title: Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone collagen associated with early pottery at Yuchanyan Cave, Hunan Province, China.
abstract: Yuchanyan Cave in Daoxian County, Hunan Province (People's Republic of China), yielded fragmentary remains of 2 or more ceramic vessels, in addition to large amounts of ash, a rich animal bone assemblage, cobble and flake artifacts, bone tools, and shell tools. The artifacts indicate that the cave was a Late Paleolithic foragers' camp. Here we report on the radiocarbon ages of the sediments based on analyses of charcoal and bone collagen. The best-preserved charcoal and bone samples were identified by prescreening in the field and laboratory. The dates range from around 21,000 to 13,800 cal BP. We show that the age of the ancient pottery ranges between 18,300 and 15,430 cal BP. Charcoal and bone collagen samples located above and below one of the fragments produced dates of around 18,000. These ceramic potsherds therefore provide some of the earliest evidence for pottery making in China.
authors.affiliation: Department of Land of Israel Studies, Bar Ilan University, 52900 Ramat Gan, Israel. Elisabetta.Boaretto@weizmann.ac.il
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Boaretto
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Jiarong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Ofer
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bar-Yosef
authors.forename: Vikki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chu
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.forename: Kexin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Tianlong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Jiao
authors.forename: Shuicheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Haibin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Goldberg
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weiner
mesh_terms: D001106:Archaeology; D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000737:chemistry*; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis*; D002681:China; D003094:Collagen / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003094:Collagen