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Canada / NS / BdDk-1 (Bear River) / S-158
- Lab number
- S-158
- Material dated
- charcoal; charbon de bois
- Locality
- Annapolis County, Nova Scotia
- Map sheet
- 21 A/12
- Submitter
- J.S. Erskine
- Date submitted
- July 6, 0097
- Measured Age
- 2125 ± 65
- Normalized Age
- 2125 ± 65
- δ13C (per mil)
- -25.0
- Significance
- Woodland; Sylvicole
- Context
- hearth, upper third of lower level, 38 cm depth
- Comments
- BdDk-1, Bear River: The upper 25 cm of the site contained projectile points of siliceous slate, usually corner-notched. Below that, points were stemmed or side-notched and were usually of quartzite, a type associated in Maine with a late Boreal Archaic horizon, but here with Woodland pottery. Since much Woodland pottery is found below the level of S-158, this culture in Nova Scotia must have begun earlier than 2100 BP. Kristmanson (1992) notes that S-158 corresponds to ceramic period 2 in the Petersen/Sanger classification, and the Bear River assemblage contains pottery assignable to this period. However, she also notes that the exact association between the radiocarbon sample and any particular ceramic material is unknown. S-159 has not been published previously. The date is out of sequence with S-158, and Erskine characterized it as "really disappointing... The material for it was taken from the very bottom of the Bear River East Subsite. Since then I have noticed such layers in the soil below the bottom of sites, obviously the downward eluviation of small particles of carbon from higher in the site. Although this is the lowest level, the carbon may well be an average of the whole site" (J.S. Erskine, letter to K.J. McCallum, 17 June 1962).