Paleoclimatic Variation in the Valley of Guatemala during Precolumbian Times

AMS C14 Dates

In December we received the AMS radiocarbon dates from the Amatitlán cores, for which we are deeply indebted to the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

The dates are in general quite young, ranging from around 600 B.C. to sometime between 1200 and 1300 A.D.  The AM-15-III-00 date is apparently an anomaly, probably a reflection of the high sedimentation rates in the lake area. Although the dates will provide little information regarding post-Pleistocene climate changes, they will be highly relevant for correlating any climatic variation which may have affected the Kaminaljuyú irrigation system which existed between 600 B.C. and 200 A.D.

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