceanic carbon-14 during the Little Ice Age. Science 218(4567):13–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Druffel, ER, Robinson, LF, Griffin, S, Halley, RB, Southon, JR, Adkins, JF. 2008. Low reservoir ages for the surface ocean from mid-Holocene Florida corals. Paleoceanography 23:PA2209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM. 2006. A critical approach to 14C dating in the Caribbean: using chronometric hygiene to evaluate chronological control and prehistoric settlement. Latin American Antiquity 17(4):389–418.Google Scholar
Fitzpatrick, SM, Giovas, CM. 2011. New radiocarbon dates from the Grenadine Islands, West Indies. Radiocarbon 53(3):451–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greer, L, Swart, PK. 2006. Decadal cyclicity of regional mid-Holocene precipitation: evidence from Dominican coral proxies. Paleoceanography 21:PA2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haug, GH, Hughen, KA, Sigman, DM, Peterson, LC, Rohl, U. 2001. Southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone through the Holocene. Science 293(5533):1304–8.Google Scholar
Jackson, AL, Inger, R, Bearhop, S, Parnell, A. 2009. Erroneous behaviour of MixSIR, a recently published Bayesian isotope mixing model: a discussion of Moore and Semmens, Ecology Letters, 2008. Ecology Letters 12:E1–E5.Google Scholar
Lighty, RG, Macintyre, IG, Stuckenrath, R. 1982. Acropora palmate reef framework: a reliable indicator of sea-level in the western Atlantic for the past 10,000 years. Coral Reefs 1(2):125–30.Google Scholar
Martínez, A, Rives, A, Baena, G. 1993. Área arqueológica Canimar-Morato-Yaití, provincia de Matanzas. La Habana: Editorial Academia.Google Scholar
Moore, JW, Semmens, BX. 2008. Incorporating uncertainty and prior information into stable isotope mixing models. Ecology Letters 11(5):470–80.Google Scholar
Parnell, AC, Inger, R, Bearhop, S, Jackson, AL. 2010. Source partioning using stable isotopes: coping with too much variation. PLoS ONE 5(3):e9672.Google Scholar
Poore, RZ, Quinn, TM, Verardo, S. 2004. Century-scale movement of the Atlantic Intertropical Convergence Zone linked to solar variability. Geophysical Research Letters 31(12):L12214.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW. 2001. A marine reservoir correction database and on-line interface. Radiocarbon 43(2):461–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, SM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–87.Google Scholar
Rivero de la Calle, M. 1987. Reporte de la presencia de sacros con espina bífida en el sitio aborigen de Canímar Abajo, Matanzas, Cuba. Revista Biologia 1:75–83.Google Scholar
Rodríguez Ramos, R. 2010. Rethinking time in Caribbean archaeology: the Puerto Rico case study. In: Fitzpatrick, SM, Ross, AH, editors. Island Shores, Distant Pasts: Archaeological and Biological Approaches to the Pre-Columbian Settlement of the Caribbean. Gainesville: University Press of Florida. p 21–53.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.Google Scholar
van Klinken, GJ. 1999. Bone collagen quality indicators for palaeodietary and radiocarbon measurements. Journal of Archaeological Science 26(6):687–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, AJ, Guilderson, TP, Slowey, NC, Cole, JE. 2009. Pre-bomb surface water radiocarbon of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean as recorded in hermatypic corals. Radiocarbon 51(3):947–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar