TEMPORAL HYGIENE: PROBLEMS IN CULTURAL CHRONOLOGY OF THE LATE PREHISTORIC PERIOD OF THE MIDDLE OHIO RIVER VALLEY

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates are an independent source of data for constructing temporal relationships. Too often dates are shoehorned by preconceptions and hobbled by casual sample selection, reporting, and interpretation. Several authors have established quality-control criteria for evaluating and cleansing regional radiocarbon databases. Recent applications of such temporal hygiene practices in paleoecology and archaeology have resulted in significant reinterpretations of the sequence, timing, and tempo of change. Further, a new appreciation is often gained of the extent of synchronic variability. I apply a minimal hygienic protocol based on three criteria: material dated, method of age estimation, and when the sample was run. I illustrate both the value of and the need for such analyses by cleaning up a small sample of dates (N = 125) from 11 Fort Ancient sites. The single largest problem for determining occupation timing is the use of wood samples. Nearly 80 percent of the assays are unacceptable for use in reconstructing occupation history, except to frame the maximal age of occupation. The modifications to the timing and duration of occupation for these 11 sites significantly undermine the logical inferential structure of current reconstructions of change and difference in the middle Ohio River valley.