[meteorite-list] RCYBP

[Thaddeus Besedin]

Jesus Christ, list. This is the last time. 
--- Thaddeus Besedin <endophasy at yahoo.com> wrote:


> List, 

> I was abrupt by sending an unsolicited monologic

> argument toward perpetual public access while I was

between classes.

> This is corrected for typographical (and other)

> errors.

> 

> 

> Well-dated fluted point sites (Clovis) seem to,

> according to recent work in Clovis site chronology

> bracketing (Waters and Stafford 1997

> http://dmc-news.tamu.edu/templates/?a=4202&z=0 )

> date

> from a ~200-400 year period terminating abruptly at

> the end of the last interstadial period preceding

the Younger

> Dryas Stadial (~12,900 - 11,500 calBP), or the

Bolling-Allerod interstadial, preceded by the Older
Dryas stadial extending, from pollen/spore records,
14,600 - 13,700 calBP in Hokkaido (~14,000 calBP -
13,500 calBP in Canada). The popular press does not
usually catch 

> naive conflation of radiocarbon and calibrated

> years,

> even when 

> scientists are explicit about the distinction.

> Archaeologists seem to make the same mistake on

> occasion, 

> but often RCYBP is not indicated in source documents

> that 

> may contain quoted/excerpted material. There

> are no true, well-dated Clovis sites (with full

> classic Clovis prismatic blade toolkit) dating from

> after ~12,700 calBP, but Fluted point technology

> persists. Clovis points were probably curated by

> later

> people, since their size made them visible to late

> Pleistocene people, which then allowed them

> continued

> utility as functional biface knives.

> Fluted point sites are numerous in the Eastern

> United

> States because of

> environmental factors, not necessarily because of

> a greater frequency of occupied sites, although

> resource 

> abundance may have also permitted 

> population growth, or Clovis technology was more 

> frequently adopted by an original founding human

> populations 

> in the East. Sedimentary

> preservation of sites is more common on depositional

> surfaces that have relatively

> little relief. In Alaska, Younger Dryas Erosional

> unconformity would be expected, 

> since this was a period of general valley floor

> incision, followed by 

> rapid sedimentation beginning ~ 11,600 - 11,500

> calBP,

> or at the initial Preboreal Holocene. Thus, the

> differential preservation

>  between expansive depositional Eastern landscapes

> and

> proportionally less common 

> occupiable flat space in Western Valleys, subject to

> greater

>  surface material loss due to greater mean slope

> angle

> (gravitational effect on unconsolidated

> sediments)and 

> fire frequency (i.e. ground cover destruction) with

> erosive flooding. Valley downcutting has obliterated

> Bolling interstadial period

>  depositional surfaces on broad floodplains. The

> record is skewed.

> 

> Recently, Radiocarbon dates at the non-fluted-point,

> non-microlithic Mesa site in Alaska

>

(http://www.blm.gov/heritage/adventures/research/StatePages/PDFs/lo_res_%20kunz%2014ap03.sep.pdf)

> have returned dates  both earlier and

> contemporaneous

> with Clovis (e.g. Beta-55236 [intact hearth]: 11,660

> +/- 80 14C YBP

> returns the calibrated date of 13,431 +/- 141, or 

> [68% range 13C290 - 13572], and GX-26461: 12,240

> +/-

> 610

> 14C YBP calibrates to 14718 +/- 1084 

> for [68% calibrated range of 13634 - 15802 BP]

> [CalPal2004_SFCP

> QuickCal Ver. 1.3.1])

> 

> 

> Evidence of fluting has only been identified in the

> Old World at the Uptar site in NE Siberia

>

(http://www.archaeology.org/9611/newsbriefs/uptar.html),

> which may represent a late migration of North

> American

> toolmakers into Siberia, but may be also be evidence

> of in situ convergent

> development. The Uptar point has a contracting

> stem-like base, and thus possibly shares a hafting

> configuration with

> Windust/Lake Mojave style late Pleistocene-early

> Holocene forms, although Ushki (Eastern siberia)

