Minimally Destructive Radiocarbon Dating of Caprine Dung

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9242467
AutoresDaniel Fuks (0000-0003-4686-6128, Museum of London Archaeology, autor de correspondencia), Niamh O’Neill-Munro (0000-0002-4864-8370, Queen's University Belfast), Paula J Reimer (0000-0001-9238-2146, Queen's University Belfast), Tali Erickson-Gini (0000-0003-2902-3831, Israel Antiquities Authority), Guy Bar-Oz (0000-0002-1009-5619, University of Haifa), Roy Galili (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev), Scott Bucking (0000-0002-3237-183X, DePaul University)
Año2023
Volumen65
Número4
Páginas832-847
Fecha de publicación2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaRadiocarbon (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0033-8222 • E-ISSN: 1945-5755
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/rdc.2023.70
OpenAlexW4386424640
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas35

Archaeological dung pellets are time capsules of ancient herbivore diets and gut flora, informing on past agropastoral activity, ecology, and animal health. Improving multi-proxy approaches is key to maximizing this finite archaeological resource. Through experiments with standard pretreatments used in radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating, we address a fundamental problem in maximal multi-proxy analysis: How to chronometrically date individual caprine pellets while conserving as much as possible for additional analyses? We applied acid-alkali-acid (AAA) or acid-only pretreatments to 37 samples of ancient and recent sheep/goat dung pellets from sites in the Negev desert, Israel, measuring weight-loss due to pretreatment. Shavings of outer surfaces and remaining inner pellets of four pairs were dated and compared. We found that (i) sample-specific factors affect pretreatment survivability, including preservation quality and initial sample size; (ii) given sufficient start weight, AAA can be used to pretreat sheep/goat coprolites; (iii) 100 mg appeared a desirable minimum sample weight before pretreatment; and (iv) shavings of coprolites’ outer surface produced 14 C dates equivalent to dates obtained from inner coprolites. Whereas standard coprolite analysis protocols discard shavings removed from outer surfaces to avoid contamination, our findings indicate their efficacy for 14 C dating. This offers an important addition to workflows for multi-proxy coprolite analysis

Animal science · Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Herbivore · Pellets · Proxy (statistics) · Radiocarbon dating · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Environmental Science · Geology · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Mathematics · Paleontology · Paleopathology and ancient diseases