Terrestrial environments tend to be characterized by an incomplete record of past conditions. For the MIS 3–2 periods, there is only one known site in Poland—Horoszki Duże—in which a probably continuous record of climate change has been preserved. However, this site does not have any high precision multi-proxy analyses. In the absence of continuous high-resolution records, we decided to gather and analyze scattered information. We assembled data originating from various sites in Poland and checked whether the available results of 14C and luminescence dating presented in the form of probability density distributions (PDF) and kernel density estimation (KDE) models would allow their reinterpretation. The data were compared to the Greenland isotope curve to see whether they were consistent with the hypothesis that the number of “warming-cooling” cycles recorded in the examined sediments was of the same order as in those ice-core records. Previously in Poland, usually only two interstadial periods (i.e., Hengelo and Denekamp, 36–38.6 and 28–32 14C kBP, respectively) have been identified in the discussed period. The joint analysis of data from a larger area revealed more warming-cooling events than recorded from individual sites.

Prehistoric shell mounds can be useful for the quantification of the radiocarbon marine reservoir effect (MRE) and, at the same time, knowledge about the MRE allows for the establishment of robust chronologies for these sites. This creates a loop in which the archaeological setting has a dual role: it is part of both the method and the application. Therefore, it is paramount to address these sites from both archaeological and environmental perspectives, investigating their origin and diagenesis in order to overcome biases caused by post-depositional alterations. In this study, samples of bone, charcoal and shell from a Late Holocene shell mound in Southern Brazil, the Sambaqui de Cabeçuda, were analyzed following a multidisciplinary approach to disentangle the complex relationships between archaeology and the environment. We performed X-ray diffraction, radiocarbon dating, stable isotopes (δ13C, δ18O, δ15N) and anthracology analyses as well as Bayesian Chronological Models and Isotope Mixing Models to assess the local MRE and to reconstruct the diet of Cabeçuda builders. Our results reveal a negative local correction for the MRE (ΔR = –263 ± 46 14C yr), expected for the lagoon next to the site, and diets with considerable intakes of marine proteins. We examine the implications of these results for the chronology of the site and discuss a series of complications when performing MRE studies using shell mound sites.

This paper reports on radiocarbon (14C) results from the recent archaeological investigations in the ancient frontier fortress of Rabati, in southwest Georgia, a collaborative research project involving archaeologists from the Georgian National Museum and the University of Melbourne. From the first three excavation seasons spanning 2016, 2018, and 2019, it became clear that significant Bedeni phase deposits capped most of the summit of the site. Levels with their distinctive vessels and a range of contemporary, local domestic wares, pits and some traces of architecture seal underlying Early Bronze Age strata. The Early Bronze Age levels include massive architecture rarely seen in Kura-Araxes settlements. Some finds can only be described as unique and extraordinary while others suggest that the core population was stable with long-held traditions, yet open to new influences infiltrating this highland site during the subsequent Early Kurgan (Martkopi-Bedeni) period. We discuss the key discoveries at Rabati relative to the 14C readings from the site within the wider setting of contemporary sites in the Caucasus.

Radiocarbon (14C) dating of the total organic carbon (TOC) content of lacustrine sediments is always affected by a 14C reservoir effect and the 14C dates are often systematically older than the true ages. However, there are few studies of the temporal changes of the 14C reservoir effect, with reference to the specific influencing factors. We collected TOC samples from the Holocene sediments of Lake Kanas, in the southern Altai Mountains, for AMS 14C dating and compared the results with AMS 14C ages based on terrestrial plant macrofossils from the same depths. The results show that the reservoir ages progressively increased from ∼0 to ∼2800 yr between ∼9700 cal BP and ∼530 cal BP. As the lake catchment was glaciated prior to the Holocene, and Holocene soils and peats are the main sources of the TOC in the lake sediments, we argue that soil erosion is the major factor contributing to the progressive increase in the reservoir age. Based on previously reported evidence for increasing moisture in central Asia and glacier advances in the mid-to-late Holocene, we suggest that the intensified soil erosion on the hillslopes was caused by increased precipitation during the mid-to-late Holocene and by anthropogenic forest clearance after 1500 cal BP.

Radiocarbon (14C) in natural samples undergoes changes due to variations in atmospheric CO2 resulting from anthropogenic activities. To analyze the variation of the 14C ratio in atmospheric CO2, deciduous tree leaves were collected in Gyeongju, a popular tourist city in South Korea. Leaf samples were collected from Prunus subg. Cerasus trees at five different sampling points throughout the city over 3 years (2018, 2020, and 2021). The 14C data of the samples were categorized into three groups (downtown, rural, and tourist sites) and analyzed for variations among the different years. The 14C ratio at downtown sites was stable after 2018, the rural site ratio increased between 2018 and 2020 and then decreased between 2020 and 2021, and the tourist site ratio increased after 2018. We theorize that the increased 14C ratio at the tourist site was caused by a decrease in tourism after 2018.

