Marine radiocarbon (14C) ages are an important geochronology tool for the understanding of past earthquakes and tsunamis that have impacted the coastline of New Zealand. To advance this field of research, we need an improved understanding of the radiocarbon marine reservoir correction for coastal waters of New Zealand. Here we report 170 new ΔR20 (1900–1950) measurements from around New Zealand made on pre-1950 marine shells and mollusks killed by the 1931 Napier earthquake. The influence of feeding method, living depth and environmental preference on ΔR is evaluated and we find no influence from these factors except for samples living at or around the high tide mark on rocky open coastlines, which tend to have anomalously low ΔR values. We examine how ΔR varies spatially around the New Zealand coastline and identify continuous stretches of coastline with statistically similar ΔR values. We recommend subdividing the New Zealand coast into four regions with different marine reservoir corrections: A: south and western South Island, ΔR20 –113 ± 33 yr, B: Cook Strait and western North Island, ΔR20 –171 ± 29 yr, C: northeastern North Island, ΔR20 –143 ± 18 yr, D: eastern North Island and eastern South Island, ΔR20 –70 ± 39 yr.

Archival charcoal tree-ring segments from the Mississippian center of Kincaid Mounds provide chronometric information for the history of this important site. However, charcoal recovered from Kincaid was originally treated with a paraffin consolidant, a once common practice in American archaeology. This paper presents data on the efficacy of a solvent pretreatment protocol and new wiggle-matched 14C dates from the largest mound (Mound 10) at Kincaid. FTIR and 14C analysis on known-age charcoal intentionally contaminated with paraffin, as well as archaeological material, show that a chloroform pretreatment is effective at removing paraffin contamination. Wiggle-matched cutting dates from the final construction episodes on Mound 10 at Kincaid, indicate that the mound was used in the late 1300s with the construction of a unique structure on the apex occurring around 1390. This study demonstrates the potential for museum collections of archaeological charcoal to contribute high-resolution chronological information despite past conservation practices that complicate 14C dating.

Measurements have continued with the same proportional counter system, sample pretreatment procedure, methane preparation and measurement, and calculation using a half-life of 5568 ± 30 yr as described previously (R., 1970, v. 12, p. 298-318). Uncertainties quoted are single standard deviations originating from standard, sample, background counting rates and half-life. No C13/C12 ratios were measured.

Radiocarbon (14C) dating has, since its inception, become an integral part of disciplines such as geology and archaeology, underpinning many key findings made by researchers in the past seven decades. As 14C dating develops, the need arises to revisit older findings and legacy data which may well contain laboratory errors or post-analysis misinterpretations. In this paper we examine one such finding from Sweden, namely the 1958 14C dating of the great Jordfallet (“the Earthfall”) landslide, which was published in the very first volume of Radiocarbon in 1959. We further trace how the results of this 14C dating were misunderstood in a time prior to modern radiocarbon calibration, and the impact which this mistake has had throughout academic publications, state reports and local heritage literature through the course of over sixty years. Because of this flawed interpretation the credible date of 1249 AD given to the landslide by historical sources has been overlooked. Instead, a series of dates from the mid-12th and early 13th centuries have been attributed to the landslide event based on erroneous radiocarbon analysis, a mistake which has substantial implications for the understanding of both regional and international history in medieval Scandinavia.

The Pleistocene history of the leopard (Panthera pardus) in Europe has been documented by the material obtained from 312 localities, with the last dated ∼1.1 Myr. The relatively small and gracile form of the leopard was very rare during the late Early and Middle Pleistocene. Only after the disappearance of the jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) did P. pardus spread widely in Europe, increasing in size and ecologically substituting P. gombaszoegensis. The number of late Middle Pleistocene localities with leopard remains, younger than 300 kyr, increased considerably. The leopard reached the maximum extension of its geographical range in the Late Pleistocene. The Iberian Peninsula was the last European refuge for this cat. Six sites, the Naciekowa, Obok Wschodniej, Radochowska, and Wschodnia Caves from the Sudety Mountains and the Biśnik and Dziadowa Skała Caves from the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, have documented the presence of the leopard in Poland between MIS 10/9 and MIS 3. These records are from rocky regions with rugged terrain and are located in the territory of Silesia (southern Poland). A newly obtained radiocarbon date (43–42 kyr) from the Radochowska Cave directly confirms the occurrence of P. pardus in the Sudety Mountains in the middle part of MIS 3.

