FOSSIL BONES FROM THE NORTH SEA: RADIOCARBON AND STABLE ISOTOPE (13C/15N) DATA

Abstract

The North Sea is considered a unique heritage site that yielded a huge amount of zoological and archaeological data. More than 200 palaeozoological and archaeological fossil bone samples from the North Sea bed are dated by 14C. About 2/3 of these dated bones are Pleistocene in age; the majority of the bones are from extinct species (in particular woolly mammoth); about 1/3 of the sample date to the Holocene. The presented dataset is important in its kind, but interpretation is limited because of a lack of context of the finds. The stable isotopes (13C, 15N) of the dated samples provide additional information on palaeoenvironmental conditions and dietary habits in the past. We present primarily a Groningen list of data; a few fossils dated in other laboratories are included for completeness.