Gordon Cook
Biographic Data
| ID | 145669 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gordon Cook |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gordon |
| FAMILY NAME | Cook |
| SIGNATURE | COOK G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7206-6266 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 106 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 861 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 106 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1969 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
The terrain around Stirling at the battle of Bannockburn 1314: Combined scientific and documentary approaches to reconstruction. I. The ‘low road’
Bannockburn is of immense importance in the Medieval histories of England and Scotland. Where the battle took place is still unknown, as is the terrain, what the place looked like. The two parts of this paper examine these problems by generating new data on environmental and land use reconstruction. The physical appearance of the landscape was reconstructed from radiocarbon (14C) dating of landforms and palaeo-environmental analyses of sediment s…
The terrain around Stirling at the Battle of Bannockburn 1314: Combined scientific and documentary approaches to reconstruction. II. The ‘High Road’
In this second part, we analyse from new radiocarbon (14C) dating of landforms, palaeo-environmental analyses of sediment stratigraphies and documentary evidence for land use, the ‘high road’ to Stirling, across high ground west of the coastal plain, in the early 14th century. We identify a number of significant mis-perceptions of the landscape in the literature, and again stress the need for linked multi-proxy data sources. We re-think the obsta…
Liquid Scintillation Counting (Lsc)—past, Present, and Future
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating by liquid scintillation (LS) spectroscopy (also known as LS counting or LSC) provides an alternate method of 14 C analysis where accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis is less desirable. The past, present, and future applications of the method are discussed
A Neolithic population model based on new radiocarbon dates from mining, funerary and population scaled activity in the Saint-Gond Marshes region of North East France
The recent contribution of scientific techniques to the study of Nokalakevi in Samegrelo, Georgia
The site of Nokalakevi, in western Georgia, has seen significant excavation since 1973, including, since 2001, a collaborative Anglo-Georgian project. However, the interpretation of the site has largely rested on architectural analysis of standing remains and the relative dating of deposits based on the study of ceramics. Since 2013, the Anglo-Georgian Expedition to Nokalakevi has collected a diverse dataset derived from multiple scientific techn…
Torwood Broch: The reassessment of a Complex Atlantic Roundhouse near Falkirk
This paper presents the first modern account of Torwood’s artefact assemblage and the most accurate survey of the site to date. These are combined with the results of a small-scale excavation on a newly discovered outer rampart and the publication for the first time of a reused concentric ring-marked stone and a carved face. In turn, these are combined with the results of a broader reassessment of the late prehistoric settlement in the Forth Vall…
New Radiocarbon Dates Show Early Neolithic Date of Flint-Mining and Stone Quarrying in Britain
New radiocarbon ( 14 C) dates suggest a simultaneous appearance of two technologically and geographically distinct axe production practices in Neolithic Britain; igneous open-air quarries in Great Langdale, Cumbria, and from flint mines in southern England at ~4000–3700 cal BC. In light of the recent evidence that farming was introduced at this time by large-scale immigration from northwest Europe, and that expansion within Britain was extremely …
Using Carbon Isotopes to Fight the Rise in Fraudulent Whisky
A major threat to the Scotch whisky industry is the sale of counterfeit single malt whiskies with purported distillation years in the 19th and early- to mid-20th centuries. However, these are often much more recent spirits, distilled in the latter part of the 20th or first part of the 21st centuries. These sales impinge upon the reputation of auction houses, retailers, brand owners and distillers. The atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons in the…
A new look at the Late Prehistoric settlement patterns of the Forth Valley
Celtic cowboys’ reborn: Application of multi-isotopic analysis (δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S) to examine mobility and movement of animals within an Iron Age British society
Life After Siri—Where Next
