The radiocarbon dates came in on January 27, 2024, from the peat samples we took out of the Pacama Vly on August 25, 2023.
Sample 349.63 at 63 centimeters, was submitted for dating because of the presence of charcoal. There must have been open water here at that time because I found water naiad, Najas, seeds. Also, there must have been a forest fire here about 8,920 years ago where we first entered the Vly from Lower Sahler Mill road. This is awfully early for a burn to be set by Native Americans, so it could more likely have been started by lightning.
The deeper peat sample, taken farther north and in a shadier spot (near stone walls on shore) at 102 centimeters dates to only 3,260 years. I can't explain this inversion of dates now; it happens sometimes in a number bogs due to various factors.
Yellow birch bark was found almost throughout both peat samples. Pacama Vly is a yellow birch fen.
A peat sample I took in 2001, at 207 cm was farther out in the Vly under black spruce and eastern larch and was date to 10,990 years.