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Lab number
S-159
Material dated
charcoal; charbon de bois
Locality
Annapolis County, Nova Scotia
Map sheet
21 A/12
Submitter
J.S. Erskine
Date submitted
December 16, 0097
Measured Age
1700 ± 110
Normalized Age
1700 ± 110
δ13C (per mil)
-25.0
Significance
Woodland; Sylvicole
Context
layer at the very bottom of the Bear River East subsite, 60 cm depth
Comments
BdDk-1, Bear River: The upper 25 cm of the site contained projectile points of siliceous slate, usually corner-notched. Below that, points were stemmed or side-notched and were usually of quartzite, a type associated in Maine with a late Boreal Archaic horizon, but here with Woodland pottery. Since much Woodland pottery is found below the level of S-158, this culture in Nova Scotia must have begun earlier than 2100 BP. Kristmanson (1992) notes that S-158 corresponds to ceramic period 2 in the Petersen/Sanger classification, and the Bear River assemblage contains pottery assignable to this period. However, she also notes that the exact association between the radiocarbon sample and any particular ceramic material is unknown. S-159 has not been published previously. The date is out of sequence with S-158, and Erskine characterized it as "really disappointing... The material for it was taken from the very bottom of the Bear River East Subsite. Since then I have noticed such layers in the soil below the bottom of sites, obviously the downward eluviation of small particles of carbon from higher in the site. Although this is the lowest level, the carbon may well be an average of the whole site" (J.S. Erskine, letter to K.J. McCallum, 17 June 1962).

References