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A Comparative Study of 14C Dating on Charcoal and Charred Seeds from Late Neolithic and Bronze Age Sites in Gansu and Qinghai Provinces, NW China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2016

Guang-Hui Dong ,
Zong-Li Wang ,
Le-Le Ren ,
Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute ,
Hui Wang ,
Xiaoyan Ren  and
Fahu Chen
Guang-Hui Dong
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
Zong-Li Wang
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
Le-Le Ren
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
Giedre Motuzaite Matuzeviciute
Affiliation:
Vilnius University, Faculty of History, Department of Archaeology, Universiteto 7, Vilnius LT-01513, Lithuania History Institute of Lithuania, Archaeology Department, Kražiu g. 5, Vilnius LT-01108, Lithuania
Hui Wang
Affiliation:
Gansu Province Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeological Research, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
Xiaoyan Ren
Affiliation:
Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Xining, Qinghai Province 810007, China
Fahu Chen*
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Western China's Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, Gansu Province 730000, China
*
6. Corresponding author. Email: fhchen@lzu.edu.cn.
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Abstract

The chronology of the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, northwest China, is mainly based on conventional radiocarbon dates from unidentified charcoal, which may be inaccurate in view of the possible “old wood” problem of 14C dating. To discuss the reliability of the chronology of those prehistoric cultures, accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates of short-lived charred seeds were compared to conventional 14C dates of unidentified charcoal from the same flotation samples in 15 Late Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in the area. The results show that 14C dates of unidentified charcoal are obviously older than those of charred seeds in 5 of the 15 flotation samples. This work suggests that the old-wood problem of 14C dating might be related to human subsistence strategies and local vegetation variation during different prehistoric cultural periods in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, which should be discussed before establishing the chronology of Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures in the area.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , 2014 , pp. 157 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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