Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T14:38:22.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Radiocarbon Method of Age Determination*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

W. S. Broecker
Affiliation:
Lamont Geological Observatory, Columbia University Palisades, N.Y.
J. L. Kulp
Affiliation:
Lamont Geological Observatory, Columbia University Palisades, N.Y.

Extract

Five years after the first publication of age measurements by the radiocarbon method (Arnold and Libby 1951) the method has been established as a powerful technique in the study of archaeology. Lists of radiocarbon dates have been published by a number of laboratories (Libby 1951, 1952, 1954, 1955; Kulp 1951, 1952; Broecker and Kulp 1956; Suess 1954; Ruben and Suess 1955; Blau, Deevey, and Gross 1953; Preston, Person, and Deevey 1955; Ralph 1955; Anderson, Levi, and Tauber 1953). A few scientists feel that the radiocarbon dates contradict archaeological or geological theories which they regard as wellfounded and have suggested that because of this the method is invalid.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1956

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Lamont Geological Observatory Contribution No. 192. The work described in this report was supported under National Science Foundation Grant 1334. In preliminary form this paper was read at The Great Basin Archaeological Conference, Los Angeles, in August, 1955.

References

Anderson, E. C., Levi, H., and Tauber, H. 1953 Copenhagen Natural Radiocarbon Measurements I. Science, Vol. 118, pp. 611. Washington.Google Scholar
Arnold, J. R. and Libby, W. F. 1949 Age Determination by Radiocarbon Content. Checks with Samples of Known Age. Science, Vol. 110, pp. 678–80. Washington.Google Scholar
Ballario, C. 1955 Apparatus for Carbon Dating. Science, Vol. 121, pp. 409–12. Washington Google Scholar
Blau, M., Deevey, E. S. Jr., and Gross, M. S. 1953 Yale Natural Radiocarbon Measurements I. Science, Vol. 118, pp. 16. Washington.Google Scholar
Engelkemier, A. G., Hamill, W. H., Inghram, M. G., and Libby, W. F. 1949 The Half-Life of Radiocarbon (CM). Physical Review, Vol. 75, p. 1825. Lancaster. Google Scholar
Jones, W. M. 1949 A Determination of the Half-Life of Carbon 14. Physical Review, Vol. 76, p. 885. Lancaster.Google Scholar
Kulp, J. L., Feely, H. W., and Tryon, L. E. 1951 Lamont Natural Radiocarbon Measurements I. Science, Vol. 114, pp. 565–8. Washington. Google Scholar
Kulp, J. L., Tryon, L. E., Eckelmann, W. R., and Snell, W. A. 1952 Lamont Natural Radiocarbon Measurements II. Science, Vol. 116, pp. 409–14. Washington.Google Scholar
Kulp, J. L. and Volchok, H. L. 1953 Constancy of Cosmic Ray Flux Over the Past 30,000 Years. Physical Review, Vol. 90, pp. 713–14. Lancaster.Google Scholar
Libby, W. F. 1951 Radiocarbon Dates II. Science, Vol. 114, pp. 291–6. Washington.Google Scholar
Libby, W. F. 1952 Radiocarbon Dates III. Science, Vol. 116, pp. 673–81. Washington.Google Scholar
Libby, W. F. 1954 Radiocarbon Dates IV. Science, Vol. 119, pp. 135–40. Washington.Google Scholar
Libby, W. F. 1955 Radiocarbon Dating. 2nd Edition. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Miller, W. W., Ballentine, R., Bernstein, W., Friedman, L., Nier, A. O., and Evans, R. D. 1950 The Half-Life of Carbon Fourteen and a Comparison of Gas Phase Counter Methods. Physical Review, Vol. 77, p. 714. Lancaster.Google Scholar
Preston, R. S., Person, E., and Deevey, E. S. Jr. 1955 Yale Radiocarbon Measurements II. Science, Vol. 122, pp. 954–60. Washington. Google Scholar
Ralph, E. K. 1955 University of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates I. Science, Vol. 121, pp. 149–51. Washington. Google Scholar
Ruben, S. and Suess, H. 1955 U.S. Geological Survey Radiocarbon Dates II. Science, Vol. 121, pp. 481–8. Washington. Google Scholar
Suess, H. E. 1954 U.S. Geological Survey Radiocarbon Dates I. Science, Vol. 120, pp. 467–73. Washington.Google Scholar