RADIOCARBON DATING THE EXTINCT CARIBOU ON FRANZ-JOSEF LAND

Seven old, shed caribou (Rangifer tarandus) antlers from Alexandra Lan d, in the high arctic Franz Josef Land archipelago where no caribou ar e found today, were dated to between 3870 +/- 70 and 2245 +/- 70 radio carbon years BP. All were found on the ground above the highest shorel ine, thus not transported there by sea-ice. That the ages all fall int o a relatively narrow time-span suggests that they originate from a po pulation of caribou that really lived on Alexandra Land. We suggest th at they migrated there after the culmination of the Holocene climatic optimum (c. 6000 to 4500 BP) when the climate again became colder and the sea-ice more persistent. The climate during that period can be com pared with that of Nordaustlandet on Svalbard today, where a populatio n of caribou still exists.