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating is routinely used, yet occasionally, issues still arise surrounding laboratory offsets, and unexpected and unexplained variability. Quality assurance and quality control have long been recognized as important in addressing the two issues of comparability (or bias, accuracy) and uncertainty or variability (or precision) of measurements both within and between laboratories (Long and Kalin 1990). The 14 C community and the…
Humics—Their History in the Radiocarbon Intercomparison Studies
Over the past 30 years, the format of the radiocarbon ( 14 C) intercomparison studies has changed, however, the selection of sample types used in these studies has remained constant—namely, natural and routinely dated materials that could subsequently be used as in-house reference materials. One such material is peat which has been used 12 times, starting with the ICS in 1988. Peat from Iceland (TIRI), Ellanmore (TIRI), Letham Moss (ICS, VIRI, an…
Supply and demand in prehistory? Economics of Neolithic mining in northwest Europe
The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe
When and Why? The Chronology and Context of Flint Mining at Grime’s Graves, Norfolk, England
New radiocarbon dating and chronological modelling have refined understanding of the character and circumstances of flint mining at Grime’s Graves through time. The deepest, most complex galleried shafts were worked probably from the third quarter of the 27th century cal bc and are amongst the earliest on the site. Their use ended in the decades around 2400 cal bc , although the use of simple, shallow pits in the west of the site continued for pe…
Refining the Hallstatt Plateau: Short-Term 14 C Variability and Small Scale Offsets in 50 Consecutive Single Tree-Rings from Southwest Scotland Dendro-Dated to 510–460 BC
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) wiggle-match dating is a technique with a substantial potential to improve the precision of dating timbers in situations where dendrochronology is not tenable. However, one of the key reasons why obtaining a dendrochronological determination might be difficult is the short-lived nature of timbers on a range of archaeological sites, something that also affects the efficiency of the wiggle-match dating technique. Combined with t…
Estimating Marine Reservoir Effects in Archaeological Chronologies: Comparing Δr Calculations in Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia, Canada
The best method for quantifying the marine reservoir effect (MRE) using the global IntCal Marine13 calibration curve remains unresolved. Archaeologists frequently quantify uncertainty on MRE values as errors computed from single pairs of marine-terrestrial radiocarbon ages, which we argue significantly overstates their accuracy and precision. Here, we review the assumptions, methods, and applications of estimating MRE via an estimate of the addit…
Radiocarbon Wiggle-Match Dating in the Intertidal Zone
Radiocarbon wiggle-match dating is a technique that can combine the versatility of radiocarbon dating with chronological information from tree-rings. This makes it useful in contexts where timbers are preserved, but dendrochronological dating is impossible. As intertidal and marine timbers are waterlogged, this can favor their preservation and hence allow wiggle-match 14C dating, which can be of significant help in deriving relatively precise chr…
Making and Breaking Microliths: A Middle Mesolithic Site at Asfordby, Leicestershire
Archaeological fieldwork preceding housing development revealed a Mesolithic site in a primary context. A central hearth was evident from a cluster of calcined flint and bone, the latter producing a modelled date for the start of occupation at 8220–7840 cal bc and ending at 7960–7530 cal bc (95% probability). The principal activity was the knapping of bladelets, the blanks for microlith production. Impact-damaged microliths indicated the re-tooli…
Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects for the Mesolithic and Medieval Periods in the Western Isles of Scotland
This article presents new values for the Scottish marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) during the Mesolithic at 4540–4240 BC (6490–6190 BP) and the Medieval period at AD 1460–1630 (490–320 BP). The results give a ΔR of –126±39 14 C yr for the Mesolithic and of –130±36 14 C yr for the Medieval. We recalculate previously published MRE values for the earlier Holocene in this region, at 6480–6290 BC (8430–8180 BP). Here, MRE values are slightly …
In Memory of Eddie Peltenburg
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Using Stable Isotopes and a Bayesian Mixing Model (FRUITS) to Investigate Diet at the Early Neolithic Site of Carding Mill Bay, Scotland
We present δ 13 C, δ 15 N, and δ 34 S measurements on archaeological human and animal bone collagen samples from a shell midden dating to the Neolithic ca. 4000–3500 cal BC, together with measurements on modern fish and shellfish. These data were used in conjunction with the Bayesian mixing model, Food Reconstruction Using Isotopic Transferred Signals (FRUITS), to reconstruct human diet at the site. We demonstrate the importance of using a geogra…
