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- Lab number
- RIDDL-228
- Material dated
- plant remains; restes de plantes
- Taxa dated
- Picea sp. needle
- Locality
- overlooking the upper-middle course of Bluefish River, 600 m asl, 54 km southwest of Old Crow, Porcupine drainage, northern Yukon Territory
- Map sheet
- 116 N/02
- Submitter
- J. Cinq-Mars
- Date submitted
- April 28, 0097
- Measured Age
- 0
- Normalized Age
- 0
- δ13C (per mil)
- -25.0
- Significance
- geoarchaeology, anomalous, young; géoarchéologie, anormal, jeune
- Context
- sample of lower loess
- Comments
- MgVo-1, Bluefish Cave 1: Comment on GSC-2844: Because of its apparent association with slightly charred bone fragments, thermally altered limestone-dolomite clasts, and a chert artifact, the charcoal lens initially was seen in the field as a possible hearth feature. Further field word indicates that the charcoal concentration may be part of a cryoturbated, burnt root system, itself part of an extensive local or even regional forest fire horizon. The date can be seen as providing an age for the latter without forcing us to reject our estimate of ca. 10000 years for a portion of Unit III. Comment on Chalk River sample (CRNL-1220): The Chalk River AMS laboratory conducted five analyses on this sample: 1. 13070 +/- 400; 2. 5920 +/- 330; 3. 12190 +/- 500; 4. 13280 +/- 390; and 5. 5120 +/- 305. Runs 2 and 5 were considered obviously erroneous, the results of excessive hydrolysis of the sample protein during processing leaving a small stable organic residue of young age. This has been achieved intentially in the case of the fifth analysis which was run parallel to the fourth analysis. This young contaminant will have been present in the other preparations but diluted by the true bone protein. The age of CRNL-1220 should be adjusted from 13000 years to 15000 years to allow for the contribution of this contaminant to the measured age (G.C. Ball, p.c. June 1982). Comment on GSC-2881: Preliminary palynological analysis indicates that most of the observed depositional sequence is Late Pleistocene, post-Late Wisconsin maximum in age; this is confirmed by paleontological and sedimentological data. Pollen from the lower unit (VII) suggests that this horizon may be representative of a herb-rich zone immediately preceding a Betula rise which is thought to have occurred around 14000 years BP. This determination confirms our estimate of Late Pleistocene age, provides us with the youngest date on horse obtained so far from eastern Beringia, and can be taken to suggest that the demise of the herb-rich tundra may have occurred later in some of the upland environments. It further serves to date more precisely an increasingly complex faunal accumulation that incorporates a wide range of species, including a proboscidean, and that appears to be, in part, culturally induced.