Thermoluminescence dating of St. Croix ceramics: Chronology building in Southwestern Nova Scotia

Abstract

Using the classic thermoluminescence (TL) dating technique for fired ceramic materials, we have obtained the first direct ages for five ceramic artifacts recovered from BfDa-1, a prehistoric archaeological site located in St. Croix, southcentral Nova Scotia. BfDa-1 is the only archaeological site in Nova Scotia to produce the full range of ceramic styles associated with the Woodland or Ceramic Period (c. 1050 B.C. to A.D. 1500); thus our new chronology can be used to revise the current local and regional ceramic chronologies. The five sherds from the St. Croix site yielded absolute gas of 1.15 ± 0.15 ka to 2.62 ± 0.29 ka (1 ka = 1000 years). The oldest of these TL ages was obtained on a sherd decorated with a pseudoscallop shell design and is in excellent agreement with a 14C date of 2500 ± 120 B.P. associated with Early Ceramic artifacts at this site. The other TL ages are in agreement with the relative ceramic chronology deduced from their decorative attributes. All five TL dates are in the correct depth-age order. This demonstrates that the recent excavations explored a part of the site which remained undisturbed in spite of extensive agricultural and horticultural activities in the vicinity in recent centuries. The dates also indicate a high degree of compression for the cultural remains at the site. They suggest a sediment deposition rate of 1.3 cm/100 yr during the early stages of the occupation period (2000–2600 yr B.P.), and a decrease in the deposition rate to 0.5 cm/100 yr during the last 2000 years. These dates provide the first successful application of TL dating to ceramics of the Minas Basin area. They confirm an initial hypothesis based on the stylistic attributes of ceramics recovered from BfDa-1, that human occupation at the site must have been of long duration. The excellent quality of the analytical data indicates that the TL dating technique should be well suited to the study of ceramic technology in other parts of the province, and that local mineralogy is suitable for optical dating of sediments at the site and elsewhere in Nova Scotia. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.