Archaeological dating… sounds straightforward, right? Think again. In this episode of Stratified we dig into the wild, weird, & sometimes downright disastrous world of archaeological dating mistakes. From misplaced spark plugs (yes, really) to "out-of-place" artifacts, radiocarbon mix-ups, and full-blown site scandals, we explore what happens when time refuses to behave...or when archaeologists get a little too eager for the oldest date.

This isn’t about romantic disasters. It’s about the archaeological ones.
Because in archaeology, gettingit wrong is half the story.

Segments / Topics:
🪨 The Coso Artifact (a spark plug mistaken for an ancient relic)
🪓 The Paleolithic fraud of Shinichi Fujimura
🧪 How radiocarbon dating actually works (and where it fails)
🗺️ The North American dating debates: Clovis First, White Sands footprints, Cahokia, and more
⏳ Why even the best dates can shift an entire archaeological narrative



📬 Email: stratifiedpod@gmail.com
📸 Instagram: @stratifiedpod
🌀 Bluesky: stratifiedpod.bsky.social


Stratified Podcast Episode 3: Dating Disasters: Not the Romantic Kind
Episode Bibliography

The Coso Artifact
- Feder, Kenneth L. Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Shinichi Fujimura / Japanese Paleolithic Hoax
- Hudson, Mark. “The Ruins of the Past: Shinichi Fujimura and the Japanese Palaeolithic Hoax.” Antiquity, vol. 75, no. 290, 2001, pp. 976–983.
- "Shinichi Fujimura." Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinichi_Fujimura

Radiocarbon Dating Challenges
- Higham, Tom. Time's Anvil: England, Archaeology and the Imagination. Oxford University Press, 2014.
- Reimer, Paula J. et al. “The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP).” Radiocarbon, vol. 62, no. 4, 2020, pp. 725–757.
- Prikryl, Daniel J. “Burned Rock Middens in Central Texas: Archaeological Features and Radiocarbon Dating Problems.” Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, vol. 61, 1990.

Anzick Site / Clovis Dating
- Rasmussen, M. et al. “The genome of a Late Pleistocene human from a Clovis burial site in western Montana.” Nature, vol. 506, 2014, pp. 225–229.

Kennewick Man
- Chatters, James C. Ancient Encounters: Kennewick Man and the First Americans. Simon & Schuster, 2001.
- Rasmussen, M. et al. “The ancestry and affiliations of Kennewick Man.” Nature, vol. 523, 2015, pp. 455–458.

White Sands Footprints
- Bennett, M. R. et al. “Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum.” Science, vol. 373, no. 6562, 2021, pp. 1528–1531.

Buttermilk Creek (Debra L. Friedkin Site)
- Waters, Michael R. et al. “Pre-Clovis projectile points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas—implications for the Late Pleistocene peopling of the Americas.” Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 36, 2021.

Santorini Eruption Dating Debate
- Friedrich, Walter L. Santorini: Volcano, Natural History, Mythology. Aarhus University Press, 2000.
- Manning, Sturt W. et al. “Fluctuating radiocarbon offsets observed in the southern Levant and implications for archaeological chronology debates.” Science Advances, vol. 4, no. 5, 2018.

Cahokia & North American Tree-Ring Dating
- Munoz, Samuel E. et al. “Cahokia’s emergence and decline coincided with shifts of flood frequency on the Mississippi River.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 112, no. 20, 2015, pp. 6319–6324.

What do maps, fences, flood control, and barbed wire have in common? They all tell stories about land... and about who was erased from it.In this episode of Stratified, we dig into the many ways land gets taken: through colonial language, survey systems, national parks, water policy, and literal bulldozers. From “empty” lands to “wilderness” myths, and from forgotten cemeteries to beavers as ecological resistance, we ask: whose lines are these, really?Featuring:🪧 The myth of untouched land🌲 Indigenous land management (and “good fire”)📏 The Public Land Survey System💧 Flood control, water treaties, and the Lipan Apache fight at the border⚰️ Texas’s Lost Cemeteries Project🧭 And what archaeology can do—when we let it🔗 Sources & Further Reading📄 “Bringing Good Fire Back to the Land” – Reasons to Be Cheerful📄 “Fires, Fascism, and the Loss of Indigenous Knowledge” – Medium, The New Climate📄 “Federal Report Finds Tribal Burial, Cultural Sites Blasted for Border Wall” – Truthout📄 Lipan Apache Preservation: Cementerio del Barrio de los Lipanes – Big Bend Conservation Alliance📄 Texas Historical Commission: Lost Cemeteries Project📄 Water & Tribal Rights (Background) – Indian Law Resource Center📄 Public Land Survey System (PLSS) Overview – BLM📄 “Yellowstone National Park: Land of the Crow and Shoshone” – NPS Cultural Anthropology Program📬 Email: stratifiedpod@gmail.com📸 Instagram: @stratifiedpod🌀 Bluesky: stratifiedpod.bsky.social #BeaversNotBulldozers

Welcome to the first episode of Stratified: An Archaeology Podcast, where we dig into the layers beneath our feet and the systems built on top of them.

In this episode, we unpack what Cultural Resource Management (CRM) actually is, how it works, and why it matters.

We talk:

• The three phases of CRM
• Why most archaeology in the U.S. isn’t academic—it’s compliance
• What happens when SEAC shuts down or tribal consultation comes too late
• And what it means to stay in this field when everything around it is being cut

✨ Whether you’re in the trenches or just curious about how sites get saved (or don’t), this episode is for you.

🔗 Mentioned in this episode:
– SEAC news: https://www.southeasternarchaeology.org/
– NPS/NHPA info:https://www.achp.gov/digital-library-section-106-landing/national-historic-preservation-act

🎙️ Stratified is a narrative podcast about archaeology, land, and memory.
🧭 Follow the show @stratifiedpod on Instagram
💌 Contact: stratifiedpod@gmail.com