Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:27:24.005Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

W F Libby and the Archaeologists, 1946-1948

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Greg Marlowe
Greg Marlowe*
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Archaeologists began to participate in cross-disciplinary endeavors in the 1930's, albeit on a very limited basis. The passage of time found members of that discipline unprepared for collaboration with physical scientists when W F Libby announced the development of the radiocarbon dating method. Libby proposed to apply to

archeologic and geologic samples techniques based on ideas that were completely foreign to archeology …. The initial reactions of archeologists were sometimes amusing but more often significant, for they led to the foundation and emergence of the radiocarbon chronology that has so profoundly affected our understanding of prehistory (Johnson, 1967, p 165).

To date, our historical knowledge about the nature, function, and impact of the early (1946-1948) relations between Libby and American archaeologists has come to us in the form of published anecdotes, many of which contain inaccurate information. The author's access to W F Libby's private 14C correspondence, combined with data obtained from interviews with some of the principal participants throughout this period, offers many new or different insights into the nascent years of radiocarbon dating. When, and under what unexpected cricumstances, did Libby first encounter representatives of the achaeologic community? What strategies were employed to facilitate diffusion of knowledge about 14C dating across disciplinary boundaries? How did archaeologists respond to the introduction or “intrusion” into their field of Libby's radioactive age-measurement tool?

Type
History
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 22 , Issue 3: Heidelberg , 1980 , pp. 1005 - 1014
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science

References

Anderson, E C, Libby, W F, Weinhouse, S, Reid, A F, Kirshenbaum, A D, and Grosse, A V, 1947, Radiocarbon from cosmic radiation: Science, v 105, p 576.Google Scholar
Badash, Lawrence, 1968, Rutherford, Boltwood, and the age of the earth: The origin of radioactive dating techniques: Am Philos Soc Proc, v 112, no. 3, p 158–169.Google Scholar
Burchfield, Joe, 1975, Lord Kelvin and the age of the earth: New York, Science History Pubs, 260 p.10.1007/978-1-349-02565-7Google Scholar
Dodds, John, 1973, The several lives of Paul Fejos: New York, Axel Wenner-Gren Foundation, p 3–113.Google Scholar
Johnson, Frederick, 1942, The Boylston Street fishweir: Andover, Mass, R S Peabody Foundation, v 2, p 1–212.Google Scholar
Johnson, Frederick 1967, Radiocarbon dating and archaeology in North America: Science, v 155, p 165–169.10.1126/science.155.3759.165Google Scholar
Johnson, Frederick, ed, 1951, Radiocarbon dating: Soc Am Archaeology Mem 8.Google Scholar
Johnson, Frederick and Raup, Hugh, 1964, Investigations in Southwest Yukon: Andover, Mass, R S Peabody Foundation, v 6, no. 1, p 3–487.Google Scholar
Kohler, Robert Jr, 1977, Rudolph Schoenheimer, isotopic tracers, and biochemistry in the 1930's, in Historical studies in the physical sciences: Baltimore, Md, Johns Hopkins Univ Press, v 8, p 257–297.Google Scholar
Libby, W F, 1975, Radiocarbon dating, in The frontiers of knowledge: The Frank Nelson Doubleday lectures: New York, Doubleday & Co, p 339.Google Scholar
Libby, W F, Anderson, E C, and Arnold, J R, 1949, Age determination by radiocarbon content: World wide assay: Science, v 109, p 227–228.Google Scholar
MacNeish, Richard, 1978, The science of archaeology? Duxbury, Mass, Duxbury Press, 224 p.Google Scholar
Meadows, A J, 1976, Diffusion of information across sciences: Interdisciplinary science reviews, v 1, no. 3, p 259–267.Google Scholar
Merrill, Robert, 1948, A progress report on the dating of archaeological sites by means of radioactive elements: Am Antiquity, v 13, p 281–286.Google Scholar
The Viking Fund, Inc, 1952, The first ten years, 1941-1951: New York, The Viking Fund, p 1–202.Google Scholar