Land use and mobility during the Neolithic in Wales explored using isotope analysis of tooth enamel
Objectives The nature of land use and mobility during the transition to agriculture has often been debated. Here, we use isotope analysis of tooth enamel from human populations buried in two different Neolithic burial monuments, Penywyrlod and Ty Isaf, in south‐east Wales, to examine patterns of land use and to evaluate where individuals obtained their childhood diet. Materials and Methods We employ strontium ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) and oxygen (δ 18 O) a…
Exploring Site Formation and Building Local Contexts through Wiggle-Match Radiocarbon Dating: Re-Dating of the Firth of Clyde Crannogs, Scotland
There are at least four wooden intertidal platforms, also known as marine crannogs, in the Firth of Clyde, on the west coast of Scotland. The interpretation of these sites partly depends on their dating and, if coeval, they could point to the presence of a native maritime hub. Furthermore, the spatial coincidence with the terminus of the Antonine Wall has led to speculation about the role they may have played in Roman-native interaction during th…
A Second Timber Circle, Trackways, and Coppicing at Holme-next-the-Sea Beach, Norfolk: Use of Salt- and Freshwater Marshes in the Bronze Age
Since 1998 archaeological investigations on Holme-next-the-Sea beach have recorded the waterlogged remains of two Bronze Age timber circles, timber structures, coppiced trees, metal objects, and salt- and freshwater marshes. The second timber circle (Holme II) is only the third waterlogged structure of its type to be discovered in Britain and only the second to be dated by dendrochronology. The felling of timbers used in Holme II has been dated t…
Landscapes of Settlement in Northern Iceland: Historical Ecology of Human Impact and Climate Fluctuation on the Millennial Scale
Early settlement in the North Atlantic produced complex interactions of culture and nature. The sustained program of interdisciplinary collaboration is intended to focus on ninth- to 13th-century sites and landscapes in the highland interior lake basin of Mývatn in Iceland and to contribute a long-term perspective to larger issues of sustainable resource use, soil erosion, and the historical ecology of global change
The Fifth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (Viri): An Assessment of Laboratory Performance in Stage 3
Proficiency testing is a widely used, international procedure common within the analytical chemistry community. A proficiency trial (which VIRI is) often follows a standard protocol, including analysis that is typically based on z -scores, with one key quantity, σ p . From a laboratory intercomparison (sometimes called a proficiency trial), we hope to gain an assessment of accuracy (in this case, from dendro-dated samples), laboratory precision (…
Isotopes and individuals: Diet and mobility among the medieval Bishops of Whithorn
Stable isotopes get personal in this analysis of burials at a medieval cathedral. Compared with the local meat-eating rank and file, those people identified as bishops consumed significantly more fish and were incomers from the east. These results, while not so surprising historically, lend much increased confidence that isotope analysis can successfully read the status and mobility of individuals in a cemetery
A Cremated Bone Intercomparison Study
It is now almost 10 yr since radiocarbon dating of cremated bone was first developed using the small carbonate component contained within the hydroxyapatite-based inorganic fraction. Currently, a significant number of 14 C laboratories date cremated bone as part of their routine dating service. As a general investigation of cremated bone dating since this initial development, a small, cremated bone intercomparison study took place in 2005, involv…
Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates
It is widely recognized that when marine resources form a significant proportion of the human diet, this results in radiocarbon ages for human remains that are significantly older than the contemporary atmosphere. While there has been widespread assessment of marine14C reservoir ages, there has been little study of the freshwater equivalent. However, recent analyses of human bone from archaeological sites in the Danube Valley have confirmed the e…
The potential significance of dietary offsets for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates: An archaeologically significant example from medieval Norwich
Influence of Mollusk Species on Marine ΔR Determinations