The Fertile Crescent of Southwest Asia is considered one of the main centers of the first Neolithization worldwide. However, the dating and processes of its spread to neighboring regions have yet to be studied. This study reports new chronological data from the Fars highlands, southeast of the Fertile Crescent. Although the Pottery Neolithic in Fars has long been believed to have started in the late 7th millennium BC, recent excavations at Tepe Rahmatabad have suggested a date half a millennium earlier, raising controversy. Our data from Tol-e Sangi, a stratified site with Pre-Pottery (PPN) and Pottery Neolithic (PN) cultural deposits, support the advent of the Pottery Neolithic at the beginning of the 7th millennium BC. This suggests that despite the late arrival of the food production economy in the Fars highlands, which is dated from the mid-8th millennium BC, subsequent cultural development followed a path similar to that of the eastern wing of the Fertile Crescent.

Since 1977, the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo has been reexamining the archaic Royal necropolis Umm el-Qaab at Abydos (ca. 500 km south of Cairo). The necropolis consists of the tomb complexes of six kings and one queen of Dynasty I as well as two kings of Dynasty II in the southern part, the cemetery with royal tombs from Dynasty 0 and early Dynasty I in the middle and the predynastic cemetery in the northern part. Although partly destroyed and deprived of most of their contents, the tombs and the remaining artifacts are a major source for the early dynastic period and are of utmost importance for the understanding of predynastic development during Naqada I–III and the chronology of the formation of Egyptian culture. Sixteen newly 14C-dated samples were mainly taken from remains of wooden roofs and coffins, or in the case of the earliest tombs from mattings. The dating results in general are in good accordance with the relative archaeological dating of the tombs, but 100–150 yr earlier than the so far established historical chronology.

Fungal hyphae associated with tree roots extending into the surrounding substrate are suspected to have to contaminated buried plant material with recent carbon in two examples and to have resulted in erroneously young radiocarbon ages. This problem might be overcome by choosing sampling sites far from trees or by analyzing the lignin component of samples, although the latter is presently difficult.

Little is known about the potential complications that may arise from the use of coastal foraminifera for radiocarbon (14C) dating. The aim of this study is to report the fortuitous finding of 14C-dated Haynesina germanica individuals picked from two sediment cores (Pertuis Charentais, France), which appeared 2500–2000 years older than their expected age of deposition. Stratigraphical and micropaleontogical evidence have ruled out the possible effect of reworking of calcareous tests from previous strata. Similar anomalous 14C ages were obtained on abundant lignocellulose debris recovered from the cores, which are supplied by rivers flowing into the study area. Given that H. germanica is an infaunal species, we hypothesize that in-situ living individuals acquired the 14C-depleted isotopic signature of lignocellulose debris within the sediment prior to definitive burial, following an unexplored pathway of carbon transfer between the two compartments. Based on the literature, we propose a plausible explanation, which involves bacterial communities living in the study area. This putative role of bacteria may have considerable importance for past and future studies of Holocene environmental changes in coastal environments. Further work is now needed to explore this hypothesis with more robust, direct evidence based on comprehensive geochemical, geochronological and microbiological studies.

Areas affected by routine radiocarbon (14C) discharges from the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) and accidental releases in March 2011 were investigated by analysis of cores from Japanese cypress and cedar trees growing at sites 9 and 24 km northwest of the plant. 14C concentrations in tree rings from 2008–2014 (before and after the accident) were determined by accelerator mass spectrometry, with 14C activities in the range 231–256 Bq kg−1 C. Activities during the period 2012–2014, after FDNPP shutdown, represent background levels, while the significantly higher levels recorded during 2008–2010, before the accident, indicate uptake of 14C from routine FDNPP operations. The mean excess 14C activity for the pre-accident period at the sites 9 and 24 km northwest of the plant were 21 and 12 Bq kg−1 C, respectively, indicating that the area of influence during routine FDNPP operations extended at least 24 km northwest. The mean excess tree-ring 14C activities in 2011 were 10 and 5.8 Bq kg−1 C at 9 and 24 km northwest, respectively, documenting possible impact of the FDNPP accident on 14C levels in trees.

Cremation graves appear in different forms and shapes, from urns to simple pits and from single to plural graves. The challenging nature of highly fragmented cremated human remains renders the identification of multiple individuals within the same cremation grave rather complex. Osteological analyses alone are often insufficient to detect the presence of bone fragments from different individuals as they are small and diagnostic elements are often missing, although, detection of nonadult bone fragments within adult bone assemblages (or the other way around) points to the presence of at least two individuals—one adult and one nonadult—within the same grave. The combination of osteological analyses, radiocarbon dating, and strontium isotope ratios has proven to be particularly powerful. At different Belgian Metal Age sites, this novel multi-disciplinary approach enabled to identify the presence of bone fragments belonging to up to three different individuals within the same cremation grave who were cremated up to several centuries apart. Whether the presence of these two or three individuals in the same grave is intentional (e.g. curation) or not requires more in-depth analyses. This study shows the high level of complexity of cremation burial (intentionally or not) and shows the necessity to carry out all analytical measurements (i.e. radiocarbon dating, infrared, elemental and isotope analyses) on the same bone fragment to ensure the results are related to the same individual.

