The quest for an absolute chronology in human prehistory: Anthropologists, chemists and the fluorine dating method in palaeoanthropology

British Journal for the History of Science

Volumn 42, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 95-114

  Goodrum, Matthew R ^a   Olson, Cora ^a  

^a VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE AND STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

FLUORINE;

ANTHROPOLOGY; ARTICLE; BONE; CHEMISTRY; CHRONOLOGY; COOPERATION; FOSSIL; HISTORY; HUMAN; METHODOLOGY; PALEONTOLOGY;

ANTHROPOLOGY; BONE AND BONES; CHRONOLOGY AS TOPIC; COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR; FLUORINE; FOSSILS; HISTORY, ANCIENT; HUMANS; PALEONTOLOGY;

EID: 67649973306     PISSN: 00070874     EISSN: 1474001X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S000708740800157X     Document Type: Article

References (140)

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13. Lubbock, op. cit. (8), 401-2. Gilliéron published his ideas in Notice sur les habitations Lacustres du pont de Thièle (1862).
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19. On Galley Hill Man and the presapiens theory see F. Spencer, Piltdown: A Scientific Forgery, New York, 1990, 20-8;
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21. For a general discussion of the history of dating methods in archaeology see M. J. Aitken, Science-Based Dating in Archaeology, London, 1990;
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24. S. Nash, Time, Trees, and Prehistory: Tree-Ring Dating and the Development of North American Archaeology, 1914-1950, Salt Lake City, 1999.
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27. G. Marlowe, 'Year one: radiocarbon dating and American archaeology, 1947-1948', American Antiquity (1999), 64, 9-32;
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30. On the discovery and controversy, and the process by which the Piltdown fossils were shown to be a forgery, see Spencer, op. cit. (13); C. Blinderman, The Piltdown Inquest, Buffalo, 1986;
31. R. W. Millar, The Piltdown Men, New York, 1972.
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33. D. Morichini, 'Analisi dello smalto di un dente fossile di elefante e dei denti umani. Memoria di Domenico Morichini presentata da Giachino Pessuti', Memorie di Matematica e di Fisica della Società Italiana della Scienza (Modena) (1805), 12, 73-88.
34. This paper also appeared in the Journal für die Chimie und Physik (1806), 2, 177-87.
35. M. Heinrich Klaproth, 'Recherches sur l'acide fluorique contenu dans un dent fossile d'éléphant', Mémoires de l'Académie royale des sciences de Berlin (1804), 136-9.
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37. idem, 'Untersuchungen über die Flußspathsäure und deren merkwürdigste Verbindungen', Poggendorff's Annalen der Physik und Chemie (1824), 77, 1-48;
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40. J. Middleton, 'Comparative analysis of recent and fossil bones', Philosophical Magazine (1844), 25, 14.
41. Middleton, op. cit. (23), 14-15. See also J. Middleton, 'On fluorine in recent and fossil bones, and the sources from whence it is derived', Philosophical Magazine (1844), 25, 261-2.
42. J. Middleton, 'On fluorine in bones, its source, and its application to the determination of the geological age of fossil bones', Proceedings of the Geological Society (London) [1843-45] (1846), 4, 432.
43. Middleton, op. cit. (25), 432.
44. Middleton, op. cit. (23), 15-18.
45. Middleton, op. cit. (25), 432-3.
46. Middleton, op. cit. (25), 431; original emphasis.
47. E. Rivière, 'Le Gisement quaternaire de Billancourt (Seine)', Association française pour l'avancement des sciences, Comptes rendus (1882), 376.
48. E. Rivière, 'Sur l'âge des squelettes humains des grottes des Baoussé-Roussé, en Italie, dites grottes de Menton', Association française pour l'avancement des sciences, Comptes rendus (1892, part 2), 349.
49. Rivière, op. cit. (31), 348-53.
50. Rivière, op. cit. (31), 354.
51. Rivière, op. cit. (31), 357.
52. Rivière, op. cit. (31), 358.
53. E. Rivière, 'Détermination par l'analyse chimique de la contemporanéité ou de la noncontemporanéité des ossements humains et des ossements d'animaux trouvés dans un même gisement', Association française pour l'avancement des sciences, Comptes rendus (1892, part 2), 379.
54. A. Carnot, 'Recherche du fluor dans les os modernes et les os fossiles', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Académie des sciences (1892), 114, 1189.
55. A. Carnot, 'Sur la Composition des ossements fossiles et la variation de leur teneur en fluor dans les differentes etages geologique', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Académie des sciences (1892), 115, 244.
