Radiocarbon Dating the Human Occupation at Sandia Cave, New Mexico

Abstract

AbstractSandia Cave generated much interest when in the 1940s extinct Pleistocene megafauna were reported in association with what appeared to be a pre-Folsom Paleoindian component. By the 1950s a series of controversies regarding the stratigraphy and dating began to push the site into obscurity. The human occupation at the site has never been directly dated beyond 2250 ± 50 BP, and nonartifactual associated bone will not provide reliable age estimates because of extensive bioturbation, poor provenience, and the fact that the majority of fossils were accumulated by carnivores and rodents, rather than humans. However, a small number of mineralized fragments display human modification, suggesting occasional human activity of some antiquity at the site. One bone tool, one burned bone, and four bones bearing butchery marks were subjected to direct Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating. Unfortunately, mineralized bones did not preserve sufficient collagen to be dated. Two unmineralized specimens (the burned bone and the bone tool) push the direct Chronometric ages for the human occupation at Sandia Cave back to 3447 ± 96 BP. An older Folsom occupation is suggested by associated dates on breccia, but all lines of evidence taken together provide no support for a pre-Folsom human occupation.