The results presented in this list were obtained from 1986 to 1989. Equipment, measurement and treatment of samples are as reported previously (Kanwiszer & Trzeciak 1984: 111). Age calculations are based on a contemporary value equal to 95% of the activity of NBS oxalic acid standard and on the conventional half-life for 14C of 5568 ± 30 years. Results are reported in years before 1950 (years BP). Errors quoted (± 1σ) include standard deviations of count rates for the unknown sample, contemporary standard and background. The dates are not corrected for 13C fractionation. Descriptions and comments are based on information supplied by submitters of samples.

From 1966 to 1979, the University of Missouri, the University of Arizona, and the Illinois State Museum conducted extensive interdisciplinary investigations of Late Pleistocene peat deposits associated with springs, some extinct, in the Pomme de Terre River Valley of the Ozark Highland, Missouri (fig 1). Most of the sites are now beneath the waters of the Harry S Truman reservoir. Archaeologic investigations in the area produced a remarkably long sequence of cultural change and development during the Holocene but produced no evidence of human presence in the area prior to 11,000 years ago despite diligent excavation of favorable bone-bearing deposits.

This date list was compiled by the Institute of Geological Sciences (U.K.) incorporating data supplied under contract by E. Welin, Radioactive Dating Laboratory, Stockholm. Unless otherwise stated, age figures are in C14 years before A.D. 1950. The half-life of C14 is taken as 5568 and the standard error is given as a standard deviation of 1σ. Correction for C13/C12 has not been made.

Since radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (14C AMS) is considered a high-precision technique, reassessment of the measurement uncertainty has been a topic of interest. Scientists from analytical and metrological fields have developed the top-down and bottom-up measurement of uncertainty approaches. The 14C quoted error should approximate the uncertainty of long-term repetitions of the top-down approach in order to be realistic. The novelty of this paper is that the uncertainty of both approaches were approximated to each other. Furthermore, we apportioned the graphitization, instrumentation, and bias components in order to additively expand the quoted error. Our results are comparable to error multipliers and to long-term repeatability studies reported by other laboratories. Our laboratory was established in late 2012 with N2 as stripper gas and 7 years later, we changed to helium stripper. Thus, we were able to compare both gases, and demonstrate that helium is a better stripper gas. In absolute F14C units, the ranges of graphitization+bias combined uncertainties were (0.7 to 4.1) × 10–3 for N2 and (0.7–3.0) × 10–3 for He depending on the standard 14C content. The error multiplier for He defined as the expanded uncertainty over quoted error, in average, was 1.7; while without the bias, the multiplier was 1.3.

Measurements have continued with the same proportional counter system, pretreatment procedure, methane preparation and measurement, and calculation, as described previously (R, 1970, v 12, p 298–318). Uncertainties quoted are single standard deviations originating from standard, sample, and background counting rates. No 13C/12C ratios were measured. Sample descriptions have been prepared in cooperation with submitters.

The earliest years of photography were full of experimentation and innovation; many photographers from this era carefully documented their experimental procedures. Consequently, it is possible to reproduce historically accurate photographs and negatives today. One of the oldest forms of photographic technology is the waxed paper negative, popular during the mid-19th century. It consists of a photosensitive sheet of writing paper coated with a layer of wax to render it transparent. Modern waxed paper negatives made using 19th century paper can potentially pass for historically significant 19th century negatives. This poses problems to museums and others interested in studying or collecting authentic 19th century photographic images. We have developed methods for separating the organic components of waxed paper negatives and measuring their radiocarbon content as a means of distinguishing between modern and historic waxed paper negatives. By detecting the presence or lack of bomb carbon in a given negative, this process can act as a tool for authentication. We have mainly focused on the extraction and 14C measurement of the wax component, reasoning that modern photographers might have easy access to 19th century paper, but would less likely use 19th century beeswax.

This paper describes the results of Bayesian modeling of radiocarbon dates from Early Bronze Age contexts in Southern Mesopotamia, modern-day southern Iraq. The model uses 14C dates available in the literature, employing archaeological and textual information to correlate contexts from a number of important Mesopotamian sites. The insufficient number of dates makes it impossible to precisely define the chronology of the period in question; however, the analysis allows for observing patterns of cultural change otherwise invisible in archaeological and textual records. Firstly, it is suggested that there was a hiatus of at least a century between the latest protocuneiform texts and the earliest historical writing. Furthermore, the results seem to argue against a steady, gradual evolution of literate civilizations, indicating a more complex and varied process of development.