| Abstract: |
Many advances have been made in radiocarbon dating of bone organics, but research on 14C dating of bone inorganic carbon has lagged significantly behind. Using mammoth bone, enamel, and tusk from the Dent and Murray Springs Clovis sites, experiments with the Haas and Banewicz technique of bone apatite dating by step heating demonstrate that accurate radiocarbon ages can be produced from bone apatite carbonate. Furthermore, preliminary findings suggest a correlation between the degree of apatite contamination and the slope of temperature-age spectra, providing a possible means of independently evaluating the accuracy of radiocarbon dates produced by this method.
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