Impact of AMS 14C determinations on considerations of the antiquity of Homo sapiens in the western hemisphere

Abstract

The ability of AMS facilities to obtain direct 14C determinations on milligram amounts of organic extracts of bone has significantly advanced efforts to reexamine the validity of the dating evidence for a number of allegedly Pleistocene Homo sapiens skeletons from the Western Hemisphere previously assigned ages of from about 20000 to 70000 years. AMS 14C analysis has indicated that four of these skeletons are actually of Holocene age, i.e., less than 10000 years old. Holocene ages have previously been documented on the basis of conventional 14C analysis for six other purported Pleistocene human skeletons from the New World. These data point to the danger of accepting pre-Holocene age assignments for such skeletal materials in the absence of direct 14C evidence.