The Radiocarbon Dating and Authentication of Iron Artifacts

The continuing improvements in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating technology mean that it is possible to work on ever smaller samples, which in turn, make an ever wider range of sample potentially available for dating. This paper discusses some of the difficulties arising with the interpreta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Radiocarbon 2002, Vol.44 (3), p.717-732
Main Authors: Craddock, P T, Wayman, M L, Jull, A J T
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Dating
Excavation and methods
Laboratory methods
Methodology and general studies
Notes & Comments
Prehistory and protohistory
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Summary:The continuing improvements in accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating technology mean that it is possible to work on ever smaller samples, which in turn, make an ever wider range of sample potentially available for dating. This paper discusses some of the difficulties arising with the interpretation of AMS dates obtained from carbon in iron. The overriding problem is that the carbon, now in chemical combination with the iron, could have come from a variety of sources with very different origins. These are now potentially an iressolvable mixture in the iron. For iron made over the last millennium, there are the additional problems associated with the use of both fossil fuel and biomass fuel in different stages of the iron making, leading to great confusion, especially with authenticity studies.
ISSN:0033-8222
1945-5755
DOI:10.1017/S0033822200032173