Julian Cope presents Head Heritage

'1) Whether cleaning took place or not it cannot impact on the RC dates of the antlers.'

Hi tiompan

I am sorry to have taken so long to reply - my health is poorly, and I'm aware that my dating query is contrary to current thinking, so it must be presented carefully and with caution... and fully justified if possible. I have not forgotten Blakeley Raise ! : )

1) Reindeer antlers carbon dating -
Yes, I do agree with the carbon dating, but there is no way of knowing how old the antlers were when placed in the hole, nor of knowing how old the holes were as previous organic material may have been cleaned out. It does seem unlikely that having dug these holes with their nice clean white chalk bedrock bottoms they would then be left to silt up from the winter storms.

Current beliefs did place the holes at around 1600 BC, but there appears to be other organic material found in Z29 that place the date earlier. (source Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y_and_Z_Holes) So there are doubts about the dating methods.