We present new radiocarbon dates from a number of Holocene peat deposits along a north-south transect across the Yamal Peninsula. The samples were collected from frozen peat deposits with large ice wedges in: the northern tundra near Seyaha Settlement, in the Central Yamal Peninsula, the southern tundra in Shchuch'ya River valley at the Edem'yaha mouth, the southern part of the Yamal Peninsula, and the southern forest tundra near Labytnangi Town. 14C dates of wood remains from the tundra in the Yamal Peninsula could be used to reconstruct a northern limit of forest during the Holocene Optimum. The wood layers at the bottom of the peat give evidence for immigration of trees further north beyond the present boundary. The first forest appearance in the Seyaha River valley area is dated about 9 ka BP according to the oldest peat date in the Seyaha cross section. This suggests that summer temperatures were higher than at present. Very fast accumulation of peat (around 5 m/ka: about 9–8 ka BP at Seyaha and about 7–6 ka BP at Shchuch'ya) also supports this observation.

In contrast, oxygen isotope composition of Holocene syngenetic ice wedges from the area (δ18O= −19.1 to −20.3‰ in the Seyaha cross-section and −17.3 to −20.3‰ in the Shchuch'ya River) show that winter temperatures were significantly lower than presently, i.e. the climate during the Holocene Optimum was slightly more continental. The frozen peat near Labytnangi has thawed during the last 20 years, indicating global warming.

We present the first Bayesian 14C modeling based on AMS ages from stratified sediments representing continuous occupation across the Early Bronze III/IV interface in the Southern Levant. This new high-precision modeling incorporates 12 calibrated AMS ages from Khirbat Iskandar Area C using OxCal 4.4.4 and the IntCal 20 calibration curve to specify the EB III/IV transition at or slightly before 2500 cal BCE. Our results contribute to the continuing emergence of a high chronology for the Levantine Early Bronze Age, which shifts the end of EB III 200–300 years earlier than the traditional time frame and increases the length of EB IV to about 500 years. Data from Khirbat Iskandar also help direct greater attention to the importance of sedentary communities through EB IV, in contrast to the traditional emphasis on non-sedentary pastoral encampments and cemeteries. Modeling of AMS data from Khirbat Iskandar bolsters the ongoing revision of Early Bronze Age Levantine chronology and its growing interpretive independence from Egyptian history and contributes particularly to re-examination of the EB III/IV nexus in the Southern Levant.

A Packard 2260 XL liquid scintillation counter was placed in an underground counting chamber to test performance under immense physical shielding. Results from the Packard 2260 XL are compared with two other counters under the same conditions, the LKB Quantulus, which has operated for two years in this laboratory, and the LKB 1219 SM, in use since January 1988.

Even though the reliability of equipment has improved, the quality of measurement should still be checked. This task may be performed by a microcomputer with the physicist's intervention only when an error in measurement is detected.

We investigated the dolmen known as Kolikho (Black Sea coast, Russia), discovered accidentally in 2008. It is a unique, undisturbed megalithic structure. The burial chamber contains disarticulated human remains from about 70 individuals. Radiocarbon dating shows that the dolmen was in use between roughly the 19th to 13th centuries BC. Strontium isotopes are used to investigate the origin and last residence location of the people buried in the structure.

Politiko-Troullia has generated the largest radiocarbon (14C) dataset from a Prehistoric Bronze Age settlement on Cyprus. We present Bayesian modeling of 25 calibrated AMS ages, which contributes to an emerging multi-site 14C chronology for Cyprus covering most of the Prehistoric Bronze Age. Our analysis places the six stratified phases of occupation at Troullia between about 2050 and 1850 cal BCE, in contrast to a longer estimated occupation inferred from pottery analysis. We provide a rare 14C determination for the transition from Prehistoric Bronze Age 1 to 2 just after 2000 cal BCE, associated with a major architectural dislocation at Politiko-Troullia in response to local landscape erosion, possibly due to increased regional precipitation. We present a regional 14C model for Prehistoric Bronze Age Cyprus combining the chronology for Politiko-Troullia with modeled 14C ages from Sotira Kaminoudhia and Marki Alonia, which is bolstered by individual ages from five other settlements on Cyprus. Through the Prehistoric Bronze Age, agrarian villages on Cyprus developed the foundations for the emergence of urbanized settlement and society during the ensuing Protohistoric Bronze Age. Politiko-Troullia, in conjunction with other key settlements on Cyprus, provides a significant independent contribution to increasingly robust Bronze Age 14C chronologies in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Archaeological investigations of the age and origins of marine shell beads are important for understanding the emergence and maintenance of long-distance trade networks in prehistory. In this paper we expand upon and re-examine the incremental carbon (14C and δ13C) and oxygen (δ18O) isotope data from two Olivella biplicata shell beads from the LSP-1 Rockshelter, Oregon, USA, to address two common problems in dating marine shell trade goods: (1) the source region is large, adding to uncertainty regarding the appropriate specification of ΔR; and (2) the 14C activity within individual specimens is variable. Although this combination of factors severely limits the dating precision that is possible, we recommend a sampling and calibration approach that accounts for these added sources of uncertainty and minimizes the loss of precision. We recommend (1) sequential sampling in order to quantify the range of variability in 14C within shells; (2) a Bayesian calibration procedure that models the 14C dates as an ontogenetic sequence, in this case constrained by stable isotope sclerochronology; and (3) specifying ΔR in a manner that accounts for the full range of possible reservoir offsets in the source region.