> points from Layer 7 (Ushki 1 initial occupational

> 14C

> date constraint: 11,820 } 100 BP, 

>  13736 } 159 calBP [68% calBP range: 13,577 -

> 13,895]

> CalPal_2007_HULU) include side-notched, 

> expanding base forms which are found in post-Windust

> (after 9,000 BP) 

> assemblages in the Northwestern United states. A

> late 

> influx of North American people

> into Siberia may have curated representative

> technologies of

> both stemmed and fluted traditions, contemporaneous

> in

> North America, where terminal Pleistocene stemmed

> point technology survived into the Holocene. 

> Basal thinning modification of hafted objects is

> common in East Asia and the Old World at large

> during

> the Upper Paleolithic, appearing in Mousterian

> Levallois assemblages as well as later blade/core

> industries (e.g. Gravettian, etc.). The preference

> by

> fluted point

> makers for a geographically widespread and ordinary

> bifacial thinning style that produces outrepasse

> flake

> terminations to define

> biface edges opposing the striking platforms of

> removed surface material does not link Clovis

> technology

> to any Western European technological tradition,

> such

> as the

> Solutrean tradition. Clovis is late, brief, and

> often

> invisible, since projectile point forms can hardly

> define a "culture." Clovis fluted Projectile forms

> disappeared concomitantly with the extinction of

> megafauna at the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial.

> At this time, until more evidence of rapid

> extinction

> characteristic of cataclysmic events becomes

> available, any answer to the question of whether a

> bolide was significant enough to be responsible for

> either cultural or biological extinction is at best

> based on a post hoc fallacy.

> -Thaddeus

> 

> --- Thaddeus Besedin <endophasy at yahoo.com> wrote:

> 

> > Well-dated fluted point sites (Clovis) seem to,

> > according to recent work in clovis site chronology

> > bracketing (Waters and Stafford 1997

> > http://dmc-news.tamu.edu/templates/?a=4202&z=0 )

> > date

> > from an ~200-400 year period terminting abruptly

> by

> > the end of the last interglacial period, the

> Younger

> > Dryas Stadial, which is dated to ~12,900 - 11,500

> > years ago. Popular press does not usually catch

> > their

> > naive confuaion of radiocarbon and calibrated

> years.

> > Archaeologists seem to make the same mistake.

> There

> > are no true, well-dated Clovis sites (with full

> > classis Clovis prismatic blade toolkit) dating

> from

> > after ~12,900 cal BP, but Fluted point technology

> > persists. Clovis points were probably curated by

> > later

> > people, since their size made them visible to late

> > Pleistocene people, which then allowed the

> continued

> > use of functional bifaces (ofetn of great size).

> > Fluted point sites proliferate in the east because

> > of

> > environmental factors, not necessarily because a

> > greater frequency of sites occurs. Sedimentary

> > preservation of sites is more common in places of

> > lower relief, like Florida. The record is skewed.

> > 

> > Recently, Radiocarbon dates at the

> non-fluted-point,

> > non-microlithic Mesa site in Alska

> >

>

(http://www.blm.gov/heritage/adventures/research/StatePages/PDFs/lo_res_%20kunz%2014ap03.sep.pdf)

> > have returned dates  both earlier and

> > contemporaneous

> > with Clovis (e.g. Beta-55236 (intact hearth):

> 11,660

> > +/- 80 14C YBP

> > returns the calibrated date of 13,431 +/- 141, or 

> > 2-sigma 13290 - 13572, and GX-26461: 12,240 +/-

> 610

> > 14C YBP calibrates to 14718 +/- 1084 

> > for a 2-sigma calibrated range of 13634 - 15802 BP

> > [CalCurve: CalPal2004_SFCP

> 

=== message truncated ===



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