Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Contributions of Radiocarbon Dating to the Geochronology of the Peopling of the New World

  • Conference paper
Radiocarbon After Four Decades

Abstract

Before radiocarbon dating, early man sites were dated geologically, either by association of artifacts with remains of extinct animals or with geologic deposits that could be related to glacial events (Oakley 1964: 51–57). This primitive geochronology began in the first half of the 19th century with the recognition by Boucher de Perthes of handaxes in terrace deposits of the Somme River near Abbeville in northern France. This was during the formative years of geology and Darwinian evolution, so he can be excused for attributing the terrace deposits to the biblical flood, thus dating the handaxes as antediluvial. It was English geologist, Hugh Falconer, who in 1858 correctly read the terraces as derived from glacial-age rivers, thus assigning the Abbevillean artifacts to the Pleistocene Epoch (Macgowan & Hester 1962: 63–64).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Adovasio, JM, Boldurian, AT and Carlisle, RC 1988 Who are those guys?: Some biased thoughts on the initial peopling of the New World. In Carlisle, RC, ed, Americans before Columbus: Ice-age origins. University of Pittsburgh, Ethnology Monographs 12: 45–62.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Anderson, AB and Haynes, CV, Jr 1978 How old is Capulin Mountain: Correlation between Capulin Mountain volcanic flows and the Folsom type site, northeastern, New Mexico. In Shelton, N, ed, Proceedings of the 1st Conference on Scientific Research in the National Park Service: 893–899.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Antevs, E 1931 Late glacial clay chronology of North America. Smithsonian Report for 1931: 313–324.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Antevs, E 1941 Age of the Cochise cultural stages. Medallion Papers 29: 31–56.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Arnold, JR and Libby, WF 1950 Radiocarbon Dates (September 1, 1950). Chicago. University of Chicago, Institute for Nuclear Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Broecker, WS and Farrand, WR 1963 Radiocarbon age of the Two Creeks Forest Beds, Wisconsin. Geological Society of America Bulletin 74: 795–802.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Bryan, AL 1978 An El Jobo mastodon kill at Taima-taima, Venezuela. Science 200: 1275–1277.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Bryan, AL 1988 The relationship of the stemmed point and fluted point traditions in the Great Basin. In Willig, JA, Aikens, CM and Fagen, JL, eds, Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 21: 53–74.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Bryan, K 1937 Geology of the Folsom deposits in New Mexico and Colorado. In MacCurely, GG, ed, Early Man. Philadelphia, JB Lippincott: 139–152.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Bryan, K and Ray, LL 1940 Geologic antiquity of the Lindenmeier site in Colorado. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 99 (2): 1–76.

    Google Scholar 

  11. Collins, MB and Dillehay, TD 1986 The implications of the lithic assemblage from Monte Verde for early man studies. In

    Google Scholar 

  12. Bryan, AL, ed, New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Orono, University of Maine: 339–355.

    Google Scholar 

  13. Crane, HR and Griffin, JB 1959 University of Michigan radiocarbon dates IV. American Journal of Science Radiocarbon Supplement 1: 173–198.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Damon, PE, Haynes, CV, Jr and Long, A 1964 Arizona radiocarbon dates V. Radiocarbon 6: 91–107.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Diamond, J 1990a The latest on the earliest. Discover 11 (1): 50.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Diamond, J 1990b Clovis claims: Reply to Dille-hay. Discover 11 (5): 8.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Dillehay, TD 1986 The cultural relationships of Monte Verde: A Late Pleistocene settlement site in the sub-Atlantic forest of south-central Chile. In Bryan, AL, ed, New Evidence for the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Orono, University of Maine: 319–337.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Dillehay, TD 1990 Clovis claims: reply to Diamond. Discover 11 (5): 8.

