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Fluorine Dating of Human Bone at the Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize

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Fluorine Dating of Human Bone at the Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2016 Fluorine Dating Of Human Bone At The Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery Of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize Morgan Isaacs University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Isaacs, Morgan, "Fluorine Dating Of Human Bone At The Pre-Columbian Maya Cemetery Of Caves Branch Rockshelter, Belize" (2016). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 356. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/356 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FLUORINE DATING OF HUMAN BONE AT THE PRE-COLUMBIAN MAYA CEMETERY OF CAVES BRANCH ROCKSHELTER, BELIZE A Thesis Presented for the Master of Arts Degree The University of Mississippi Morgan Isaacs December 2016 Copyright © 2016 by Morgan Isaacs All rights reserved ABSTRACT This thesis tests the ion-selective electrode fluorine dating method on the remains from the Maya mortuary site Caves Branch Rockshelter (CBR) in Belize. CBR is a cemetery containing at least 400 burials from the late Preclassic to the Postclassic periods. The intensive use and reuse of the site has disturbed the burial matrices, making it difficult to seriate the burials. Fluorine dating analyzes the amount of fluorine that has accumulated in bone over time. In principle, an older burial will contain more fluorine from groundwater than a more recently buried bone; however, this principle must be tested at each site as fluorine absorption is affected by many environmental factors. The results indicate fluorine dating is a viable method for seriating burials at CBR. However, comingling and poor preservation of the remains make interpreting the data difficult. Better dating resolution may be achieved with additional radiocarbon assays and specialized excavation techniques. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the dedication and passion of many other archaeologists and scientists whose work has directly or indirectly contributed to this research. I would foremost like to thank all involved for their very generous amount of patience. I would especially like to thank my advising professors, Carolyn Freiwald, for the great effort she put forward in the form of advice and edits, and Gabriel Wrobel for the initial direction of the thesis and opportunity to work with the data and materials from Caves Branch Rockshelter. I would also like to thank the rest of my thesis committee, Jay Johnson and Matthew Murray. Additionally, I would like to make an extra thank you to Jay Johnson, Robbie Ethridge, and Gabe Wrobel for being such dedicated and knowledgeable educators. I would also like to express my gratitude to Dr. Clint Williford and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Mississippi for very generously providing the use of a nicely equipped chemistry laboratory. Finally, endless love for my family for their continuous support and incessant reminders to complete my thesis. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................................. iii LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ....................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER I .................................................................................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1 MAYA ARCHAEOLOGY AND BURIAL CONTEXTS ...................................................... 1 FLUORINE DATING AT CBR .............................................................................................. 2 FLUORINE DATING ............................................................................................................. 4 SUMMARY............................................................................................................................. 6 CHAPTER II ................................................................................................................................... 8 INTERPRETATIONS OF MAYA BURIAL CONTEXTS ....................................................... 8 CATALOGING VARIATION ................................................................................................ 9 CAVE AND ROCKSHELTER MORTUARY SITES ......................................................... 11 SITES IN RELATION TO CBR ........................................................................................... 13 iv CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 13 CHAPTER III ............................................................................................................................... 15 CAVES BRANCH ROCKSHELTER ...................................................................................... 15 ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS AT CBR ......................................................... 15 CBR IN THE LAB ................................................................................................................ 20 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 20 CHAPTER IV ............................................................................................................................... 22 FLUORINE DATING ............................................................................................................... 22 HISTORY OF FLUORINE DATING ................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER V ................................................................................................................................ 36 METHODS................................................................................................................................ 36 SPECIMEN SELECTION ..................................................................................................... 36 SPECIMEN PREPARATION ............................................................................................... 38 TESTING............................................................................................................................... 39 QUALITY CONTROL.......................................................................................................... 40 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 41 CHAPTER VI ............................................................................................................................... 42 RESULTS.................................................................................................................................. 42 DATA OVERVIEW .............................................................................................................. 42 v VERIFYING RESULTS ....................................................................................................... 43 TESTING FOR EFFICACY ................................................................................................. 46 DISCUSSING CONTEXTUAL RELATIONSHIPS ............................................................ 54 COMPARING TO RADIOMETRICALLY DATED SPECIMENS .................................... 56 CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................... 58 CHAPTER VII .............................................................................................................................. 59 CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................... 59 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 64 LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 71 APPENDIX I: FLUORINE AMOUNTS .................................................................................. 72 APPENDIX II: OUTLIERS ...................................................................................................... 78 APPENDIX III: COMPARISON OF ALL REPEATING BONES ......................................... 80 APPENDIX IV: UNGROUPED RADIOCARBON DATED SPECIMENS ........................... 84 APPENDIX V: BONES TESTED FOR WEIGHT CORRELATION ..................................... 87 VITA ............................................................................................................................................. 89 vi LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE Figure 1: Map of Upper Belize Valley ........................................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Map of Caves Branch
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