Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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Dating of Rattus exulans bone from Pleasant River (Otago, New Zealand): testing the effect of burial contamination

Nancy Beavan-Athfield^*, Rodger J. Sparks

^*Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Box 31 312, Lower Hutt, New Zealand. email: n.beavan@gns.cri.nz

Burial contamination can produce age anomalies in radiocarbon-dated bone. It is possible to test for the presence and effect of the in situ contamination -- humic and fulvic acids, transferred in soil pore waters -- for a specific site. In this study, we examined the possibility that a previously unidentified and ineffectively removed burial contaminant affected radiocarbon ages from Rattus exulans bone at the Pleasant River archaeological site. We found no evidence for such contamination, and illustrated that testing in-situ contamination effects should be considered before invoking same as a cause of radiocarbon anomalies in bone.

Keywords   radiocarbon; humic acids; bone; burial contamination; New Zealand

(c) Journal of The Royal Society of New Zealand,

Volume 31, Number 4, December 2001, pp 795-800

PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (375K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)

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