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Kizzume
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Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 2832
Location: Tacoma, WA USA
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 Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 2:31 am Post subject: Carbon Dating |
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It has been proven to be not completely accurate, and in some cases, it isn't accurate at all. Should we give carbon dating as much validity as we do?
I'm still up in the air about this subject. I really don't know what to think about it. Does the fact that I question it give validity to those trying to clam that man hasn't been around for as long as people say?
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technocrat
Joined: 04 Dec 2007
Posts: 216
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:31 am Post subject: |
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I don't think so. It's ok to be skeptical of it, as long as you realize it has some limitations. It is a useful technique, though, but it's not a magic bullet. I think that's the framework you have to look through. There are a lot of dates, for instance, in Archaeology and prehistory that are a bit vague, and they have general periods, but the dates can be off, so if you are looking for really specific dates, you aren't going to get it unless you have dendrochronology to calibrate them or some other calibration mechanism. You also have to worry about potential contamination, which was a problem with Monte Verde Chile and Meadowcroft Rock Shelter.
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Kizzume
Site Admin
Joined: 31 Dec 1969
Posts: 2832
Location: Tacoma, WA USA
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| Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 3:41 am Post subject: |
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I had to look it up because I'm dumb that way  :
| Quote: | | Dendrochronology or tree-ring dating is the method of scientific dating based on the analysis of tree-ring growth patterns. |
Okay, cool. Great post.
| Quote: | Acclaimed in 1997 as the earliest known site in the Americas and the first undoubted pre-Clovis site, Monte Verde, in southern Chile, is now being questioned. Radiocarbon dates place the site at about 12,500 years before present, a millennium before the Clovis culture--named for a New Mexico site where distinctive fluted points were found with mammoth bones--which was long thought to represent the first people in the New World. The challenge throws the debate about the colonization of the Americas wide open.
According to Stuart Fiedel (1999), an archaeologist with John Milner Associates, close scrutiny of the various reports on Monte Verde--especially the 1,100-page final monograph--raises "troubling doubts." Ambiguities, inconsistences, and missing information, he says, make it impossible to demonstrate that artifacts at the site are associated with the plant and animal remains that were dated. Monte Verde, he concludes, is not proof that people were in South America before the advent of Clovis (11,500). Fiedel's criticisms are sure to ruffle feathers of the site's excavators and members of a blue-ribbon delegation of Paleoindian specialists who visited Monte Verde in 1997 and declared it valid. |
That was from this article: http://www.archaeology.org/online/features/clovis/
Then there's this about the Meadowcroft Rock Shelter:
| Quote: | | The site was excavated from 1973 until 1978 by a University of Pittsburgh team led by James M. Adovasio. Radiocarbon dates from the site indicated occupancy as early as 16,000 years ago and possibly as long as 19,000 years ago. The "Clovis First" camp has tried to dispute the age of the findings, but generally their efforts have been dismissed. Although the dates are still controversial to some, archaeologists familiar with evidence from the site agree that Meadowcroft was used by Native Americans in the pre-Clovis era, and as such, provides evidence for very early human habitation of the Americas. In fact, if the 19,000 years ago dating is correct, Meadowcroft Rockshelter is the oldest known Native American cultural site. However, archaeologists agree that the 11,000-13,000 date for the rockshelter is accurate and widely accepted, which makes the concept of "Clovis First", simply not possible. |
that was from this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meadowcroft_Rockshelter
Interesting examples. Thanks for those.
I am only skeptical, I'm not suggesting that they're wrong, but I'm definitely skeptical. 
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