Radiocarbon ages were measured on replicate samples of burnt grain and 5 mollusk species collected from a single sealed layer at an archaeological site (Hornish Point) on the west coast of South Uist, Scotland. The aim was to examine the impact of using different mollusk species on ΔR determinations that are calculated using the paired terrestrial/marine sample approach. The mollusk species examined inhabit a range of environments and utilize a v…
Historical Ecology on Sandoy, Faroe Islands: Palaeoenvironmental and Archaeological Perspectives
We present palaeoenvironmental, geomorphological, archaeological, and place-name data which allow a holistic assessment of the history of landscape change on Sandoy, Faroe Islands, especially in terms of the changes that occurred in response to the colonization of the island by humans. In contrast to other situations in the North Atlantic region, there is considerable continuity in the patterns and processes of landscape evolution across the init…
Strategic and sporadic marine consumption at the onset of the Neolithic: Increasing Temporal Resolution in the Isotope Evidence
Stable isotope analysis has provided crucial new insights into dietary change at the Neolithic transition in north-west Europe, indicating an unexpectedly sudden and radical shift from marine to terrestrial resources in coastal and island locations. Investigations of early Neolithic skeletal material from Sumburgh on Shetland, at the far-flung margins of the Neolithic world, suggest that this general pattern may mask significant subtle detail. An…
Radiocarbon reservoir effects in human bone collagen from northern Iceland
A Report on Phase 1 of the 5th International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (Viri)
The Fifth International Radiocarbon Intercomparison (VIRI) continues the tradition of the TIRI (third) and FIRI (fourth) intercomparisons (Scott 2003) and operates as an independent check on laboratory procedures in addition to any within-laboratory procedures for quality assurance. VIRI is a 4-yr project, with the first suite of samples (grain) sent out in September 2004 and the second suite (bone) sent out in December 2005. Further stages will …
Reservoirs and Radiocarbon: 14 C Dating Problems in Mývatnssveit, Northern Iceland
This paper examines 2 potential sources of the radiocarbon offset between human and terrestrial mammal (horse) bones recovered from Norse (∼AD 870–1000) pagan graves in Mývatnssveit, north Iceland. These are the marine and freshwater 14 C reservoir effects that may be incorporated into human bones from dietary sources. The size of the marine 14 C reservoir effect (MRE) during the Norse period was investigated by measurement of multiple paired sam…
A Hypothesis-Based Approach to Landscape Change in Suðuroy, Faroe Islands
Hovsdalur, an area delimited by the great cirques of upland central Su uroy, draining into the valley of the Hovs ́a and terminating in the east at the coastal amphitheatre of Hovsfjørdur, is a microcosm of the Faroes. The area contains the physical and economic features which characterize the greater part of the island group-mountain, valley, and coast, and marine, cultivation, and grazing environments. Data comprising mainly geomorphological,pa…
Evidence for mummification in Bronze Age Britain
Ancient Egyptians are thought to have been the only people in the Old World who were practising mummification in the Bronze Age (c. 2200-700 BC). But now a remarkable series of finds from a remote Scottish island indicates that Ancient Britons were performing similar, if less elaborate, practices of bodily preservation. Evidence of mummification is usually limited to a narrow range of arid or frozen environments which are conducive to soft tissue…
Holocene Variations in the Scottish Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect
We assessed the evidence for variations in the marine radiocarbon reservoir effect (MRE) at coastal, archaeological Iron Age sites in north and west Scotland by comparing AMS measurements of paired marine and terrestrial materials (4 pairs per context). ΔR values were calculated from measurements on material from 3 sites using 6 sets of samples, all of which were deposited around 2000 BP. The weighted mean of the ΔR determinations was −79 ± 17 14…
A Chronology of the Scythian Antiquities of Eurasia Based on New Archaeological and 14 C Data
The paper is compares the chronology of the monuments of the Scythian epoch located in the east and west of the Eurasian steppe zone on the basis of both archaeological and radiocarbon data. The lists of 14 C dates for the monuments located in different parts of Eurasia are presented according to the periods of their existence. Generally, the 14 C dates are confirmed the archaeological point of view and allow us to compare the chronological posit…
An Icelandic freshwater radiocarbon reservoir effect: Implications for lacustrine 14 C chronologies
