ABSTRACT
Radiocarbon dating provided the first continent-wide common chronometric scale for New World archaeological research. This chapter focuses on some of the major chronological understandings brought about as a direct outgrowth of the introduction and application of the 14C method in New World archaeological scholarship beginning in the decade of the 1950s. Except for the discussion of the Paleoamerican period focused on North America, this review of the impact of 14C dating on the understanding of the chronology of the evolution of New World cultures will be considered on a regional basis. Two case studies, the 14C dating of the Kennewick skeleton in North America and of materials from the site of Monte Verde, Chile, in South America, are considered in some detail to provide concrete archaeological and geological contexts that illustrate general issues that arise in the critical utilization of the 14C technique in archeological research.
