APPARENT C-14 AGES OF MARINE MOLLUSK SHELLS FROM A GREEK ISLAND - CALCULATION OF THE MARINE RESERVOIR EFFECT IN THE AEGEAN SEA

The excavation of the Cyclope cave, situated on the deserted island of Youra in the Northern Sporades (39 degrees 22'N, 24 degrees 10'E), re vealed material of marine and terrestrial origin in undisturbed layers , suitable for radiocarbon dating. In some cases, material from differ ent reservoirs was found together in the same archaeological layer. Th is research had two aims. The first was the dating of charcoal-seashel l pairs in order to determine the marina reservoir effect in this regi on, based on samples with ages spanning from the end of the 8th millen nium to the beginning of the 7th millennium Be. The second aim was dat ing the stratigraphy of this site, by using the calculated Delta R val ue in conjunction with the marina calibration curve. This enabled the accurate calibration of the C-14 ages of marine samples found in layer s without charcoal pieces. The results show that this is the oldest hu man settlement ever found on an island in the Aegean Sea.