Chapter 8.2, Problem 41ES

In 1950, a research team digging near Folsom, New Mexico, found charred bison bones along with some leaf-shaped projectile points (called the "Folsom points") that had been made by a Paleo-Indian hunting culture. It was clear from the evidence that the bison had been cooked and eaten by the makers of the points, so that carbon-14 dating of the bones made it possible for the researchers to determine when the hunters roamed North America. Tests showed that the bones contained between $27\%$ and $30\%$ of their original carbon-14. Use this information to show that the hunters lived roughly between 9000 B.C. and 8000 B.C.