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- Lab number
- Beta-140677
- Field number
- CMC-1544
- Material dated
- caribou bone collagen; collagène osseux de caribou
- Taxa dated
- Rangifer tarandus antler (QiLd-1: 527, 7.1 g)
- Locality
- at the southern tip of a peninsula extending from the eastern coast of Bathurst Island, Nunavut
- Map sheet
- 68 H/07
- Submitter
- R. McGhee
- Date submitted
- April 19, 2001
- Measured Age
- 3130 ± 40
- Normalized Age
- 3220 ± 40
- δ13C (per mil)
- -19.5
- Significance
- Neoeskimo, Thule, anomalous, old; Néoesquimau, Thuléen, anormal, vieux
- Context
- House 12, 5.38W0.19, lower dark layer
- Associated taxa
- Mammalia: Rangifer tarandus
- Additional information
- This artifact was re-dated by CAMS-74628 (3340 +/- 40 BP). The dates reflect the age of the antler, not the artifact.
- Comments
- QiLd-1, Brooman Point: In addition to Pre-Dorset, Early Dorset and Late Dorset components, the site contains 20 Thule winter houses and associated features. Ten of these houses were excavated in 1979 and 1980. House 3 yielded caribou antlers that were dated after extensive treatment to remove contaminants, primarily sea mammal oil. The dates originally published (McGhee, 1984: 85) were revised according to corrections by the laboratory, making them about 300 years older (Morrison, 1989: 67, footnote). In February 2000, McGhee submitted two samples of caribou antler from House 12, considered on stylistic grounds to be the earliest structure excavated at this site. The results differ by 2600 years with Beta-140676 producing an age 500 years younger and Beta-140677 being 2000 years older than the House 3 dates. Beta-140677 was a sample of a classic Thule arrowpoint that may have been made on antler that was well enough preserved to be worked as if fresh but was actually several millennia old when used as raw material by a Thule artisan. This conclusion is supported by a replicate date (CAMS-74628). McGhee believes that Beta-140676 is a good estimate for the time of Thule arrival in the region. In contrast to the well grained, gravelly context of House 12, House 3 was a deep, permanently frozen, highly organic matrix, and the dates for House 3 are older than expected.