Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T11:37:52.509Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Composition of Early Holocene Olivella Shell Beads from the Northwest Coast, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2017

Carla S Hadden ,
Alexander Cherkinsky ,
Geoffrey M Smith ,
Aaron P Ollivier  and
Hai Pan
Carla S Hadden*
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Alexander Cherkinsky
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
Geoffrey M Smith
Affiliation:
Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit, Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, 1664 N. Virginia St.,Reno, NV 89557, USA
Aaron P Ollivier
Affiliation:
Logan Simpson, 8 Broadway #300, Salt Lake City, UT 84111, USA
Hai Pan
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Isotope Studies, 120 Riverbend Road, Athens, GA 30602, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Archaeological investigations of the age and origins of marine shell beads are important for understanding the emergence and maintenance of long-distance trade networks in prehistory. In this paper we expand upon and re-examine the incremental carbon (14C and δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope data from two Olivella biplicata shell beads from the LSP-1 Rockshelter, Oregon, USA, to address two common problems in dating marine shell trade goods: (1) the source region is large, adding to uncertainty regarding the appropriate specification of ΔR; and (2) the 14C activity within individual specimens is variable. Although this combination of factors severely limits the dating precision that is possible, we recommend a sampling and calibration approach that accounts for these added sources of uncertainty and minimizes the loss of precision. We recommend (1) sequential sampling in order to quantify the range of variability in 14C within shells; (2) a Bayesian calibration procedure that models the 14C dates as an ontogenetic sequence, in this case constrained by stable isotope sclerochronology; and (3) specifying ΔR in a manner that accounts for the full range of possible reservoir offsets in the source region.

Keywords

Bayesian modelingmarine shellshell ornamentsstable isotopes
Type
Method Development
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Special Issue 5: 8th International Symposium, Edinburgh, 27 June – 1 July, 2016 Part 1 of 2 , October 2017 , pp. 1507 - 1519
Copyright
© 2017 by 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.)

Footnotes

Selected Papers from the 8th Radiocarbon & Archaeology Symposium, Edinburgh, UK, 27 June–1 July 2016

