Author
Haynes, GaryIssue Date
2000-01-01Keywords
Pleasant LakeMastodontoidea
Mastodontidae
Zimbabwe
Michigan
North America
Elephantidae
Elephantoidea
Mammuthus
Proboscidea
Southern Africa
paleoenvironment
Theria
Eutheria
Africa
Mammalia
Chordata
Tetrapoda
Vertebrata
Pleistocene
United States
Cenozoic
Quaternary
C 14
carbon
dates
isotopes
radioactive isotopes
absolute age
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Haynes, G. (2000). Mammoths, measured time, and mistaken identities. Radiocarbon, 42(2), 257-269.Journal
RadiocarbonAdditional Links
http://radiocarbon.webhost.uits.arizona.edu/Abstract
Mammoth and mastodont sites containing broken or cut bones are not rare in the New World, but their meanings are ambiguous. Studies of recent African elephant bone sites indicate that certain processes in nature create bone modifications that are identical to the end-effects of human actions such as butchering. In designing a rational and efficient approach to the radiometric dating of fossil proboscidean sites, caution and skepticism should enter into interpretations of modified materials.Type
Articletext
Language
enISSN
0033-8222ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1017/S0033822200059063