    Google Scholar 

  19. Dincauze, DF 1981 The Meadowcroft papers (Adovasio, Gunn, Donahue, Stuckenrath, Gilday, Lord, Volman, Haynes, Mead). Quaternary Review of Archaeology 2: 3–4.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Dincauze, DF 1984 An archaeological evaluation of the case for pre-Clovis occupations. In Wendorf, F and Close, A, eds, Advances in World Archaeology 3: 275–323. New York, Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Evans, GL 1951 Prehistoric wells in eastern New Mexico. American Antiquity 17: 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Frison, GC 1988 Paleoindian subsistence and settlement during post-Clovis times on the northwestern plains, the adjacent mountain ranges, and intermontane basins. In Carlisle, RC, ed, Americans Before Columbus: Ice-age origins. University of Pittsburgh, Ethnology Monographs 12: 83–106.

    Google Scholar 

  23. Goebel, T and Powers R 1990 The Nenana complex of Alaska and Clovis origins. Society for American Archaeology, 55th annual meeting, Programs and Abstracts: 94.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Harrington, MR and Simpson, RD 1961 Tule

    Google Scholar 

  25. Springs, Nevada with other evidences of Pleistocene man in North America. Southwest Museum Papers 18: 146 p.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Hassan, AA 1976 Geochemical and mineralogical studies on bone material and their implications for radiocarbon dating. PhD dissertation, Southern Methodist University. Ann Arbor, Michigan, University Microfilms.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Haury, EW, Sayles, EB and Wasley, WW 1959 The Lehner mammoth site, southeastern Arizona. American Antiquity 25: 2–30.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. Haynes, CV, Jr 1964 Fluted projectile points: their age and dispersion. Science 145: 1408–1413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Haynes, CV, Jr 1967a Bone organic matter and radiocarbon dating. In Radioactive Dating and Methods of Low-Level Counting. Vienna, IAEA: 163–168.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Haynes, CV, Jr 1967b Quaternary geology of the Tule Springs area, Clark County, Nevada. In Wormington, HM and Ellis, D, eds, Pleistocene studies in southern Nevada. Nevada State Museum Anthropology Papers 13: 411 p.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Haynes, CV, Jr 1967c Carbon-14 dates and early man in the New World. In Martin, PS and Wright, HE eds, Pleistocene extinctions: The search for a cause. International Association for Quaternary Research 6. New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  32. Haynes, CV, Jr 1968 Geochronology of late-Quaternary alluvium. In Morrison, RB, ed, Means of Correlation of Quaternary Successions 8. University of Utah Press.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Haynes, CV, Jr 1969 The earliest Americans. Science 166: 709–715.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Haynes, CV, Jr 1971 Time, environment, and early man. Arctic Anthropology 8: 3–14.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Haynes, CV, Jr 1977 When and from where did man arrive in northeastern North America: A discussion. In Newman, WS and Salwen, B, eds, Amerinds and their paleoenvironment in northeastern North America. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences 228: 165–166.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Haynes, CV, Jr 1980 Paleoindian charcoal from Meadowcroft Rock Shelter: Is contamination a problem? American Antiquity 45: 583–587.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  37. Haynes, CV, Jr 1984 Stratigraphy and late Pleistocene extinction in the United States. In Martin, PS and Klein, RG, eds, Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson, University of Arizona Press: 345–353.

    Google Scholar 

  38. Haynes, CV, Jr 1987 Clovis origin update. The Kiva 52: 83–93.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Haynes, CV, Jr 1988 Geofacts or fancy. Natural History 97: 4–11.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Haynes, CV, Jr 1990 The Antevs-Bryan years and the legacy for Paleoindian geochronology. In Laporte, LF ed, Establishment of a geologic framework for paleoanthropology. Geological Society of America Special Paper 242: 55–68.

    Google Scholar 

  41. Haynes, CV, Jr 1991 Archaeological and paleohydrological evidence for a terminal Pleistocene drought in North America and its bearing on Pleistocene extinction. Quaternary Research 35: 438–450.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Haynes, V, Jr and Agogino, GA 1960 Geological significance of a new radiocarbon date from the Lindenmeier site, Colorado. Denver Museum of Natural History Proceedings 9: 23 p.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Haynes, V, Jr and Agogino, GA 1966 Prehistoric springs and geochronology of the Clovis site, New Mexico. American Antiquity 31 (6): 812–821.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Haynes, CV, Jr, Beukens, RP, Jull, AJT and Davis, OK, in press, New radiocarbon dates for some old Folsom sites using accelerator technology. In Stanford, D and Day, JS, eds, Ice Age Hunters of the Rockies. Denver Museum of Natural History.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Haynes, CV, Jr, Damon, PE and Grey, DC 1966 Arizona radiocarbon dates VI. Radiocarbon 8: 1–21.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Haynes, CV, Jr, Grey, DC, Damon, PE and Bennett, R 1967 Arizona radiocarbon dates VII. Radiocarbon 9: 1–14.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Holliday, VT 1987 Geoarchaeology and late Quaternary geomorphology of the middle South Platte River, northeastern Colorado. Geoarchaeology 2: 317–329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  48. Holliday, VT and Johnson, E 1986 Reevaluation of the first radiocarbon age for the Folsom culture. American Antiquity 51: 332–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Irwin, C, Irwin, HT and Agogino, GA 1962 Ice age man vs. mammoth in Wyoming. National Geographic 121 (6): 828–837.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Jelinek, AJ 1962 An index of radiocarbon dates associated with cultural material. Current Anthropology 3: 451–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  51. Johnson, F, Arnold, JR and Flint, RF 1957 radiocarbon dating. Science 124: 240–242.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Johnston, WA 1933 Quaternary geology of North America in relation to the migration of man. In Jenness, D, ed, American Aborigines. Toronto, University Toronto Press: 11–45.

    Google Scholar 

  53. Kelly, RL 1987 A comment on the pre-Clovis deposits at Meadowcroft Rock Shelter. Quaternary Research 27: 332334.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Krieger, AD 1962 The earliest cultures in the western United States. American Antiquity 28 (2): 138–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Leonhardy, FC 1966 Domebo: A Paleoindian mammoth kill in the prairie-plains. Contributions of the Museum of the Great Plains 1: 53 p.

    Google Scholar 

  56. Libby, WF 1955 Radiocarbon Dating, second edition. Chicago, University of Chicago Press: 175 p.

    Google Scholar 

  57. Libby, WF 1961 Radiocarbon dating: The method is of increasing use to the archaeologist, the geologist, the meteorologist, and the oceanographer. Science 133: 621–629.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Long, A and Rippeteau, B 1974 Testing contemporaneity and averaging radiocarbon dates. American Antiquity 39: 205–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Lynch, TF 1990 Glacial-age man in South America: A critical review. American Antiquity 55: 12–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  60. Macgowan, K and Hester, JA, Jr 1962 Early Man in the New World. Garden City, New York, Doubleday: 333 p.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Mawby, JE 1967 Fossil vertebrates of the Tule Springs site, Nevada. In Wormington, HM and Ellis, D, eds, Pleistocene studies in southern Nevada. Nevada State Museum Anthropology Papers 13: 411 p.

    Google Scholar 

  62. May, I 1955 Isolation of organic carbon from bones for C14 dating. Science 121: 508–509.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Mead, JI 1980 Is it really that old? A comment about the Meadowcroft “Overview.” American Antiquity 45: 579–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  64. Mead, JI and Meltzer, DJ 1984 North American Late Quaternary extinctions and the radiocarbon record. In Martin, PS and Klein, RG, eds, Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution. Tucson, University of Arizona Press: 440–450.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Meltzer, DJ 1983 The antiquity of man and the development of American archaeology. In Schiffer, M, ed, Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory 6.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Nilsson, T 1983 The Pleistocene. Dordrecht, The Netherlands, D Reidel Publishing Company: 651 p.

    Google Scholar 

  67. Oakley, KP 1964 Frameworks for Dating Fossil Man. Chicago, Aldine: 335 p. Olson, EA and Broecker, WS 1961 Lamont natural radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon 3: 141–175.

