Carbon Dating Prehistoric Soot from Salts Cave, Kentucky

Abstract

AbstractThe interiors of two large Kentucky caves — Mammoth Cave and nearby Salts Cave, both within Mammoth Cave National Park — were much visited and utilized by prehistoric Indians. Large quantities of artifacts and numerous other evidences of human activity are still present in both caves, especially in undisturbed portions of Salts Cave. Most of the remains comprise perishable materials of vegetable fiber and wood, and plants or plant parts carried into the caves by the aboriginal inhabitants of the region. Several collections of artifacts gathered 40 or 50 years ago from the surface in the Mammoth Cave area have recently been examined by D. W. Schwartz of the University of Kentucky. One such collection hints at a village site of the late Archaic-Early Woodland time range somewhere near the entrance to Salts Cave. In 1961, specimens of the black-brown ceiling and wall deposits which are quite extensive in parts of both Salts and Mammoth caves were collected and analyzed. The deposits were found to be soot, presumably from aboriginal torches and hearths whose remains occur plentifully in some areas of the caves. A sample of soot from Salts Cave was submitted for radiocarbon determination; the resulting date is 3075 ± 140 B.P. Two dates had been previously obtained by the National Park Service from artifacts in Mammoth Cave: 2230 ± 40 B.P. and 2370 ± 60 B.P. These three dates support the suggestion of a late Archaic-Early Woodland placement for the prehistoric activity in Salts and Mammoth caves.