Staff

TOPIC: Radiocarbon calibration and palaeoclimate during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3.

Funding has been awarded through Marsden 2003 (administered by the Royal Society of New Zealand) for a major research initiative testing the hypothesis of abrupt climatic change during Oxygen Isotope Stage 3 using New Zealand kauri (Agathis Australis). C¹⁴ concentration varies with solar fluctuation and we hope to obtain a record of variation at this time.

Related publications:

• McCormac F.G, Reimer, P.J., Hogg A.G., Higham, T.F.G, Baillie, M.G.L, Palmer, J.G, & Stuiver M. (2002). Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time scale for the Southern Hemisphere AD 1850 to 950. Radiocarbon, 44, No. 3.
• Hogg A.G., McCormac F.G, Higham, T.F.G, Baillie, M.G.L, Palmer, J.G, (2002). High-Precision 14C Measurements of Contemporaneous Tree-ring Dated Wood from the British Isles and New Zealand: AD 1850 to 950. Radiocarbon, 44, No. 3, 633-640.
• McCormac F.G, Hogg A.G, Higham, T.F.G, Lynch-Steiglitz, J., Broecker, W.S, Baillie, M.G.L, Palmer, J.G, L. Xiong, Pilcher, J.R, Brown, D and Hoper, S.T. 1998. Temporal variation in the interhemispheric 14C offset. Geophysical Research Letters, 25(9):1321-4.
• Hoper, S.T., McCormac, F.G., Hogg, A.G., Higham, T.F.G and Head, M.J. 1998. Evaluation of wood pre-treatments on Oak and Cedar. Radiocarbon, 40: 45-50.
• McCormac F.G, Hogg A.G, Higham, T.F.G, Baillie, M.G.L, Palmer, J.G, L. Xiong, Pilcher, J.R, Brown, D and Hoper, S.T. 1998. Variations of Radiocarbon in Tree-Rings: Southern Hemisphere Offset Preliminary Results. Radiocarbon, 40: 1153-1159.

TOPIC: Shell dating in Melanesia and its application to archaeological chronology.

Research at the Waikato laboratory has concentrated upon radiocarbon dating of shell from Pacific archaeological sites, and an evaluation of some of the sources of error within certain species and environments. A series of modern shell and environmental samples have been collected from around Roviana Lagoon on New Georgia lsland as part of ongoing research into possible variation in ΔR with different shell marine, estuarine, seagrass meadows and coral reef habitats. Known-age samples have been acquired from various sources; Roviana Lagoon, Malaita and Russell Islands in the Solomons; Bouganville; North West New Ireland; New Caledonia; the Duke of York Islands; and Rabual Harbour, New Britian. Temporal changes in ΔR are being investigated using a number of marine/terrestrial pairs from archaeological sites: Ifo and Mangaasi in Vanuatu, Nenumbo in the Reef/Santa Cruz Islands Watom in the Bismarcks.

This research is being undertaken in collaboration with Dr Richard Walter (Otago University) and Dr Peter Sheppard (Auckland University), Prof. Roger Green (Auckland University), Matthew Phelan (Aborigonal Affairs, Victoria), Dr. Peter White (Sydney University), Dr. Stuart Bedford (NZ Historic Places Trust).

Publications:

• Phelan, M.B. 1999. A ΔR correction value for Samoa from known-age marine shells. Radiocarbon, 41(1): 99-101.
  
• Petchey, F., Phelan, M., White, P. 2004. New ∆R  values for the southwest Pacific Ocean. Radiocarbon, 46(2):1005-1014.

   

TOPIC: Dating the earliest archaeological evidence for colonisation of New Zealand.

The question of when the first people discovered New Zealand, the last major landmass to be found by modern humans before the Industrial Era, has been much debated. Orthodox propositions based largely upon the comparison of material culture types between New Zealand and tropical East Polynesia, took the earliest dates with which such assemblages have been associated to suggest colonisation around 1250-1300 AD. In 1996, Richard Holdaway published a controversial paper in which he presented radiocarbon data showing rat determinations up to 2000 yr BP. These rat bone determinations have been questioned (Anderson 1996; Higham and Petchey 2000). Researchers at the Waikato Laboratory continue to produce further evidence for human settlement around the 13/14th centuries AD.

Publications:

• Hogg, A.G., Higham, T.F.G, Lowe, D.J. Palmer, J.G., Reimer, P.J, and Newnham, R.M. 2003. A wiggle-match date for Polynesian settlement of New Zealand. Antiquity, 77(295):116-125.
• Higham, T.F.G and Hogg, A.G. 1997. Evidence for late Polynesian colonisation of New Zealand: University of Waikato Radiocarbon Measurements. Radiocarbon, 39(2): 149-192.
• Higham, T.F.G, Anderson, A.J and Jacomb, C. 1999. Dating the first New Zealanders: the chronology of Wairau Bar. Antiquity, 73:420-27.
• Higham, T.F.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Petchey, F.J., Tompkins, C. and Taylor, M. 2004. New AMS radiocarbon determinations from Kokohuia, New Zealand. 14C and Archaeology, Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium, Oxford 2002 (eds. T. Higham, C. Bronk Ramsey, C. Owen). Oxford University School of Archaeology Monograph 62, Oxbow Books, Pp:135-51.
• Higham, T.F.G and Petchey, F.J. 2000. On the reliability of rat bone for dating in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 30(4):399-409.

TOPIC: Bone dating

Research into the question of the reliability of radiocarbon determinations of bone has focussed upon investigating bone preservation state, contamination and dietary effects. Specific focus has been on human, fish and rat bone. Research so far has indicated that careful assessment of the bone preservation state, and the influence of diet on bone radiocarbon ages.

Publications:

• Petchey, F.J. 1999: New Zealand Bone Dating Revisited: A radiocarbon discard protocol for bone. New Zealand Journal of Archaeology, (1997); 81-124.
• Petchey, F. 2000. Radiocarbon Dating Fish Bone from the Houhora Archaeological Site, New Zealand. Archaeology in Oceania, 35:104-15.
• Higham, T.F.G. and Petchey, F.J. 2000. On the reliability of archaeological rat bone for radiocarbon dating in New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 30(4):399-409.
• Petchey, F.J and Higham, T.F.G. 2000. Bone diagenesis and radiocarbon dating of fish bone at the Shag River Mouth site, New Zealand. Journal of Archaeological Science, 27: 135-150.
• Petchey, F. & Green R, 2005. Use of three isotopes to calibrate human bone radiocarbon determinations from Kainapirina (SAC), Watom Island, Papua New Guinea. Radiocarbon,47(2): (in press)

The Waikato Radiocarbon Dating Fund