Facebook  Twitter  Flickr  YouTube  RSS Feed

US Route 301 Archaeology Update

Written on: June 17th, 2014 in Archaeology Updates US301

Identification and AMS Radiocarbon Dating of Charcoal and Botanic Samples From the Elkins B Site (7NC-G-174) in New Castle County, Delaware

By Peter Kovacik with assistance from R. A. Varney of Paleo Research Institute, Golden, Colorado for Hunter Research, Inc.

 This report provides carbon 14 dates for five prehistoric pits features from the Elkins B site excavated by Hunter Research, Inc.

 Context 514 dates to the Middle Archaic Period

Context 518 dates to the Woodland I – Middle Woodland Period

Context 520 dates to the end of the Woodland I – Middle Woodland Period

Context 536 dates to the end of the Woodland II Period – Early Contact Period

Context 528 dates from circa AD 1730 to AD 1810

Of note:  Context 528 which dates to circa 1730 to 1810 was located approximately 40 feet west of the Elkins B cellar hole which dates from the mid-1720’s through the early 1730’s falls within the early part of the range but contained no historic artifacts and in fact exhibited all of the characteristics of a prehistoric storage pit.  Preliminary examination of the material culture has suggested the occupants of Elkins B may have included an assimilated Native American.  This site contains very few subsurface features, so perhaps if a Native American was living there a combination of European and traditional Native American traits were employed at this site.  Below is a table with the raw and calibrated data from the five pit features.   

RADIOCARBON RESULTS FOR SAMPLES FROM

THE ELKINS B SITE (7NC-G-174) IN NEW CASTLE COUNTY, DELAWARE

 * Reported in radiocarbon years at 1 standard deviation measurement precision (68.2%),

corrected for δ¹³C.

 ** δ¹³C values are measured by AMS during the ¹⁴C measurement.  The AMS-δ¹³C values

are used for the ¹⁴C calculation and should not be used for dietary or

paleoenvironmental interpretations.