Stable carbon isotope ratios from archaeological charcoal as palaeoenvironmental indicators |
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| Authors: | G Hall S Woodborne M Scholes |
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| Institution: | 1. Instituto de Ciências da Terra (Pólo da Faculdade de Ciências U.P.), Departamento de Geociências, Ambiente e Ordenamento do Território, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Portugal;2. Departamento de Química Inorgánica, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Teatinos s/n, 29071 Málaga, Spain;3. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA, United States;4. University of Kentucky, Center for Applied Energy Research, 2540 Research Park Drive, Lexington, KY 40511, United States;1. Department of Anthropology, Trent University, 1600 West Bank Drive, Peterborough, ON K9L 0G2, Canada;2. Department of Anthropology, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1, Canada;1. Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, 490 rue de la Couronne, Quebec, QC G1K 9A9, Canada;2. Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS-ETE), 490 rue de la Couronne, Quebec, QC G1K 9A9, Canada;3. Université Aix-Marseille (AMU)-ECCOREV (FR 3098), Europôle Méditerranéen de l''Arbois, Avenue Louis Philibert, BP 80, 13545 Aix en Provence, Cedex 4, France |
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| Abstract: | The potential to provide environmental proxies using stable carbon isotopes from modern and archaeological charcoal is explored. Experiments on modern Podocarpus (Yellowwoods) show that δ13C values of stems, branches and charcoal preserve proxy environmental conditions, including rainfall, humidity and temperature. An additional experiment showed that combustion temperature affects the carbon isotope signature of charcoal. Burning at 450 °C to 500 °C depletes δ13C values with respect to the original wood, but the charcoal retains the seasonal and inter-annual isotopic trends recorded during the growth of the tree.The δ13C of Podocarpus charcoal from three levels from the Middle Stone Age site of Sibudu Cave, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, was compared with modern analogues from two different environments, Seaton Park (KwaZulu-Natal) and the Baviaans Kloof (Eastern Cape). Other environmental proxies from levels dated from > 70 ka and ~ 48 ka, show that environmental conditions changed from warmer and wetter to colder and drier and finally becoming warmer and drier. The isotope data is consistent with this reconstruction. The results from this series of experiments indicate that it is possible to obtain meaningful palaeoenvironmental information from δ13C values of archaeological charcoal. |
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