The age of ambergris

Abstract

Ambergris, which is a coprolith originating from the sperm whale, has been found only rarely, but for centuries, as jetsam on beaches all over the world. There are no reliable data indicating how long such samples may have remained at sea, with unsubstantiated accounts suggesting maybe decades. Here, we obtained over forty jetsam samples, many collected on known dates, from mostly known beach locations across the globe. Such an inventory of verified jetsam ambergris is unprecedented. Each sample was characterised by analytical methods such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). We then determined the radiocarbon ages of some of the samples by well-described accelerator-MS techniques. Surprisingly, some samples of jetsam have remained in the environment for about a thousand years.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Ambergris
• age
• radiocarbon
• jetsam
• 13C

Acknowledgments

We thank J. Smith and A. Wells (Ambergris Connect Ltd) for sample information and valuable discussions. We are grateful to C. Bisiaux, C. Bramley-Wright, R. Craig, T. Ergoconcept, M. Kassim, P. Lillis, G. McPhail, and Y. Yoshida, for help with sample collection and to Dr C. A. Lewis (University of Plymouth) for help with statistics. Samples from Chile were collected by T. Helle Pessot, S. Mansilla Bastías and N. Wolff Reinarz (Universidad Austral de Chile), to whom we are also very grateful. We thank James Quinn (University of Plymouth Cartographic Unit) for preparing Figure 1.