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Fluoride Dating of Faunal Materials by Ion-Selective Electrode: High Resolution Relative Dating at an Early Agricultural Period Site in the Tucson Basin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Mark R. Schurr  and
David A. Gregory
Mark R. Schurr
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556
David A. Gregory
Affiliation:
Desert Archaeology, Inc., 3975 N. Tucson Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85716
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Abstract

When the fluoride content of bone is measured with an ion-selective electrode, and when the technique is correctly applied, fluoride dating is a very economical method for developing fine-scale relative chronologies. It has been successfully used to develop relative chronologies for prehistoric human burials and fossilized bones throughout the world, but its much greater potential for the dating of unfossilized faunal materials has been neglected. The fluoride contents of 889 lagomorph and 16 artiodactyl bones from 183 contexts at Los Pozos, an Early Agricultural period site in Arizona, illustrate how fluoride measurements can be used to date features. Fluoride dating offers a temporal resolution capable of distinguishing between features separated by as little as 20 to 40 years.

Résumé

Résumé

Cuando el contenido de fluoruro de hueso se mide con un electrodo de selectión iónica, y cuando la técnica se aplica correctamente, el fechamiento a base de fluoruro es un método muy económico para desarrollar cronologías relativas a escala fina. A pesar de que este método ha sido utilizado exitosamente a nivel mundial para la determinatión de cronologías relativas de entierros humanos prehistóricos y huesos fosilizados, el gran potential que ofrece para el fechamiento de restos de fauna no-fosilizados ha sido ignorado. Aquí presentamos el contenido de fluoruro de 889 huesos de lagomorph y de 16 huesos de artiodactyl procedentes de 183 localidades en el sitio de Los Pozos del período "Early Agricultural" en Arizona, E. U.A., como ejemplo de su uso en la datatión de elementos arqueológicos. El fechamiento a base de fluoruro tiene una alta resolutión, siendo posible detectar diferencias temporales entre elementos arqueológicos depositados con una diferencia mínima de entre 20 ó 40 años.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , April 2002 , pp. 281 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2002

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