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Marine Turtle Bones from an Archaeological Site in Polynesia Yield Reliable Age Determinations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

T S Dye
T S Dye*
Affiliation:
Hawaii Pacific College, Honolulu, Hawaii 96813
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Abstract

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Accelerator mass spectrometry dating of three 50g samples of marine turtle bone from the basal cultural stratum of the Tongoleleka archaeological site, Lifuka Island, Kingdom of Tonga, South Pacific yields results that agree with conventional 14C dates on marine shell. A method for calibrating these dates that takes into account the long distance migrations of marine turtles in the South Pacific is proposed. A sample size greater than 50g is recommended for routine AMS dating of marine turtle bone.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , 1990 , pp. 143 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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