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Lab number
RL-560
Material dated
bison bone collagen; collagène osseux de bison
Taxa dated
Bison sp.
Locality
north edge of Chin Coulee, 50 km south-southeast of Taber, Alberta
Map sheet
72 E/12
Submitter
J.M. Quigg
Date submitted
January 5, 0098
Measured Age
5960 ± 170
Normalized Age
6040 ± 170
δ13C (per mil)
-20.0
Significance
Palaeoindian, Cody, anomalous, young; Paléoindien, anormal, jeune
Stratigraphic component
Test 5, Level 11
Context
test 5, level 11, mottled dark grey and rust coloured sand, 165-170 cm depth, split of sample dated by S-1083
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Bison sp, Odocoileus sp
Additional information
It is assumed that this date was not corrected previously for isotopic fractionation.
Comments
DjOw-1, Fletcher: This Cody complex bison kill site was discovered 1963 by Armin Dyck after Mr. Fletcher had dug a borrow pit in which to water his cattle. Possibly due to the influence of cattle urine and excrement, the site has been extraordinally difficult to date by radiocarbon. The bones submitted for dating were somewhat permineralized, with manganese enrichment subsequently being demonstrated by neutron activation analysis (Wilson, et al. 1991: 130). Furthermore, the method of collagen extraction in use at the time employed the insoluble concentrate for radiocarbon dating, and this method was subsequently abandoned when it was realized that potential contaminants might remain in the samples at variable concentrations. The Fletcher site was restudied in 1987 and 1988, during which a sample of sedge seeds was isolated from silty clay that underlies the bone bed. An accelerator mass spectrometry date on the seeds appears to provide an acceptable limiting date on the age of the bison kill.

References