A freshwater radiocarbon ( 14 C) reservoir effect (FRE) is a 14 C age offset between the atmospheric and freshwater carbon reservoirs. FREs can be on the order of 10 000 14 C yr in extreme examples and are a crucial consideration for 14 C dating of palaeoenvironmental and archaeological samples. Correction for a FRE may be possible, provided the FRE and the proportion of FRE-affected carbon within a sample can be accurately quantified. However, a…
Direct dating of Neolithic pottery: Progress and Prospects
Pottery sherds can be dated by four methods: (i) stylistic features; (ii) luminescence analysis of minerals within the sherd; (iii) 14C assay of carbon on or within the sherd; and (iv) archaeomagnetic intensity of the sherd. Each method has its own sources of uncertainty. The results obtained by the various methods are reviewed, and the conclusion reached that a combination of at least two of the methods, where possible, is recommended in order t…
Variability in North Atlantic marine radiocarbon reservoir effects at c. AD 1000
14 C age measurements made on samples from three archaeological sites located on North Atlantic coasts were used to investigate the marine reservoir effect (MRE) at c.AD 1000. This is an important period within human cultural and palaeoenvironmental research as it is a time when Norse expansion to the North Atlantic islands occurred, during what appears to be a period of ameliorating climatic conditions. This makes improved chronological precisio…
Puffins, Pigs, Cod and Barley: Palaeoeconomy at Undir Junkarinsfløtti, Sandoy, Faroe Islands
This paper reports on the zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical remains from the initial season of excavations at the Norse period site at Undir Junkarinsfløtti in the Faroe islands. These remains represent the first zooarchaeological analysis undertaken for the Faroes and only the third archaeobotanical assemblage published from the islands. The excavated deposits are described and the key findings from the palaeoenvironmental remains highlight…
Species specific marine radiocarbon reservoir effect: A comparison of ΔR values between Patella vulgata (limpet) shell carbonate and Gadus morhua (Atlantic cod) bone collagen
Icelandic volcanic ash and the mid- Holocene Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) pollen decline in northern Scotland
A volcanic ash-layer in peat from northern Scotland has been identified and coincides exactly with an abrupt decline in Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) pollen frequencies. This provides an isochrone (time-equivalent marker horizon) with which to investigate the timing of the Holocene 'pine-decline'. Furthermore, two possible causes of the southward shift of the range of Pinus in Scotland c. 4000 BP are suggested; a direct effect of acid pollutio…
A Preliminary Assessment of Age at Death Determination Using the Nuclear Weapons Testing 14 C Activity of Dentine and Enamel
Calibration (using CALIBomb) of radiocarbon measurements made on the enamel of human teeth from people born during the nuclear era typically produce 2 possible age ranges that potentially reflect the period of tooth formation. These ranges correspond to periods before and after the 1963 atmospheric 14 C maximum. Further measurements made on the collagen component of the combined dentine and cementum from the roots of the same teeth enable the app…
Error and Uncertainty in Radiocarbon Measurements
All measurement is subject to error, which creates uncertainty. Every time that an analytical radiocarbon measurement is repeated under identical conditions on an identical sample (even if this were possible), a different result is obtained. However, laboratories typically make only 1 measurement on a sample, but they are still able to provide an estimate of the analytical uncertainty that reflects the range of values (or the spread) in results t…
Excavations in the ceremonial complex of the fourth to 2nd millennium BC at Balfarg/Balbirnie, Glenrothes, Fife
The portions of the Balfarg/Balbirnie ceremonial complex excavated between 1983 and 1985 are described and related to the portions dug previously: Balbirnie stone circle (76/3594) and Balfarg henge (83/10516).The prehistoric ceremonial use of the area seems to have lasted from early in the third millennium until late in the second millennium BC (in terms of uncalibrated radiocarbon dates). The sequence began with pit-digging and pottery depositio…
Lactase Deficiency: A Probable Ethnological Marker in East Africa
Some writers of east African anthropology have been concerned with the problem of whether the Hima of Ankole and the Tutsi of Rwanda and Burundi, and the Iru and Hutu of the same kingdoms have different ethnic origins. It is widely held that the Hima and the Tutsi have a Hamitic ancestry (Thomas & Scott I949; Ingrams I960) whereas the Iru and Hutu are of a Bantu origin. Hiernaux (I966) has speculated that on the basis of morphology and climate, t…
