Radiocarbon Dates and Early Man

Abstract

The results of carbon 14 tests on materials falling within the early man category are in some respects as surprising as a few of those in other fields, but on the whole they are reasonably satisfactory. Because of the regional distribution of the samples and the number of people who sent them in, several nominally belonging in this group are discussed elsewhere. The latter include Gypsum cave, Leonard rockshelter, the early horizons in California and Oregon and the material from South America. The age of the well-known Folsom complex caused considerable comment when the figure pertaining to the type site was released. The average of 4283 ± 250 years obtained from sample 377 was entirely too low in the opinion of many archaeologists and geologists and was completely out of line with dates for other materials known to be later stratigraphically. Because of this, Harold J. Cook, who provided the charcoal used in the test, returned to and carefully reexamined the Folsom quarry in 1950.