Contact-Era Chronology Building in Iroquoia: Age Estimates for Arendarhonon Sites and Implications for Identifying Champlain's Cahiagué

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating is rarely used in historical or contact-era North American archaeology because of idiosyncrasies of the calibration curve that result in ambiguous calendar dates for this period. We explore the potential and requirements for radiocarbon dating and Bayesian analysis to create a time frame for early contact-era sites in northeast North America independent of the assumptions and approximations involved in temporal constructs based on trade goods and other archaeological correlates. To illustrate, we use Bayesian chronological modeling to analyze radiocarbon dates on short-lived samples and a post from four Huron-Wendat Arendarhonon sites (Benson, Sopher, Ball, and Warminster) to establish an independent chronology. We find that Warminster was likely occupied in 1615–1616, and so is the most likely candidate for the site of Cahiagué visited by Samuel de Champlain in 1615–1616, versus the other main suggested alternative, Ball, which dates earlier, as do the Sopher and Benson sites. In fact, the Benson site seems likely to date ~50 years earlier than currently thought. We present the methods employed to arrive at these new, independent age estimates and argue that absolute redating of historic-era sites is necessary to accurately assess existing interpretations based on relative dating and associated regional narratives.

Radiocarbon, Bayesian chronological modeling and early European metal circulation in the sixteenth-century AD Mohawk River Valley, USA

“…The results of research presented here take a further step away from building regional chronologies for archaeological sites based solely on, or combined with, ideas about changes in artifact assemblages. Like other recent Bayesian analyses in Northern Iroquoia [13, 14], our results challenge traditional interpretations of regional chronologies tied to site artifact assemblages.…”

“…are capitalized in our text. The main aim of the analyses is to resolve plausible site dates and site durations for the set of sites despite the reversal/plateau in the radiocarbon calibration curve ~1500–1600 which has the tendency to spread out dating probability and create ambiguity in the absence of constraints [13, 14]. This problem was highlighted for our project in the initial review of the available dates and our preliminary Model 1 (S4 File).…”

“…Benson, with an assemblage of European metals similar to Smith-Pagerie, Cayadutta, Klock, and Garoga, was originally thought to date to the second half of the sixteenth century. However, recent radiocarbon investigation places it within the early to mid-sixteenth century (68.2% hpd), with the metal having likely circulated to the site during its occupation rather than at its beginning [14]. The Mantle (or Jean-Baptiste Lainé) site, in the Rouge River-West Duffins drainage, has an assemblage of European artifacts similar to Smith-Pagerie, Cayadutta, Klock, and Garoga.…”

“…The finding of an iron object at the ~1500–1550 Mantle (or Jean-Baptiste Lainé) site in southern Ontario was the best-documented early evidence of European metals in Northern Iroquoia [12]. However, recent re-dating of the site with a large number of radiocarbon dates (n = 41) and Bayesian modeling indicates an occupation of ~1596–1618 [13], thus raising questions about the timeframe for early exchange of European metals in the region and, along with new Bayesian dating of other southern Ontario sites, the appropriateness of presence or absence of metal objects as chronological markers in northern Iroquoia [13, 14].…”

“…These include refinements in sample pretreatment and AMS dating resulting in the ability to date much smaller samples but with considerably greater precision (substantially smaller radiocarbon age error terms), on-going calibration curve refinements through several iterations of the mid-latitude northern hemisphere radiocarbon calibration curve, and the advent of Bayesian analysis of large radiocarbon age datasets which takes into consideration prior information about archaeological sites and regional sequences enabling the building of robust site and regional chronology models at much increased resolution [21–27]. As recently demonstrated, the application of Bayesian modeling with large suites of AMS radiocarbon dates can substantially alter traditional archaeological chronologies in Northern Iroquoia [13, 14].…”