A Critical Approach to 14C Dating in the Caribbean: Using Chronometric Hygiene to Evaluate Chronological Control and Prehistoric Settlement

Abstract

Radiocarbon (14C) dating is one of the most important tools for archaeologists. Although radiocarbon dates provide a temporal foundation for analyzing the remains of past cultures, it is critical that these dates be periodically reviewed for consistency and accuracy to ensure chronological control. A review of publications pertaining to Caribbean archaeology since the 1960s demonstrates that researchers there have often failed to adequately report and critique radiocarbon dates, making it difficult to fully assess their value in chronology building. A chronometric hygiene analysis of over 600 dates reveals that when isolated, culturally ambiguous, poorly provenienced, and contaminated dates are rejected, only about 80 percent remain useful. In addition, the paucity of early Saladoid (ca. 500 B.C.–A.D. 1) and Archaic age (ca. 2500–500 B.C.) dates in the southern Lesser Antilles suggests that there was not a “stepping-stone” migration of prehistoric peoples northward from South America into the Lesser Antilles.