University of Groningen
Dealing with reservoir effects in human and faunal skeletal remains Dury, Jack
DOI:
10.33612/diss.163552129
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Publication date: 2021
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Dury, J. (2021). Dealing with reservoir effects in human and faunal skeletal remains. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.163552129
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1) The building of culture chronologies by radiocarbon dating is particularly difficult in Arctic contexts. Thought should be given to the old wood problem, recycling of datable materials, a high
consumption of aquatic foods and potentially large reservoir effects. 2) This thesis demonstrates, using the Bering Strait as a case study, that reservoir effects within a single environment can be highly variable and should be understood prior to the modelling of reservoir affected human radiocarbon dates.
3) When there is reason to believe foods were consumed from multiple carbon sources, the dietary components of human diets should be estimated prior to the modelling of radiocarbon dates. It may be necessary to understand exactly which species were
consumed.
4) Reservoir effects can be estimated in a number of ways. These methods, however, are not universally applicable and each has its own strengths and weaknesses for archaeological research.
Researchers must consider which method is most suitable given the samples they have available for analysis.
5) Where possible, Bayesian modelling should be applied for the more accurate dating of reservoir affected samples. Where the dating of aquatic material can result in higher uncertainty, modelling of the 14C dates within a wider context is very helpful in reducing this. 6) It has been demonstrated that the principle of
'wiggle matching' can be applied to the radiocarbon dating of teeth. This can help reduce dating uncertainty (particularly for humans with mixed diets) and estimate the size of local reservoir ages.
