Monday, 5 September 2005

This presentation is part of: Poster Session I

Dating the Kunang Cave Paleolithic Site

Jong Chan Kim1, Myoung Ho KIm1, Jong Gwon Yum2, Minyoung Youn2, Seung-Chan Lee2, Chong Cheoul Yun2, and Yung-Jo Lee3. (1) Physics Department, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, South Korea, (2) National Center for Inter-Universities Research Facility, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-742, South Korea, (3) Department of Archaeology, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 361-763, South Korea

14C AMS and U/Th dating have been performed for the Kunang cave paleolithic site which is located in the central part of the Korean peninsula, a karstic mountainous area.

Five 14C AMS dating measurements (38900±1000, 36400±900, 40600±1600, >51000 & >52000 14C BP) were obtained from deer bone samples. These results of 14C dates indicate that the cave sediments were deposited at a constant rate of 2.19 mm / ka in the upper units; unit 1, 2, and 3. By extrapolating this constant rate, an inference can be made that the Kunang cave was formed around 150 ka BP, and also the travertine layers, namely Unit 2, Unit 5, and Unit 7 were formed during comparatively warm period, the Bölling interstadial (ca.12,500 BP), MIS(Marine Isotope Stage) 5a(ca. 80 ka BP), and MIS 5c (ca. 100 ka BP) respectively. U/Th dating have been performed, for the first time in our laboratory, combining both the alpha spectrometry and the gamma ray detection. The U/Th result of a deer bone sample from the depth of 350 cm is 100~120 ka, and confirms the above constant rate deposition conjecture.


See more of Poster Session I
See more of The 10th International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (September 5-10, 2005)