Andes Radiocarbon Database for Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru

Resumen

This volume assembles, from a variety of sources, the archaeological radiocarbon dates known from the central Andes: 2,673 in total, with 99, 657, and 1,917 dates from Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru, respectively. The book is available from Polbooks S.C., ul. Pradnicka 29/4A, 31-202 Krakow, Poland. Assembling the dates began in 1989; samples collected as late as the early 1990s are reported, but for the most part the volume will be useful for coverage through the late 1980s. Site, material dated, provenience and context, collector, and references are among the information listed for each date, and the authors have calibrated each date by a standard method. The listing of dates is organized alphabetically by laboratory abbreviation and sequence number. A list of references presents the sources from which the dates were derived. Four valuable indexes are included: a list of dates by site within provinces or departments in each country; a chronological index of dates listed by time intervals of increasing duration with greater antiquity; an index of dates from each source cited; and a list of dates reported with discrepancies in different sources. The authors provide two lists of radiocarbon laboratories and their directors; one includes addresses, and the other includes contact information. Three introductory chapters consider problems of radiocarbon dating in the Central Andes, discuss the fundamental concepts of radiocarbon dating, and describe the structure of their database. An IBM-compatible version of the database using Fox Pro exists, but it is not yet available commercially. Overall, this volume represents a very ambitious project that resulted in an extremely useful and accurate product that will save investigators countless hours of searching out dates for sites, regions, or time periods. Equity Issues for Women in Archeology. MARGARET C. NELSON, SARAH M. NELSON, and ALISON WYLIE, editors. Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association No. 5. American Anthropological Association, Arlington, Virginia, 1994. xii + 236 pp., 41 tables, 36 figures, notes, references. $24.95 (paper).