Have Contaminated
p. 63 · Read in the full issue
Atomic Fall-Out May
Ancient Adze
A brief reference to possible con tamination from nuclear tests, "buried" in a report on archaeology in the latest (September) issue of the "Journal of the Polynesian Society", could be a sinister warning about what may happen if the French ex plode hydrogen bombs at AAururoa Atoll, as they seem determined to do.
The "JPS" report concerns archaeo logical excavations made in the southern islands of the New Hebrides recently by two American scientists, Dr. Richard Shutler and his wife Mary Elizabeth.
"On Aneityum," the report says, "11 caves and rock shelters were recorded. The results of excavations at the most promising site have re vealed radio-carbon dates of 470 plus or minus 80 BP, and 850 plus or minus 12 BP. [This means that the items excavated date back to 1480 AD, plus or minus 80 years, and to 1100 AD, plus or minus 120 years.] "Unfortunately one dated sample associated with the fragment of a shell axe or adze proved to be con taminated —possibly as the result of atomic bomb test blasts . . ."