    Google Scholar 

  68. Payen, LA 1982 The pre-Clovis of North America: Temporal and artifactual evidence. PhD dissertation, University of California, Riverside: 491 p.

    Google Scholar 

  69. Pino Quivira, M and Dillehay, TD 1988 Monte Verde, south-central Chile: Stratigraphy, climate change and human settlement. Geoarchaeology 3: 177–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  70. Powers, WR and Hoffecker, JF 1989 Late Pleistocene settlement in the Nenana Valley, central Alaska. American Antiquity 54: 263–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Ray, LL 1940 Glacial chronology of the southern Rocky Mountains. Geological Society of America Bulletin 51: 18511918.

    Google Scholar 

  72. Roberts, RBI 1951 Radiocarbon dates and early man. In Johnson, F, assembler, Radiocarbon dating. Society for American Archaeology Memoir 8: 20–21. Also in American Antiquity 17 (2): 1.

    Google Scholar 

  73. Sellards, EH 1952 Early Man in America. Austin, University of Texas Press: 211 p.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Shutler, R, Jr 1967 Archaeology of Tule Springs. In Wormington, HM and Ellis, D, eds, Pleistocene studies in southern Nevada. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers 13: 411 p.

    Google Scholar 

  75. Shutler, R, Jr and Damon, PE 1959 University of Arizona radiocarbon dates II. American Journal of Science Radiocarbon Supplement 1: 59–62.

    Google Scholar 

  76. Stafford, TW, Jr, Brendel, K and Duhamel, RC 1988 Radiocarbon, 13C and 15N analysis of fossil bone: Removal of humates with XAD-2 resin. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 52: 2257–2267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  77. Stafford, TW, flare, PE, Currie, L, Jull, AJT and Donahue, DJ 1990 Accuracy of North American human skeleton ages. Quaternary Research 34: 111–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  78. Accelerator radiocarbon dating at the molecular level. Journal of Archaeological Sciences 18: 35–72.

    Google Scholar 

  79. Tankersley, KB, Munson, CA and Smith, D (ms) 1984 Coal contamination: Possibilities, probabilities, and occurrences. Paper presented at the 49th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Portland, Oregon.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Tauber, H 1960 Copenhagen radiocarbon dates IV. American Journal of Science Radiocarbon Supplement 2: 12–25.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Taylor, RE 1987 Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. Orlando, Florida, Academic Press: 370 p.

    Google Scholar 

  82. Trautman, MA and Willis, EH 1966 Isotopes, Inc. radiocarbon measurements V. Radiocarbon 8: 161–203.

    Google Scholar 

  83. Vries, H de and Oakley, KP 1959 Radiocarbon dating of the Piltdown skull and jaw. Nature 184: 224–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  84. Walton, A, Trautman, MA and Friend, JP 1961 Isotopes, Inc. radiocarbon measurements I. Radiocarbon 3: 58.

    Google Scholar 

  85. Warnica, JM 1966 New discoveries at the Clovis site. American Antiquity 31: 345–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  86. Wise, EN and Shutler, R, Jr, 1958 University of Arizona radiocarbon dates (I). Science 127: 72–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  87. Wormington, HM 1957 Ancient man in North America, fourth edition. Denver Museum Natural History 4: 322 p.

    Google Scholar 

  88. Zeuner, FE 1958 Dating the Past. Darien, Connecticut, Hafner Publishing Co: 565 p.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. C. Vance Haynes Jr.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anthropology, Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, Riverside, 92521-0418, Riverside, CA, USA

    R. E. Taylor

  2. Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, 85721, Tuscon, AZ, USA

    Austin Long  & Renee S. Kra  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1992 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this paper

Cite this paper

Haynes, C.V. (1992). Contributions of Radiocarbon Dating to the Geochronology of the Peopling of the New World. In: Taylor, R.E., Long, A., Kra, R.S. (eds) Radiocarbon After Four Decades. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4249-7_24

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-4249-7_24

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4251-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4757-4249-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation