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Lab number
S-755
Field number
CMC- 594
Material dated
caribou bone collagen; collagène osseux de caribou
Taxa dated
Rangifer tarandus
Locality
on the west coast of Eclipse Sound, south of the river, Baffin Island, Nunavut
Map sheet
48 A/09
Submitter
G. Mary-Rousselière
Date submitted
August 17, 0097
Measured Age
1530 ± 80
Normalized Age
1610 ± 80
δ13C (per mil)
-20.0
Significance
Palaeoeskimo, Dorset; Paléoesquimau, Dorsétien
Context
Saatut I, square 7, midden
Associated taxa
Mammalia: Rangifer tarandus (see also S-2189)
Comments
PeHa-1, Saatut: Saatut I and II are at different elevations, but the artifacts suggest contemporaneity. Saatut I is an artifact-rich Dorset midden 2.7 m above sea level, and Saatut II is a Dorset house 40 m away at an elevation of 5 m. The difference in elevation might imply a difference in age, but the artifact styles suggest that they are contemporary. Father Rousselière submitted four pairs of samples from this site, each consisting of a sample from Saatut I and another from Saatut II. Initially he estimated the age of the site at 1800-1700 BP, but eventually he revised the estimate to 1550 BP after several pairs of dates were obtained. The overall results are equivocal as to the contemporaneity of the two site areas, but most of the dates are closer to the revised estimate. The picture is complicated by changes over time in the methods of sample pretreatment. All of the samples consisted of bone, and all but the first pair are identified as caribou. Six of the dates were prepared by an insoluble collagen extraction, a method that was later suspected to produce dates somewhat too recent. The last two, S-2189 and S-2190, were prepared by extracting collagen in a soluble form, and these should be considered more reliable.

References