Radiocarbon Wiggle-Matching on a Dendrochronologically Dated Timber Sample from Paquimé

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Paquimé, or Casas Grandes, is one of the largest and most complex archaeological sites in the North American Southwest. Paquimé was of central and wide-reaching importance in the cultural region referred to as the Gran Chichimeca during the Medio period (AD 1200–1450), and therefore remains of crucial significance to borderland archaeology (Minnis 2003). Tree-ring dates for Paquimé published in 1966 by S. D. Scott suggest that major construction at the site occurred in the fourteenth century, with the latest date being CE 1338 (Scott 1966). Of the 80 samples dendrochronologically dated by Scott, only this one extends into the fourteenth century. All other samples dated to the mid-thirteenth century or earlier, making the CE 1338 date a significant outlier. Subsequent researchers have reanalyzed many of these timbers and questioned the veracity of this date (D. Stahle, personal communication). We propose to do a radiocarbon wiggle-match of the samples to either definitively confirm or refute Scott’s published date. This poster will present the results of our radiocarbon wiggle-matching, which will contribute significantly to the understanding of Paquimé.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 37394.0