Estuaries and deltas are crucial zones to better understand the interactions between continents and oceans, and to characterize the mineralization and burial of different sources of organic matter (OM) and their effect on the carbon cycle. In the present study, we focus on the continental shelf of the northwest Mediterranean Sea near the Rhône river delta. Sediment cores were collected and pore waters were sampled at different depths at one station (Station E) located on this shelf. For each layer, measurements of dissolved inorganic carbon concentration (DIC) and its isotopic composition (δ 13C and Δ14C) were conducted and a mixing model was applied to target the original signature of the mineralized OM. The calculated δ 13C signature of the mineralized organic matter is in accordance with previous results with a δ 13COM of marine origin that is not significantly impacted by the terrestrial particulate inputs from the river. The evolution with depth of Δ14C shows two different trends indicating two different Δ14C signatures for the mineralised OM. In the first 15 cm, the mineralized OM is modern with a Δ14COM = 100 ± 17‰ and corresponds to the OM produced during the nuclear period of the last 50 years. Deeper in the sediment, the result is very different with a depleted value Δ14COM = –172 ± 60‰ which corresponds to the pre-nuclear period. In these two cases, the marine substrate was under the influence of the local marine reservoir effect with more extreme Δ14C results. These differences can be largely explained by the influence of the river plume on the local marine DIC during these two periods.

A large number of 14C dates for archaeological sites in European Russia have been entered into a new database. The database includes >1500 dates for ca. 500 archaeological sites. Because European Russia is a very large area, the database includes subdivisions of territories and regions. We analyzed our 14C dates according to archaeological periods (Paleolithic through Medieval period) and made a comparison with environmental (climatic) parameters. Our database for archaeological sites and monuments offers new possibilities for correlation between the development of ancient cultures and natural-climatic processes.

We describe applications of radiocarbon dating used for establishing a chronology of archaeological sites of the Novgorod region at the end of the first millennium ad. We have 14C-dated known-age tree rings from sites in Latvia and ancient Novgorod, northwest Russia, as well as charcoal and wood from Novgorod. Calendar ages of 14C-dated tree rings span the interval, ad 765–999. We used the Groningen calibration program, CAL15 (van der Plicht 1993) to calibrate 14C ages to calendar years. Comparisons between 14C results and archaeological data show good agreement, and enable us to narrow the calendar interval of calibrated 14C determinations.

The concentration of radiocarbon in the earth's atmosphere is used to analyze the complex of problems associated with the study of various astrophysical, geophysical, and geochemical phenomena within the framework of the All-Union problem of Astrophysical Phenomena and Radiocarbon. Effects of the supernovae explosions, solar activity, geomagnetic field and climatic changes in the 14C level in tree-rings are considered.

For several decades, many efforts have been dedicated to enhancing the accuracy of mortar radiocarbon dating and evaluating the reliability of the results concerning the typology of the examined specimens. Several assumptions that are fundamental for the application of the method may be in many cases not fulfilled, such as (a) complete primary limestone dissociation during calcination, (b) efficient separation of geogenic carbon contained in calcareous aggregates, (c) short carbonation time, and (d) absence of secondary calcite. Many laboratories all over the world have proposed different methods to select suitable fractions of mortar.

The first intercomparison attempt, involving eight international laboratories, was organized in 2016 aiming at comparing and statistically treating the results obtained on the same materials by different laboratories with their own characterization and pre-treatment methods (Hajdas et al. 2017; Hayen et al. 2017). Following this first step, a new intercomparison experiment was proposed and set up in 2018 during the Mortar Dating International Meeting (Bordeaux, FR). A new set of three mortar samples was chosen, taking care of the selection of standardized materials (homogeneity, known mineralogical composition, absence of exogenous inclusions, known expected age).

This work describes the results of two research teams involved in the intercomparison. The samples were characterized, selected, and dated depending on each laboratory strategy. The results stress the importance of the characterization of the raw material is to better understand the mineralogical and petrographical composition of the samples. Such information can support the choice of the most appropriate strategy for the extraction of CO2 and then for data interpretation.

In the framework of the interdisciplinary project “Settlement History of the Eastern Sahara” at the Universität zu Köln, a large number of sites were excavated during the 1980s in northern Sudan, where the Laqiya-region with the Wadi Shaw and Wadi Sahal was one of the main research areas. About 150 sites have been surveyed and partly excavated. One of these sites, Wadi Shaw 82/52, yielded sherds of a Maidum bowl, which is dateable to the Egyptian IVth and Vth Dynasty. This site was dated by four radiocarbon dates. The dates are compared with the historical chronology of Egypt for the IVth and Vth Dynasty, and are shown to be in good agreement.