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Radiocarbon Analyses of Modern Organics at Monte Verde, Chile: No Evidence for a Local Reservoir Effect

1999; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/2694145

2325-5064

R. E. Taylor, C. Vance Haynes, Donna L. Kirner, John Southon,

Geology and Paleoclimatology Research

Radiocarbon measurements have been obtained on contemporary plant samples collected at the site of Monte Verde, Chile, to examine the possibility that a local l4 C reservoir effect impinges on the accuracy of the l4 C values obtained on previously recovered archaeological samples. The l4 C activity of the modern plants do not reveal any offset from expected contemporary l4 C values and thus provide no support for a major postulated reservoir effect at least for the recent past. Although there is, at present, no direct means of measuring potential l4 C reservoir offsets in the late Pleistocene for this region, we are not aware of any current data that would indicate that there have been major changes during geologically recent times.