CARD

Lab number: GSC-405
Field number: CMC- 51, No. 1
Material dated: charred wood; bois carbonisé

Locality: west bank of Fraser River, about 400 m upriver from the confluence of Fraser River and Nesikep Creek, British Columbia
Map sheet: 92 I/12

Date uploaded: February 14, 2020

Measured Age: 3280 ± 125
Normalized Age: 310 ± 130
δ¹³C (per mil): -25.0

Significance: Kamloops
Context: log in dark brown fine sand, zone II, test pit E, lip of housepit, 92 cm depth

Comments: EdRk-5, Cow Springs: This is a single housepit site with two distinct components separated by sterile gravel and sand. Probably one of the more recent sites in the Lochnore-Nesikep Creek sequence, although the assemblage lacks some items normally associated with historic-age sites. Sealed-in zone II deposits exhibited remarkable preservation, including one-piece birchbark basket virtually identical in design to those illustrated for the ethnographic Thompson Indians (Wilmeth 1978: 59). Four results (GSC-405, GX-406, GX-406-2, GSC-521) were obtained from a single charred log which was split in half and sent to the two laboratories. Advised of the discrepancy between GSC-405 (310 +/- 130) and GX-406 (825 +/- 85), Geochron Laboratories reran an unused portion of the sample (GX-406) and received a comparable figure on the second assay (GX-406-2: 775 +/- 95). Geochron also sent a residual of their acid-treated sample to the GSC lab, where the result (GSC-521: 190 +/- 200) is similar to GSC-405. The Cow Springs site deposits could be earlier than 300 years, and the two dates of 775 and 825 years ago are probably more nearly correct, although the dating of 500-year-old samples by the C14 method can lead to erroneous results (Sanger 1970: 103). Apparently faunal remains were well preserved (see Sanger 1970: 17) but have not been analyzed and reported. A summary of the dates appeared in Radiocarbon 11: 33, 1969: Sample No. Lab. No. Treatment Age (yrs BP) ------------------------------------------------------------- EdRk-5-153-1 GSC-405 Standard 310 ± 130 EdRk5-1b- GX-0406 Acid leach only 825 ± 85 Zone 11 GX-0406 Acid leach only 775 ± 95 GSC-521 Acid leach only 190 ± 200 small sample

Canada / BC / EdRk-5 (Cow Springs) / GSC-405

References