First Roots of Disillusionment: Petr Iakovlevich Chaadaev, 1820-23
Did Persistence of Intestinal Lactase Into Adult Life Originate on the Arabian Peninsula
Persistence of the intestinal enzyme lactase at high concentration into adult life (PL) occurs in some sections of the world's human population. For the mammalian kingdom that is an abnormal situation; although high at birth, lactase is usually present at a very low concentration in adult life. The three major groups affected are (i) inhabitants of the Arabian peninsula, (ii) African Hamites, and (iii) most northern Europeans and their descendant…
Intestinal lactase status of adults in Papua New Guinea
Fifty hospital patients in Port Moresby (mean age 30 yr) without evidence of malnutrition or gastro-intestinal disease, who came from many parts of Papua New Guinea (P.N.G.), were given 50 g lactose orally after an overnight fast. In 49 blood glucose rise was less than 1.1 mmol 1(-1), indicating hypolactasia. Thirty-three gave a clear history of symptoms, usually diarrhoea, after lactose. Adult hypolactasia approaches 100% in P.N.G. There is no i…
Participants
From the International Workshop on Intercomparison of Radiocarbon Laboratories
Radiocarbon: Present and Future Perspectives on Quality Assurance
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Icelandic volcanic ash and the mid- Holocene Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) pollen decline in northern Scotland
A volcanic ash-layer in peat from northern Scotland has been identified and coincides exactly with an abrupt decline in Pinus sylvestris L. (Scots pine) pollen frequencies. This provides an isochrone (time-equivalent marker horizon) with which to investigate the timing of the Holocene 'pine-decline'. Furthermore, two possible causes of the southward shift of the range of Pinus in Scotland c. 4000 BP are suggested; a direct effect of acid pollutio…
Participants
From the 14th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Tucson, AZ, May 20-24, 1991
NSFnet Privatization: Policy Making in a Public Interest Vacuum
Offers advice to the Clinton‐Gore administration on how best to improve the confusion surrounding the development of the Internet. Chronicles major events in the development of NSFnet 1989‐1992. Gives political background and offers comments. Claims privatization was unplanned and flawed. Voices suspicion about the motives of large corporations, claiming that the best interests of “all Americans” are served by governmental supervision of the Inte…
Excavations in the ceremonial complex of the fourth to 2nd millennium BC at Balfarg/Balbirnie, Glenrothes, Fife
The portions of the Balfarg/Balbirnie ceremonial complex excavated between 1983 and 1985 are described and related to the portions dug previously: Balbirnie stone circle (76/3594) and Balfarg henge (83/10516).The prehistoric ceremonial use of the area seems to have lasted from early in the third millennium until late in the second millennium BC (in terms of uncalibrated radiocarbon dates). The sequence began with pit-digging and pottery depositio…
Friends of Radiocarbon
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Conference Participants
This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries
Mary Darwin's illness
A recent paper in Notes and Records has provided many new details about Mary Darwin (née Howard), the first wife of Dr Erasmus Darwin, F. R. S. (1731-1802). Mary suffered chronic illness for several years before her death in 1770 at the age of 30. Her illness and its cause have provoked a good deal of conjecture, as a result of a possible connection with the ill-health of her grandson Charles Darwin. With this new evidence about her life, an accu…
Holocene comment and reply: Hekla-4 ash, the pine decline in Northern Ireland and the effective use of tephra isochrones: a comment on Hall, Pilcher and McCormac
In response to a paper by Blackford et al. (1992) which showed a coincidence between the deposition of Hekla-4 tephra and a decline of Pinus pollen in two northern Scottish sites, Hall et al. (1994) investigated the tephra/pine pollen relationship at two sites in Northern Ireland. We argue that their sites are inappropriate for such comparison because pine was effectively absent from Co. Antrim long before the deposition of Hekla-4. The opportuni…
Excavations at the long cist cemetery on the Hallow Hill, St Andrews, Fife, 1975-7
Excavations west of St Andrews were undertaken from 1975 to 1977, following the discovery of long cists in the garden of a new house on the Hallow Hill.Long cists had been discovered there in 1861, when 20 were opened.The recent excavations revealed a complex of long cists and other graves of an unenclosed burial ground of Early Christian date.Part of the cemetery was loosely organized, while elsewhere the cists were arranged in well-ordered rows…
Conference Participants
