Radiocarbon (14C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international 14C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable 14C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the 14C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine 14C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.

Early researchers of radiocarbon levels in Southern Hemisphere tree rings identified a variable North-South hemispheric offset, necessitating construction of a separate radiocarbon calibration curve for the South. We present here SHCal20, a revised calibration curve from 0–55,000 cal BP, based upon SHCal13 and fortified by the addition of 14 new tree-ring data sets in the 2140–0, 3520–3453, 3608–3590 and 13,140–11,375 cal BP time intervals. We detail the statistical approaches used for curve construction and present recommendations for the use of the Northern Hemisphere curve (IntCal20), the Southern Hemisphere curve (SHCal20) and suggest where application of an equal mixture of the curves might be more appropriate. Using our Bayesian spline with errors-in-variables methodology, and based upon a comparison of Southern Hemisphere tree-ring data compared with contemporaneous Northern Hemisphere data, we estimate the mean Southern Hemisphere offset to be 36 ± 27 14C yrs older.

The concentration of radiocarbon (14C) differs between ocean and atmosphere. Radiocarbon determinations from samples which obtained their 14C in the marine environment therefore need a marine-specific calibration curve and cannot be calibrated directly against the atmospheric-based IntCal20 curve. This paper presents Marine20, an update to the internationally agreed marine radiocarbon age calibration curve that provides a non-polar global-average marine record of radiocarbon from 0–55 cal kBP and serves as a baseline for regional oceanic variation. Marine20 is intended for calibration of marine radiocarbon samples from non-polar regions; it is not suitable for calibration in polar regions where variability in sea ice extent, ocean upwelling and air-sea gas exchange may have caused larger changes to concentrations of marine radiocarbon. The Marine20 curve is based upon 500 simulations with an ocean/atmosphere/biosphere box-model of the global carbon cycle that has been forced by posterior realizations of our Northern Hemispheric atmospheric IntCal20 14C curve and reconstructed changes in CO2 obtained from ice core data. These forcings enable us to incorporate carbon cycle dynamics and temporal changes in the atmospheric 14C level. The box-model simulations of the global-average marine radiocarbon reservoir age are similar to those of a more complex three-dimensional ocean general circulation model. However, simplicity and speed of the box model allow us to use a Monte Carlo approach to rigorously propagate the uncertainty in both the historic concentration of atmospheric 14C and other key parameters of the carbon cycle through to our final Marine20 calibration curve. This robust propagation of uncertainty is fundamental to providing reliable precision for the radiocarbon age calibration of marine based samples. We make a first step towards deconvolving the contributions of different processes to the total uncertainty; discuss the main differences of Marine20 from the previous age calibration curve Marine13; and identify the limitations of our approach together with key areas for further work. The updated values for ΔR, the regional marine radiocarbon reservoir age corrections required to calibrate against Marine20, can be found at the data base http://calib.org/marine/.

To create a reliable radiocarbon calibration curve, one needs not only high-quality data but also a robust statistical methodology. The unique aspects of much of the calibration data provide considerable modeling challenges and require a made-to-measure approach to curve construction that accurately represents and adapts to these individualities, bringing the data together into a single curve. For IntCal20, the statistical methodology has undergone a complete redesign, from the random walk used in IntCal04, IntCal09 and IntCal13, to an approach based upon Bayesian splines with errors-in-variables. The new spline approach is still fitted using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) but offers considerable advantages over the previous random walk, including faster and more reliable curve construction together with greatly increased flexibility and detail in modeling choices. This paper describes the new methodology together with the tailored modifications required to integrate the various datasets. For an end-user, the key changes include the recognition and estimation of potential over-dispersion in 14C determinations, and its consequences on calibration which we address through the provision of predictive intervals on the curve; improvements to the modeling of rapid 14C excursions and reservoir ages/dead carbon fractions; and modifications made to, hopefully, ensure better mixing of the MCMC which consequently increase confidence in the estimated curve.

Beyond ~13.9 cal kBP, the IntCal20 radiocarbon (14C) calibration curve is based upon combining data across a range of different archives including corals and planktic foraminifera. In order to reliably incorporate such marine data into an atmospheric curve, we need to resolve these records into their constituent atmospheric signal and marine reservoir age. We present results of marine reservoir age simulations enabling this resolution, applying the LSG ocean general circulation model forced with various climatic background conditions and with atmospheric radiocarbon changes according to the Hulu Cave speleothem record. Simulating the spatiotemporal evolution of reservoir ages between 54,000 and 10,700 cal BP, we find reservoir ages between 500 and 1400 yr in the low- and mid-latitudes, but also more than 3000 yr in the polar seas. Our results are broadly in agreement with available marine radiocarbon reconstructions, with the caveat that continental margins, marginal seas, or tropical lagoons are not properly resolved in our coarse-resolution model.

The radiocarbon (14C) calibration curve so far contains annually resolved data only for a short period of time. With accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) matching the precision of decay counting, it is now possible to efficiently produce large datasets of annual resolution for calibration purposes using small amounts of wood. The radiocarbon intercomparison on single-year tree-ring samples presented here is the first to investigate specifically possible offsets between AMS laboratories at high precision. The results show that AMS laboratories are capable of measuring samples of Holocene age with an accuracy and precision that is comparable or even goes beyond what is possible with decay counting, even though they require a thousand times less wood. It also shows that not all AMS laboratories always produce results that are consistent with their stated uncertainties. The long-term benefits of studies of this kind are more accurate radiocarbon measurements with, in the future, better quantified uncertainties.

