Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T01:46:44.880Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Variability in Crassostrea virginica Shells from the Chesapeake Bay, USA

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Torben C Rick  and
Gregory A Henkes
Torben C Rick*
Affiliation:
Program in Human Ecology and Archacobiology, Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20013–7012, USA
Gregory A Henkes
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fifteen accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates obtained on small subsections of archaeological and historical Crassostrea virginica (eastern oyster) shells provide a means to test for intrashell variability in 14C content in late Holocene Chesapeake Bay mollusks. Although salinity and temperature vary considerably throughout the year, the Chesapeake Bay generally lacks the strong coastal upwelling present in the eastern Pacific where intrashell 14C variability is significant. Intrashell variability in Chesapeake Bay C. virginica is between ∼60–100 14C yr, considerably smaller than the 120–530 14C yr ranges noted for shells from strong upwelling zones. As a precaution, we follow Culleton et al. (2006) and argue that large subsamples of shells across multiple growth increments are ideal for AMS 14C dating of mollusks to offset potential issues of intrashell 14C variability.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , 2014 , pp. 305 - 311
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 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.)

References

Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buroker, NE. 1983. Population genetics of the American oyster, Crassostrea virginica along the Atlantic coast and Gulf of Mexico. Marine Biology 75(1):99–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colman, SM, Baucom, PC, Bratton, JF, Cronin, TM, McGeehin, JP, Willard, D, Zimmerman, AR, Vogt, PR. 2002. Radiocarbon dating, chronologic framework, and changes in accumulation rates of Holocene estuarine sediments from Chesapeake Bay. Quaternary Research 57(1):58–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culleton, BJ. 2006. Implications of a freshwater radiocarbon reservoir correction for the timing of late Holocene settlement of the Elk Hills, Kern County, California. Journal of Archaeological Science 33(9):1331–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Culleton, BJ, Kennett, DJ, Ingram, BL, Erlandson, JM, Southon, J. 2006. Intra-shell radiocarbon variability in marine mollusks. Radiocarbon 48(3):387–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibb, JG, Hines, AH. 1997. Selby Bay subsistence strategies at the Smithsonian Pier Site, Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Maryland Archeology 33:59–76.Google Scholar
Jones, KB, Hodgins, GWL, Dettman, DL, Andrus, CFT, Nelson, A, Etayo-Cadavid, MF. 2007. Seasonal variations in Peruvian marine reservoir age from prebomb Argopecten purpuratus shell carbonate. Radiocarbon 49(2):877–88.CrossRefGoogle 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(3):1207–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Culleton, BJ. 2012. A Bayesian chronological framework for determining site seasonality and contemporaneity. In: Reitz, EJ, Quitmyer, IR, Thomas, DH, editors. Seasonality and Human Mobility along the Georgia Bight. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 97. p 37–49.Google Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Ingram, BL, Erlandson, JM, Walker, PL. 1997. Evidence for temporal fluctuations in marine radiocarbon reservoir ages in the Santa Barbara Channel, southern California. Journal of Archaeological Science 24(11):1051–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennett, DJ, Ingram, BL, Southon, J, Wise, K. 2002. Differences in 14C age between stratigraphically associated charcoal and marine shell from the Archaic period site of Kilometer 4, southern Peru: old wood or old water? Radiocarbon 44(1):53–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petchey, F, Anderson, A, Zondervan, A, Ulm, S, Hogg, A. 2008. New marine ΔR values for the South Pacific subtropical gyre region. Radiocarbon 50(3):373–97.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Hajdas, I, Heaton, TJ, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Southon, JR, Talamo, S, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rick, TC, Lowery, DL, Henkes, GA, Wah, JS. 2011. A late Holocene radiocarbon chronology for the shell middens of Fishing Bay, Maryland. Archaeology of Eastern North America 39:153–67.Google Scholar
Rick, TC, Henkes, GA, Lowery, DL, Colman, SM, Culleton, BJ. 2012. Marine radiocarbon reservoir corrections (ΔR) for Chesapeake Bay and Middle Atlantic coastal North America. Quaternary Research 77(1):205–10.CrossRefGoogle 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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, DH. 2008. Chapter 13. Radiocarbon Dating on St. Catherine's Island. In: Thomas, DH. Native American Landscapes of St. Catherines Island, Georgia II. The Data. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 88. p 345–71.Google Scholar
Thomas, DH, Sanger, MC, Hayes, RH. 2013. Revising the 14C reservoir correction for St. Catherines Island, Georgia. In: Thompson, VL, Thomas, DH, editors. Life among the Tides: Recent Archaeology on the Georgia Bight. New York: Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 98. 25–46.Google Scholar
Ward, GK, Wilson, SR. 1978. Procedures for comparing and combining radiocarbon age determinations: a critique. Archaeometry 20(1):19–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waselkov, GA. 1982. Shellfish gathering and shell midden archaeology [unpublished PhD dissertation]. Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.Google Scholar