From the 16th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Gronigen, Netherlands, June 16-20, 1997
Tephrochronology, Environmental Change and the Norse Settlement of Iceland
The first human impacts on the Icelandic environment came with the Norse colonisation or Landnám of the ninth century AD. The colonisation represents a fundamental environmental change that is both rapid and profound. In this paper we assess geomorphological dimensions of the initial settlement period using a tephrochronology that includes the Landnám Tephra, erupted ca. 870 AD, two tenth century AD tephras KR 920 and E 935, and 11 other well dat…
Cultural sediment analyses and transitions in early fishing activity at Langenesv ret, Vester len, Northern Norway
The development of specialized and commercial fishing activity in the island archipelago of Lofoten and Vesterålen in northern Norway is a critical foundation from which to understand the subsequent spread of commercial fishing across the north Atlantic region during the medieval and early modern period. One little understood aspect of this development is the relationship between medieval commercial fishing stations (fiskevaer) and earlier fishin…
A Late Bronze Age Human Skull and Associated Worked Wood from a Lancashire Wetland
A recurring theme of the Late Bronze Age is the apparent association between deliberate deposition of material and wet places. Recently, a human skull has been discovered within the basal sediments of a relict mire at Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire, dating to the later Bronze Age (c. 1250–840 cal BC). The find, which belonged to a c. 25–35 year old male, was located within a layer of silty wood peat elm deep, representing the ancient root system of…
Transport of Sellafield-Derived 14 C from the Irish Sea through the North Channel
Since the early 1950s, the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in Northwest England has released radiocarbon into the Irish Sea in a mainly inorganic form as part of its authorized liquid effluent discharge. In contrast to the trend in which the activities of most radionuclides in the Sellafield liquid effluent have decreased substantially, 14 C discharges have increased since 1994–95. This has largely been due to a policy change favoring …
Radiocarbon Age Profiles and Size Dependency of Mixing in Northeast Atlantic Sediments
In recent years, the most common technique for radiocarbon dating of deep-ocean sediments has been accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) analysis of hand-picked planktonic foraminifera (forams). Some studies have exposed age offsets between different sediment size fractions from the same depth within a core and this has important implications when establishing a chronological framework for palaeoceanographic records associated with a particular sed…
A Chronology of the Scythian Antiquities of Eurasia Based on New Archaeological and 14 C Data
The paper is compares the chronology of the monuments of the Scythian epoch located in the east and west of the Eurasian steppe zone on the basis of both archaeological and radiocarbon data. The lists of 14 C dates for the monuments located in different parts of Eurasia are presented according to the periods of their existence. Generally, the 14 C dates are confirmed the archaeological point of view and allow us to compare the chronological posit…
Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates
It is widely recognized that when marine resources form a significant proportion of the human diet, this results in radiocarbon ages for human remains that are significantly older than the contemporary atmosphere. While there has been widespread assessment of marine14C reservoir ages, there has been little study of the freshwater equivalent. However, recent analyses of human bone from archaeological sites in the Danube Valley have confirmed the e…
Direct dating of Neolithic pottery: Progress and Prospects
Pottery sherds can be dated by four methods: (i) stylistic features; (ii) luminescence analysis of minerals within the sherd; (iii) 14C assay of carbon on or within the sherd; and (iv) archaeomagnetic intensity of the sherd. Each method has its own sources of uncertainty. The results obtained by the various methods are reviewed, and the conclusion reached that a combination of at least two of the methods, where possible, is recommended in order t…
The potential significance of dietary offsets for the interpretation of radiocarbon dates: An archaeologically significant example from medieval Norwich
Archaeology and ancient environmental studies (85 works) · Archaeology (74 works) · Geography (69 works) · Radiocarbon dating (65 works) · Geology (62 works) · History (33 works) · Paleontology (33 works) · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research (28 works) · Biology (27 works) · Isotope Analysis in Ecology (27 works)