[Coyoteman]

Weird, i had a midterm and i used Boxgrove man as an example for how early humanoids used climate change to their benefit. This find is actually fairly old, 1983-1996. They actually used faunal remains to date the stratigraphy. The main fossils were voles that due to their eagerness to adapt to climatic and terrestorial changes they make great analytic tools for dating sites that dont have associated charcoal deposits.

That form of dating, using something which appears for a short time, is said to rely on a "time stratigraphic marker." In the future, the removable pop-tops from beer cans will be an excellent example--widespread, narrow in time, and extremely durable!

Radiocarbon dating is only good back to about 50,000 years, so most fossil man finds have to be dated by other means.

I have a bunch of good radiocarbon links on my FR home page if anyone wants more details.

[Docbarleypop]

you are absolutely right about using minor items such as beertabs and the like for dating in situ items. in deetz’ “in small things forgotten” Deetz uses items that are obviously trash items such as clay pipes, tin cans, and nails to try to turn historical archaeologists from searching only for big finds and shows how these seemingly mundane items are probally more usefull in creating a description of a site than say a beautiful intact vase or its like.