Schurr, Mark R. (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University)
FLUORIDE DATING OF BURIALS FROM THE ANGEL SITE: A FINAL REPORT
The fluoride contents of prehistoric bones can be used to determine the relative
ages of the specimens with ease when fluoride content is measured using an ion
selective electrode. Measurements of fluoride contents of ribs from prehistoric
burials from the Angel Site (12 Vg 1), a large prehistoric village and ceremonial
center in southwestern Indiana, demonstrate that fluoride dating can be used to
determine the occupational chronology of a prehistoric site where other methods
of dating are inapplicable.
The applicability of this method for developing shortterm chronologies was tested
by determining the fluoride contents of ribs from five pairs of adult burials
of known chronological relationships within each pair (according to their archaeological
contexts). The fluoride contents of all the specimens behave as expected: earlier
specimens have significantly higher fluoride contents than later ones, and contemporary
specimens show no significant difference in fluoride content (Figure
9). These correspondences between fluoride content and relative age for burials
from contexts of known relative age show that fluoride measurements are an excellent
tool for the relative chronological ranking of the Angel burials.
The fluoride contents of 38 additional burials were determined in order to provide
new information about the chronology of prehistoric mortuary behavior at the site.
Different areas of the site were probably used as cemeteries and were contemporary
with the "village occupation," because there is no significant difference between
the fluoride contents of the burials analyzed from the "village occupation" and
the fluoride contents of burials analyzed from Subdivisions 013D, R12A, SllD,
and U12A.
A lack of significant differences in fluoride contents between groups of burials
that postdate various structural features in the "village occupations suggests
that these burials were interred in the village area after the structures and
other features were no longer in use. All appear to postdate house wall or other
trenches and all the stockades (the curtain wall and both the inner and outer
stockades). Burials analyzed from the "village occupation" that could not be chronologically
related to other archaeological features were probably interred at the same time
as burials which could be related to features, since none of these have fluoride
contents greater than that of Burial 26/ XllC, which postdated a wall trench that
predated Feature 46/XllC.
Fluoride dating of burials from the Angel Site suggests that the burials represent
a single continuous episode of mortuary activity which occurred relatively late
in the occupation of the site. [return to 1988 abstracts menu][continue to next]