56. A. Carnot, 'Recherches sur la composition générale et la teneur en fluor des os modernes et des os fossiles des différents âges', Annales des mines (1893), 3, 159-64.
57. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 166, 170-1.
58. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 173-81;
59. see also idem, op. cit. (38), 244-5.
60. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 183-5.
61. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 186, 190.
62. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 181.
63. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 191.
64. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 192.
65. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 192;
66. idem, op. cit. (38), 245-6.
67. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 193-4.
68. See also idem, 'Sur une application de l'analyse chimique pour fixer l'âge d'ossements humains prehistorique', Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des seances de l'Académie des sciences (1892), 115, 337-9.
69. Carnot, op. cit. (39), 194-5.
70. Rivière, op. cit. (36), 379-82.
71. See also idem, 'Fossilisation et analyse chimique des os', Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris (1893), 4, 309-15.
72. A. L. Herrera, 'El hombre prehistórico de México', Memorias de la Sociedad Científica Antonio Alzate (1893), 7, 31-4.
73. The announcement of this discovery appeared in a note published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (1848), 3, 106-7.
74. The discovery and debate over Natchez Man is examined by J. Cotter, 'Update on Natchez Man', American Antiquity (1991), 56, 36-9.
75. T. Wilson, 'On the presence of fluorine as a test for the fossilization of animal bones', American Naturalist (1895), 29, 719-25.
76. T. Wilson, 'On the presence of fluorine as a test for the fossilization of animal bones', American Naturalist (1895), 29, 307-17, 439-56.
77. On Dubois's discovery and the debate over the evolutionary status of Pithecanthropus erectus see B. Theunissen, Eugène Dubois and the Ape-Man from Java: The History of the First 'Missing Link' and Its Discoverer, Dordrecht, 1989.
78. J. M. van Bemmelen, A. Simon Thomas and E. A. Klobbie, 'Sur le Teneur en fluorure de calcium d'un os d'éléphant fossile de l'époque tertiare', Archives néerlandaises des sciences exactes et naturelles (1900), 229-30.
79. K. P. Oakley, 'The fluorine-dating method', Yearbook of Physical Anthropology (1949) (1951), 5, 44.
80. L. S. B. Leakey, 'Fossil human remains from Kanam and Kanjera, Kenya Colony', Nature (1936), 138, 643;
81. P. G. H. Boswell, 'Human remains from Kanam and Kanjera, Kenya Colony', Nature (1935), 135, 371.
82. The controversy over the fossils is examined in J. Reader, Missing Links: The Hunt for Earliest Man, 2nd edn, New York, 1988, 139-42.
83. K. P. Oakley, 'Fluorine and the relative dating of bones', Advancement of Science (1948), 4, 336.
84. See also idem, op. cit. (57), 45.
85. Oakley, op. cit. (59), 336-7.
86. E. Tulley Newton, 'On a human skull and limb-bones found in the Palaeolithic terrace-gravel at Galley Hill, Kent', Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London (1895), 51, 505-27.
87. Evans, op. cit. (11), 607.
88. A. Keith, Ancient Types of Man, London, 1911, 28-45;
89. W. H. L. Duckworth, 'The problem of the Galley Hill skeleton', in Essays and Studies Presented to William Ridgeway on his Sixtieth Birthday, 6 August, 1913 (ed. E. C. Quiggin), Cambridge, 1913, 458-73.
90. K. P. Oakley and M. F. A. Montague, 'A re-consideration of the Galley Hill skeleton', Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History). Geology Series (1949), 1, 42.
91. See also K. P. Oakley, 'Some applications of the fluorine test', Archaeological Newsletter, 1949, 1.
92. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 46.
93. Oakley, op. cit. (64).
94. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 46.
95. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 46. This new method was described in R. F. Milton, H. F. Liddell and J. E. Chivers, 'A new titrimetric method for the estimation of fluorine', Analyst (1947), 72, 43-7.
96. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 46. This method was published in H. H. Willard and O. B. Winter, 'Volumetric method for determination of fluorine', Industrial Engineering and Chemistry: Analytic Edition (1933), 5, 7-10.
97. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 47.
98. Oakley and Montagu, op. cit. (64), 43-5.
99. See also Oakley, op. cit. (64), 1.
100. Oakley, op. cit. (64), 1.
101. Some ofthe key papers on the discovery are C. Dawson and A. Smith Woodward,'On the discoveryof a Palaeolithic human skull and mandible in a flint-bearing gravel overlying the Wealden (Hastings Beds) at Piltdown, Fletching (Sussex)', Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London (1913), 69, 117-51;
