IDENTIFICATION AND AMS RADIOCARBON DATING OF WOOD, ZEA MAYS COB, AND BONE FROM THE STAR CEILING CAVE SITE NEAR CUBA, NEW MEXICO AND ZEA MAYS COB MORPHOMETRICS

Woody twigs, Zea mays cob, and bone samples from the Star Ceiling Cave site near the town of Cuba, New Mexico, were submitted for identification and AMS radiocarbon dating. This site consists of a cave with a spring and numerous pictographs and mud-ball offerings. Pictographs in the cave are noted to represent Ancestral Puebloan/Puebloan culture as well as Navajo ceremonialism. Twigs were present in a mud-ball adhering to the top of the cave. Radiocarbon dating of the twigs provides information on the time when the mud-ball was thrown to the cave ceiling. A portion of the uncharred corn cob was examined for phytoliths and a portion was submitted for radiocarbon dating. Recovery of a Zea mays cob from this cave provided an opportunity to examine it for morphometric analysis of phytoliths that would provide a numeric signature that could be compared with other cobs that have been examined and will allow for comparison with cobs analyzed in the future. An uncharred bone fragment from a group of bone fragments found in a cleft in the ceiling rock also was submitted for radiocarbon dating and protein residue analysis.