The Tricky Business of Dating Shell Middens and Improving Regional Chronologies

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Fifteen years ago, Julie Stein spearheaded research into the often problematic task of dating shell middens and interpreting their accumulation. By examining paired charcoal-shell dates from the San Juan Islands, Stein and colleagues refined the local marine reservoir correction (ΔR) associated with radiocarbon-dated shell, thereby enabling construction of more accurate chronologies in and around the Salish Sea. Her methods for quantifying shell midden accumulation rates helped differentiate gradual versus punctuated occupation and, perhaps more importantly, highlighted the benefit of an extensive dating regime. The ripple effects of these two research programs continue, as archaeologists working in various coastal settings increase chronological control by developing regional reservoir corrections and more rigorously modeling site accumulation dynamics.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• From Middens to Museums: Papers in Honor of Julie K. Stein

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23282