ELECTRONIC COPY OF THE ORIGINAL Secretary of the Interior WASHINGTON Sept 21, 2000

November 18, 1999
Dr. Francis P. McManamon
Dept. of Interior
National Park Service
Archeology And Ethnography Program
1849 C Street N.W. (NC 340/2275)
Washington, DC 20240

Dear Dr. McManamon:

We received a telephone call from Jason Roberts requesting additional information regarding our radiocarbon dating analysis of your bone sample "CENWW.97.R.24 (Mta)/DOI1 a".

The questions were:

1. What was the collagen content of the originally submitted bone?

The original weight of the bone was 9.1 grams. The amount of collagen extracted was 0.030 grains (30.0 mg). The relates to a percent concentration of 0.3%. The value is very low due to the high mineral content of the submitted bone.

2. What was the carbon concentration within the extracted collagen?

9.5 mg of the collagen was used for the analysis. This provided us with 3.2 mg of carbon. The percentage carbon is then calculated as 33.7% carbon within the collagen.

If I can answer any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,

Darden Hood
Director

Back to: Kennewick Man | C14 Memo