Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:27:00.809Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Alternative Explanations for Anomalous 14C Ages on Human Skeletons Associated with the 612 BCE Destruction of Nineveh

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

R E Taylor ,
Will C Beaumont ,
John Southon ,
David Stronach  and
Diana Pickworth
R E Taylor*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside 92521, USA; Also: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90021, USA Keck Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Will C Beaumont
Affiliation:
Keck Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
John Southon
Affiliation:
Keck Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Department of Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
David Stronach
Affiliation:
Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA
Diana Pickworth
Affiliation:
Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley, California, 94720, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: retaylor@ucr.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Three factors—contamination, a dietary reservoir effect, and a regional δ14C anomaly—are considered as possible contributing explanations for an almost 2-century offset between the historically documented age of 612 BCE and the calibrated ages of 9 14C determinations obtained on 3 human skeletons directly associated stratigraphically with an archaeologically—and historically—defined 612 BCE event at the ancient site of Nineveh in northern Mesopotamia (Iraq). We note that on the order of a 1% (∼80 yr) offset caused by one or a combination of these 3 factors, or other as yet unidentified additional factor(s), would be sufficient to move the average measured 14C age of these bone samples within the major “warp” in the 14C timescale during the mid-1st millennium BCE. We provide what we believe to be sufficient evidence that contamination is not a major factor in the case of these bone samples. At this time, we lack appropriate data to determine with sufficient rigor the degree to which a dietary reservoir effect may be contributing to the offset. At present, a posited regional δ14C anomaly does not appear to be supported on the basis of data from several other localities in the Near East of similar age. One purpose of presenting this data set is to solicit comparisons with 14C values obtained on samples from additional, historically well-documented, known-age archaeological contexts for this time period in this and adjacent regions.

Type
Archaeology
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 52 , Issue 2: 20th Int. Radiocarbon Conference Proceedings , 2010 , pp. 372 - 382
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

References

Beaumont, W, Beverly, R, Southon, J, Taylor, RE. 2010. Bone preparation at the KCCAMS Laboratory. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 268 (7–8)906–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C, Higham, T, Bowles, A, Hedges, R. 2004. Improvements to the pretreatment of bone at Oxford. Radiocarbon 46(1):155–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, TA, Nelson, DE, Vogel, JS, Southon, JR. 1988. Improved collagen extraction by modified Longin method. Radiocarbon 30(2):171–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, SC. 1999. The collapse of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Bulletin of the Canadian Society for Mesopotamian Studies 34:69–75.Google Scholar
Bruins, HJ, van der Plicht, J. 2005. Desert settlement through the Iron Age: radiocarbon dates from Sinai and the Negev highlands. In: Levy, TE, Higham, T, editors. The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating: Archaeology, Text and Science. London: Equinox. p 349–66.Google Scholar
Bury, JB, Cook, SA, Adcock, FE, editors. 1954. The Assyrian Empire. In: Cambridge Ancient History. Volume 3 (1925, reprinted with corrections 1954). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, GT, Bonsall, C, Hedges, REM, McSweeney, K, Boronean, , Pettitt, PB. 2001. A freshwater diet-derived 14C reservoir effect at the Stone Age sites in the Iron Gates Gorge. Radiocarbon 43(2A):453–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cook, GT, Bonsall, C, Hedges, REM, McSweeney, K, Boronean, V, Bartosiewicz, L, Pettitt, PB. 2002. Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates. Antiquity 76(291):77–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gadd, CJ. 1923. The Fall of Nineveh. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Grayson, AK. 1975. Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles. Locust Valley, New York: J J Augustin.Google Scholar
Hedges, REM, Clement, JG, Thomas, CDL, O'Connell, TC. 2007. Collagen turnover in the adult femoral mid-shaft: modeled from anthropogenic radiocarbon tracer measurements. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 133(2):808–16.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lumsden, S. 1998. On Sennacherib's Nineveh. In: Matthiae, P, Enea, A, Peyronel, L, Pinnock, F, editors. Proceedings of the First International Congress on the Archaeology of the Ancient Near East. Volume I. Rome: Dipartimento di scienze storiche, Archeologiche e Antropologiche dell'antichita. p 810–25.Google Scholar
Oates, J. 1965. Assyrian chronology, 631–612 B.C. Iraq 27:135–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pickworth, D. 2005. Excavations at Nineveh: the Halzi Gate. Iraq 67:295–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Baillie, MGL, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Bertrand, CJH, Blackwell, PG, Buck, CE, Burr, GS, Cutler, KB, Damon, PE, Edwards, RL, Fairbanks, RG, Friedrich, M, Guilderson, TP, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kromer, B, McCormac, G, Manning, S, Bronk Ramsey, C, Reimer, RW, Remmele, S, Southon, JR, Stuiver, M, Talamo, S, Taylor, FW, van der Plicht, J, Weyhenmeyer, CE. 2004. IntCal04 terrestrial radiocarbon age calibration, 0–26 cal kyr BP. Radiocarbon 46(3):1029–58.Google Scholar
Southon, J, Santos, G, Druffel-Rodriguez, K, Druffel, E, Trumbore, S, Xu, X, Griffin, S, Ali, S, Mazon, M. 2004. The Keck Carbon cycle AMS Laboratory, University of California, Irvine: initial operation and a background surprise. Radiocarbon 46(1):41–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stafford, TW. 1984. Accelerator C14 dating of human fossil skeletons: assessing accuracy and results on New World specimens. In: Bonnichsen, R, Steele, DG, editors. Method and Theory for Investigating the Peopling of the Americas. Corvallis: Center for the Study of the First Americans, Oregon State University. p 45–55.Google Scholar
Stronach, D. 1997. Notes on the Fall of Nineveh. In: Parpola, S, Whiting, RM, editors. Assyria 1995. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary Symposium of Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project. Helsinki, 7–11 September 1995, Helsinki. p 307–24.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3):355–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35(1):215–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, RE. 1987. Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, RE. 1992. Radiocarbon dating of bone: beyond collagen. In: Taylor, RE, Long, A, Kra, R, editors. Radiocarbon After Four Decades: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. New York: Springer-Verlag. p 375–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, RE, Stuiver, M, Reimer, PJ. 1996. Development and extension of the calibration of the radiocarbon time scale: archaeological applications. Quaternary Science Reviews 15(7):655–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waterlow, JC, Garlick, PJ, Millward, DJ. 1978. Protein Turnover in Mammalian Tissues and in the Whole Body. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
Wild, EM, Arlamovsky, KA, Golser, R, Kutschera, W, Priller, A, Puchegger, S, Rom, W, Steler, P, Vycudilik, W. 2000. 14C dating with the bomb peak: an application to forensic medicine. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172(1–4):944–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar