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The IFAO Radiocarbon Laboratory: A Status Report

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2017

Anita Quiles Open the ORCID record for Anita Quiles [Opens in a new window] ,
Nagui Sabri Kamal ,
Mostafa Abd’el Fatah  and
Nadine Mounir
Anita Quiles*
Affiliation:
Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Pôle Archéométrie, 37 al-Cheikh Aly Youssef Street, B.P. Qasr el-Ayni 11652, 11441 Cairo, Egypt
Nagui Sabri Kamal
Affiliation:
Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Pôle Archéométrie, 37 al-Cheikh Aly Youssef Street, B.P. Qasr el-Ayni 11652, 11441 Cairo, Egypt
Mostafa Abd’el Fatah
Affiliation:
Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Pôle Archéométrie, 37 al-Cheikh Aly Youssef Street, B.P. Qasr el-Ayni 11652, 11441 Cairo, Egypt
Nadine Mounir
Affiliation:
Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale, Pôle Archéométrie, 37 al-Cheikh Aly Youssef Street, B.P. Qasr el-Ayni 11652, 11441 Cairo, Egypt
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

The Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale (IFAO) in Cairo is one of the major French research centers abroad. It is placed under the aegis of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and manages an archaeometry department that features laboratories for three units of research: conservation, material studies, and radiocarbon (14C). The 14C laboratory was founded in 2006 to offer the possibility of 14C dating in Egypt. It is totally devoted to archaeological issues, uses the conventional liquid scintillation counting (LSC) method, and is equipped with two benzene synthesis lines. This paper reports on the performances and quality-control procedures of the IFAO 14C laboratory, both from the perspective of the chemical syntheses and from the radiometric measurements (background dispersion, standards, intercomparison programs). It shows how this lab occupies a privileged position to develop interdisciplinary studies of Egyptian chronology and to offer high-standard competencies to the IFAO scientific research programs. Finally, it raises the question of the future perspectives of the laboratory.

Keywords

archaeologyIFAO radiocarbon labliquid scintillation counting methodstatus report
Type
Technical Note
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Issue 4 , August 2017 , pp. 1157 - 1169
Copyright
© 2017 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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