References

REFERENCES

Arnold, JE. 1992. Complex hunter-gatherer-fishers of prehistoric California: chiefs, specialists, and maritime adaptations of the Channel Islands. American Antiquity 57:60–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bennyhoff, JA, Hughes, RE. 1987. Shell Bead and Ornament Exchange Networks Between California and the Western Great Basin. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. Volume 64, part 2. New York.Google Scholar
Bottman, TC. 2006. Stable Isotope Analysis to Determine Geographic Provenience of Olivella biplicata Shell Beads Excavated from Archaeological Sites in the Northern Great Basin: Implications for Reconstructing Prehistoric Exchange [unpublished master’s thesis]. Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–360.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Lee, S. 2013. Recent and planned developments of the program OxCal. Radiocarbon 55(2–3):720–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherkinsky, A, Culp, RA, Dvoracek, DK, Noakes, JE. 2010. Status of the AMS facility at the University of Georgia. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physical Research B 268:867–870.Google Scholar
Christen, JA, Litton, CD. 1995. A Bayesian approach to wiggle-matching. Journal of Archaeological Science 22(6):719–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Claassen, C, Sigmann, S. 1993. Sourcing Busycon artifacts of the eastern United States. American Antiquity 58:333–347.Google Scholar
Culleton, BJ, Kennett, DJ, Ingram, LB, Erlandson, JM. 2006. Intrashell radiocarbon variability in marine mollusks. Radiocarbon 48(3):387–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
d’Errico, F, Vanhaeren, M, Barton, N, Bouzouggar, A, Mienis, H, Richter, D, Hublin, J, McPherron, SP, Lozouet, P. Additional evidence on the use of personal ornaments in the Middle Paleolithic of North Africa. 2009. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 106(38):16051–16056.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eerkens, JW, Herbert, GS, Rosenthal, JS, Spero, HJ. 2005. Provenance analysis of Olivella biplicata shell beads from the California and Oregon Coast by stable isotope fingerprinting. Journal of Archaeological Science 32:1501–1514.Google Scholar
Eerkens, JW, Rosenthal, JS, Spero, HJ, Shiraki, R, Herbert, GS. 2007. Shell bead sourcing: a comparison of two techniques on Olivella biplicata shells and beads from western North America. In: Glascock MD, Speakman RJ, Popelka-Filcoff RS, editors. Archaeological Chemistry: Analytical Techniques and Archaeological Interpretation. Washington, DC: American Chemical Society. p 167–193.Google Scholar
Eerkens, JW, Rosenthal, JS, Spero, HJ, Stevens, NE, Fitzgerald, R, Brink, L. 2009. The source of early horizon Olivella beads: isotopic evidence from CCO-548. SCA Proceedings 23:1–11.Google Scholar
Eerkens, JW, Rosenthal, JS, Stevens, NE, Cannon, A, Brown, EL, Spero, HJ. 2010. Stable isotope provenance analysis of Olivella shell beads from the Los Angeles Basin and San Nicholas Island. Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology 5:105–119.Google Scholar
Erlandson, JM, Macko, ME, Koerper, HC, Southon, J. 2005. The Antiquity of Olivella shell beads at CA-ORA-64: AMS radiocarbon dated between 9420 and 7780 cal BP. Journal of Archaeological Science 32:393–398.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitzgerald, RT, Jones, TL, Schroth, A. 2005. Ancient long-distance trade in western North America: new AMS radiocarbon dates from southern California. Journal of Archaeological Science 32:423–434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forman, SL, Polyak, L. 1997. Radiocarbon content of pre-bomb marine mollusks and variations in the 14C reservoir age for the coastal areas of the Barents and Kara Seas, Russia. Geophysical Research Letters 24(8):885–888.Google Scholar
Gillikin, DP, Lorrain, A, Meng, L, Dehairs, F. 2007. A large metabolic carbon contribution to the δ13C record in marine aragonitic bivalve shells. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 71:2936–2946.Google Scholar
Groza, RG, Rosenthal, J, Southon, J, Milliken, R. 2011. A refined shell bead chronology for late Holocene central California. Journal of California and Great Basin Archaeology 31(2):135–154.Google Scholar
Hadden, CS, Cherkinsky, A. 2015. 14C variations in pre-bomb nearshore habitats of the Florida Panhandle, USA. Radiocarbon 57(3):469–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hadden, CS, Cherkinsky, A. 2016. Spatiotemporal variability in ΔR in the northern Gulf of Mexico, USA. Radiocarbon DOI: 10.1017/RDC 2016.65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helama, S, Hood, BC. 2011. Stone Age midden deposition assessed by bivalve sclerochronology and radiocarbon wiggle-matching of Arctica islandica shell increments. Journal of Archaeological Science 38(2):452–460.Google Scholar
Hogg, AG, Higham, TFG, Dahm, J. 1998. 14C Dating of modern marine and estuarine shellfish. Radiocarbon 40(2):975–984.Google Scholar
Holmquist, JR, Reynolds, L, Brown, LN, Southon, JR, Simms, AR, MacDonald, GM. 2015. Marine radiocarbon reservoir values in southern California estuaries: interspecies, latitudinal, and interannual variability. Radiocarbon 57(3):449–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, RE, Bennyhoff, JE.. 1986. Early trade. In: D’Azevedo WL, editor. Great Basin. Handbook of North American Indians. Volume 11. Sturtevant WC, general editor. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution. p 239–255.Google Scholar
Hughes, RE, Milliken, R. 2007. Prehistoric material conveyance. In: Jones TL, Klar KA, editors. California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press. p 259–272.Google Scholar
Huyer, A. 1983. Coastal upwelling in the California Current system. Progress in Oceanography 12(3):259–284.Google Scholar