102. A. Keith, 'The Piltdown skull and brain cast', Nature (1913), 92, 107-9, 197-9, 292, 345-6;
103. G. E. Smith, 'The controversies concerning the interpretations and meaning of the remains of the dawn-man found near Piltdown', Nature (1913), 92, 468-9. A considerable literature exists on the Piltdown affair. The circumstances surrounding the discovery and interpretation of the fossils and the debate over them is discussed in detail in F. Spencer, op. cit. (13);
104. C. Blinderman, The Piltdown Inquest, Buffalo, 1986;
105. Millar, op. cit. (17);
106. M. Hammond, 'A framework of plausibility for an anthropological forgery: the Piltdown Case', Anthropology (1979), 3, 47-58.
107. Oakley, op. cit. (59), 337;
108. idem, op. cit. (64), 1.
109. K. P. Oakley and C. Randall Hoskins, 'New evidence on the antiquity of Piltdown Man', Nature (1950), 20, 380.
110. K. P. Oakley, 'Relative dating of the Piltdown skull I', Advancement of Science (1950), 6, 343-4;
111. also Oakley and Hoskins, op. cit. (75), 381.
112. Oakley and Hoskins, op. cit. (75), 381-2.
113. Oakley and Hoskins, op. cit. (75), 381.
114. Oakley, op. cit. (76), 344.
115. D. F. W. Baden-Powell and K. P. Oakley, 'Report on the re-investigation of the Westley (Bury St. Edmunds) skull site', Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society (1953), 18, 1-20.
116. On the debate over the Fontéchevade fossils see E. Trinkhaus and P. Shipman, The Neanderthals: Changing the Image of Mankind, New York, 1993, 305-10.
117. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 47-8;
118. K. P. Oakley and G. Henri-Martin, 'Application du test de la fluorine aux crânes de Fontéchevade (Charente)', Anthropologie (1951), 55, 239-47.
119. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 48.
120. Trinkhaus and Shipman, op. cit. (81), 90-125, offer an informative account of the discovery and controversy surrounding the Moulin Quignon jaw.
121. Oakley, op. cit. (57), 48-9.
122. K. P. Oakley, 'Relative dating of the fossil hominids of Europe', Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (1980), 34, 53.
123. See R. E. Taylor, 'The beginnings of radiocarbon dating in American antiquity: a historical perspective', American Antiquity (1985), 50, 311-12;
124. G. Marlowe, 'W. F. Libby and the archaeologists, 1946-1948', Radiocarbon (1980), 22, 1005-14.
125. On the impact of the radiocarbon dating method in archaeology see D. Wilson, The New Archaeology, New York, 1974, Chapters 4-6.
126. J. S. Weiner, W. E. Le Gros Clark and K. P. Oakley, 'The solution of the Piltdown problem', Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Geology) (1953), 2, 139-46;
127. J. S. Weiner and K. P. Oakley, 'The Piltdown fraud: available evidence reviewed', American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1954), 12, 1-7;
128. J. S. Weiner, The Piltdown Forgery, Oxford, 1955, Chapter 4.
129. A full discussion of the evidence and the means employed by the team led by Weiner and Oakley to uncover the Piltdown hoax is provided in Weiner, op. cit. (88);
130. Spencer, op. cit. (13), Chapter 6.
131. R. F. Heizer, 'On the methods of chemical analysis of bone as an aid to prehistoric culture chronology', Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey (1950), 10-14;
132. R. F. Heizer and S. F. Cook, 'Fluorine and other chemical tests of some North American human and fossil bones', American Journal of Physical Anthropology (1952), 10, 289-303;
133. S. F. Cook and R. F. Heizer, 'The present status of chemical methods for dating prehistoric bone', American Antiquity (1953), 18, 354-8.
134. I plan to explore the research of Heizer and Cook as well as the application of their methods by Oakley in a separate paper.
135. Oakley's later applications of the fluorine dating method are recorded in K. P. Oakley, 'Relative dating of the fossil hominids of Europe', Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) (Geology) (1980), 34, 1-63.
136. C. S. Coon, 'Excavations in Hotu Cave, Iran, 1951, a preliminary report', Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society (1952), 96, 231-49.
137. Examples of the recent use of the method can be found in R. T. Callaghan, 'Analysis of the fluoride content of human remains from the Gray Site, Saskatchewan', Plains Anthropologist (1986), 31, 317-28;
138. A. Haddy and A. Hanson, 'Nitrogen and fluorine dating of Moundville skeleton samples', Archaeometry (1982), 24, 37-44;
139. S. B. Lal, 'Bone fluorine as a measure of relative chronology at Piprahwa', Current Anthropology (1978), 19, 150-1.
140. C. Randall Hoskins and C. F. M. Fryd, 'The determination of fluorine in Piltdown and related fossils', Journal of Applied Chemistry (1955), 5, 85-7.