Earth Sciences Commons^™

Ams Dating Of Ancient Plant Residues From Experimental Stone Tools: A Pilot Study, Andrea Yates, Andrew Smith, Jeffrey Parr, Anja Scheffers, Renaud Joannes-Boyau

Jeffrey Parr

Residue analyses on stone artefacts have contributed to resolving functional questions in stone tool research. Although identifying the function of tools through the analysis of their micro-residues is possible, the establishment of a sound numerical chronology for stone tools lacking a clear stratigraphic sequence, such as surface scatters, remains a challenge. While radiocarbon dating of blood residue on stone artefacts has been published previously (Loy 1987, 1990, 1993; Loy et al., 1990; Nelson et al.1986), this paper reports on an experiment designed to assess the possibility of directly dating residues on stone artefacts by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) based radiocarbon …