Ingram, BL, Southon, JR. 1996. Reservoir ages in eastern Pacific coastal and estuarine waters. Radiocarbon 38(3):573–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, KB, Hodgins, GWL, Dettman, DL, Andrus, CFT, Nelson, A, Etayo-Cadavid, MF. 2007. Seasonal variations in Peruvian marine reservoir age from pre-bomb Argopecten purpuratus shell carbonate. Radiocarbon 49(2):877–888.Google Scholar
Jones, KB, Hodgins, GWL, Etayo-Cadavid, MF, Andrus, CFT. 2009. Upwelling signals in radiocarbon from early 20th-century Peruvian bay scallop (Argopecten purpuratus) shells. Quaternary Research 72(3):452–456.Google Scholar
Jones, KB, Hodgins, GWL, Etayo-Cadavid, MF, Andrus, CFT, Sandweiss, DH. 2010. Centuries of marine radiocarbon reservoir age variation within archaeological Mesodesma donacium shells from southern Peru. Radiocarbon 52(2–3):1207–1214.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Ingram, BL, Erlandson, JM, Walker, P. 1997. Evidence for temporal fluctuations in marine radiocarbon reservoir ages in the Santa Barbara Channel, southern California. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:1051–1059.Google Scholar
King, CD. 1990. Evolution of Chumash Society: A Comparative Study of Artifacts Used for Social System Maintenance in the Santa Barbara Channel Region Before AD 1804. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar
Kovanen, DJ, Easterbrook, DJ. 2002. Paleodeviations of radiocarbon marine reservoir values for the northeast Pacific. Geology 30(3):243–246.Google Scholar
McConnaughey, TA, Gillikin, DP. 2008. Carbon isotopes in mollusk shell carbonates. Geo-Marine Letters 28:287–299.Google Scholar
McNeely, R, Dyke, AS, Southon, JR. 2006. Canadian marine reservoir ages, preliminary assessment. Geological Survey of Canada Open File 5049.Google Scholar
Morris, Percy A. 1966. A Field Guide to Pacific Coast Shells. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.Google Scholar
Piner, KR, Hamel, OS, Menkel, JL, Wallace, JR, Hutchinson, CE. 2005. Age validation of canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) from off the Oregon coast (USA) using the bomb radiocarbon method. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 62(5):1060–1066.Google Scholar
Raup, D. M. 1961. The geometry of coiling in gastropods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 47(4):602–609.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PJ, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajda, 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, SR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–1887.Google Scholar
Reimer, RW, Reimer, PJ. 2016. An online application for ΔR calculation. Radiocarbon DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2016.117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rick, TC, Henkes, GA. 2014. Radiocarbon variability in Crassostrea virginica shells from the Chesapeake Bay, USA. Radiocarbon 56(1):305–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rick, TC, Henkes, GA, Lowery, DL, Colman, SM, Culleton, BJ. 2012. Marine radiocarbon reservoir corrections (ΔR) for Chesapeake Bay and the Middle Atlantic coast of North America. Quaternary Research 77(1):205–210.Google Scholar
Robinson, SW, Thompson, G. 1981. Radiocarbon corrections for marine shell dates with application to southern Pacific Northwest Coast prehistory. Syesis 14:45–57.Google Scholar
Smith, GM, Cherkinsky, A, Hadden, CS, Ollivier, AP. 2016. The age and origin of Olivella beads from Oregon’s LSP-1 Rockshelter: the oldest marine shell beads in the northern Great Basin. American . Antiquity 81(3):550–561.Google Scholar
Southon, JR, Nelson, DE, Vogel, JS. 1990. A record of past ocean‐atmosphere radiocarbon differences from the northeast Pacific. Paleoceanography 5(2):197–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Pearson, GW, Braziunas, TF. 1986. Radiocarbon calibration of marine samples back to 9000 cal yr BP. Radiocarbon 28(2B):980–1021.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–363.Google Scholar
Tanaka, N, Monaghan, MC, Rye, DM. 1986. Contribution of metabolic carbon to mollusc and barnacle shell carbonate. Nature 320:520–523.Google Scholar
Taylor, RE, Bar-Yosef, O. 2014. Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. 2nd edition. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.Google Scholar
Trubitt, MBD. 2003. The production and exchange of marine shell prestige goods. Journal of Archaeological Research 11:243–277.Google Scholar
Ulm, S. 2002. Marine and estuarine reservoir effects in Central Queensland, Australia: determination of ΔR values. Geoarchaeology 17(4):319–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vellanoweth, RL. 2001. AMS radiocarbon dating and shell bead chronologies: middle Holocene trade and interaction in western North America. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(9):941–950.Google Scholar
Vellanoweth, RL, Ainis, AF, Erlandson, J, Thomas-Barnett, LD. 2014. An Olivella Grooved Rectangle Bead Cluster from San Nicolas Island, California. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 34(2):229–246.Google Scholar
Walker, GW, MacLeod, NS. 1991. Geologic map of Oregon. U.S. Geological Survey, scale 1:500,000.Google Scholar
Ward, GK, Wilson, SR. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20(1):19–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoneda, M, Shibata, Y, Morita, M, Hirota, M, Suzuki, R, Uzawa, K, Ohshima, N, Dodo, Y. 2004. Interspecies comparison of marine reservoir ages at the Kitakogane Shell Midden, Hokkaido, Japan. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:376–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoneda, M, Uno, H, Shibata, Y, Suzuki, R, Kumamoto, Y, Yoshida, K, Sasaki, T, Suzuki, A, Kawahata, H. 2007. Radiocarbon marine reservoir ages in the western Pacific estimated by pre-bomb molluscan shells. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 259:432–437.Google Scholar