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Radiocarbon Dating of Interdune Paleo‐Wetland Deposits to Constrain the Age of Mid‐to‐Late Holocene Microlithic Artifacts from the Zhongba site, Southwestern Qinghai‐Tibet Plateau
Author(s) -
Hudson Adam M.,
Olsen John W.,
Quade Jay
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
geoarchaeology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1520-6548
pISSN - 0883-6353
DOI - 10.1002/gea.21459
Subject(s) - radiocarbon dating , geology , holocene , archaeology , wetland , bedrock , period (music) , floodplain , vegetation (pathology) , overbank , paleontology , physical geography , geography , ecology , sedimentary depositional environment , medicine , physics , cartography , pathology , structural basin , acoustics , biology
Microlithic artifacts, some found in situ , are abundant in the Z hongba archaeological site in southwestern T ibet. The site environment consists of extant wetlands and paleo‐wetland deposits found in depressions between sand dunes derived from the Yarlung Tsangpo floodplain. Constraining 14 C dates from wetland vegetation and shell from one site fall between ca . 6600–2600 cal. yr B.P., while a second site is dated 3400–1200 cal. yr B.P. A significant and variable 14 C reservoir effect—up to 1400 14 C yr—limits these ranges to terminus post quem constraints. The in situ artifacts are supplemented by surface collections fully characterizing raw material and typological variability for each site. Raw material found at Zhongba is chert and chalcedony likely sourced from C retaceous bedrock near the site. Typologically, microblades are nongeometric and are derived from conical and wedge‐shaped cores similar to those identified in the Q inghai L ake B asin and the C hang T ang N ature R eserve of similar or greater age. The later occupation period at Z hongba is broadly contemporaneous with sites on the Q inghai‐ T ibet P lateau containing bronze and iron artifacts, indicating microlithic technology remained an important tool‐making strategy in western T ibet late into the protohistoric period.