Radiocarbon Dating in Minnesota and Beyond: Fish, Wild Rice, Charred Food Crust, Archaeological Bone and Charcoal, and Human Collagen and Tissues—Expanding Our Understanding of Ancient Carbon

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

After a robust start that included dating bone collagen from 4 fish caught in 1939 and curated at MNHS, that larger project set out to investigate the accuracy of radiocarbon dates on various sample types in the state. Radiocarbon dates on fish ranged from 307-1225 BP, aligning with trophic levels. More dates on modern fish fall within this range. Modern wild rice from some lakes dated “too old”. Charred food crust adhering to Brainerd ceramics and other culturally associated ceramics produced dates that are “too old” for their associated contexts. Bone collagen produced dates that were older than those on charcoal. We examined local geology, including underlying carbonates, which contribute dissolved ancient carbon to the ecosystem. These results were funded by the Minnesota Statewide Survey. Continued studies funded by NSF examined charred food crust from other locations in an effort to map areas of concern outside Minnesota. This was followed, recently, by radiocarbon dating bone collagen and apatite, and tissue samples from a living individual, which is rare, in an effort to find a key to explain dates that appear to be "too old" obtained from archaeological bone collagen.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53341