As the worldwide standard for radiocarbon (14C) dating over the past ca. 50,000 years, the International Calibration Curve (IntCal) is continuously improving towards higher resolution and replication. Tree-ring-based 14C measurements provide absolute dating throughout most of the Holocene, although high-precision data are limited for the Younger Dryas interval and farther back in time. Here, we describe the dendrochronological characteristics of 1448 new 14C dates, between ~11,950 and 13,160 cal BP, from 13 pines that were growing in Switzerland. Significantly enhancing the ongoing IntCal update (IntCal20), this Late Glacial (LG) compilation contains more annually precise 14C dates than any other contribution during any other period of time. Thus, our results now provide unique geochronological dating into the Younger Dryas, a pivotal period of climate and environmental change at the transition from LG into Early Holocene conditions.

Advances in accelerator mass spectrometry have resulted in an unprecedented amount of new high-precision radiocarbon (14C) -dates, some of which will redefine the international 14C calibration curves (IntCal and SHCal). Often these datasets are unaccompanied by detailed quality insurances in place at the laboratory, questioning whether the 14C structure is real, a result of a laboratory variation or measurement-scatter. A handful of intercomparison studies attempt to elucidate laboratory offsets but may fail to identify measurement-scatter and are often financially constrained. Here we introduce a protocol, called Quality Dating, implemented at ETH-Zürich to ensure reproducible and accurate high-precision 14C-dates. The protocol highlights the importance of the continuous measurements and evaluation of blanks, standards, references and replicates. This protocol is tested on an absolutely dated German Late Glacial tree-ring chronology, part of which is intercompared with the Curt Engelhorn-Center for Archaeometry, Mannheim, Germany (CEZA). The combined dataset contains 170 highly resolved, highly precise 14C-dates that supplement three decadal dates spanning 280 cal. years in IntCal, and provides detailed 14C structure for this interval.

Subfossil trees with their annual rings constitute the most accurate and precise archive to calibrate the radiocarbon (14C) method. The Holocene part of the IntCal curve is based on tree-ring chronologies, absolutely dated by dendrochronological matching. For the Northern Hemisphere, the absolute curve starts at 12,325 cal BP. For the early part of the Younger Dryas (YD) climatic event (≈ 12,850–11,650 cal BP), there are only a few floating dendrochronological sequences, mainly from Switzerland and France. We present new 14C results from subfossil trees (Pinus sylvestris L.) collected from the Barbiers site (southeast French Alps). The dendrochronological series covers 416 years, corresponding to the onset of the YD period. In order to date our sequence, we matched it with the 14C record based on kauri trees from New Zealand. The Barbiers data were first averaged at the same decadal resolution as the kauri record. Statistical comparison of the different averaging options and matching techniques enables dating the Barbiers sequence to 13,008–12,594 ±10 cal BP, which thus includes the boundary between the Allerød and YD events. The new Barbiers record allows to calculate the 14C inter-hemispheric gradient (14C-IHG) during the period overlapping the kauri sequence. For the optimal dating option, the mean 14C-IHG is 37 yr with a standard deviation (SD) of 21 yr based on 43 decadal estimations (−6‰ with SD of 2‰). The 14C-IHG record exhibits minimal values, down to zero, between 12,960–12,840 cal BP. Excluding these minima leads to an average 14C-IHG of 45 yr with a SD of 14 yr based on 33 decadal values, in agreement with observations for the last two millennia. The Barbiers record suggests a 14C-IHG increase between the end of the Allerød period (IHG of 37 yr with SD of 14 yr) and the early part of the YD (IHG of 48 yr with SD of 14 yr), which is compatible with previously reported drop of deep-water convection in the North-Atlantic and the associated increase in wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean.

As part of the ongoing effort to improve the Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon (14C) calibration curve, this study investigates the period of 856 BC to 626 BC (2805–2575 yr BP) with a total of 403 single-year 14C measurements. In this age range, IntCal13 was constructed largely from German and Irish oak as well as Californian bristlecone pine 14C dates, with most samples measured with a 10-yr resolution. The new data presented here is the first atmospheric 14C single-year record of the older end of the Hallstatt plateau based on an absolutely dated tree-ring chronology. The data helped reveal a major solar proton event (SPE) which caused a spike in the production rate of cosmogenic radionuclides around 2610/2609 BP. This production event is thought to have reached a magnitude similar to the 774/775 AD production event but has remained undetected due to averaging effects in the decadal calibration data. The record leading up to the 2610/2609 BP event reveals a 11-yr solar cycle with varying cyclicity. Features of the new data and the benefits of higher resolution calibration are discussed.

In 2018 Pearson et al. published a new sequence of annual radiocarbon (14C) data derived from oak (Quercus sp.) trees from Northern Ireland and bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva) from North America across the period 1700–1500 BC. The study indicated that the more highly resolved shape of an annually based calibration dataset could improve the accuracy of 14C calibration during this period. This finding had implications for the controversial dating of the eruption of Thera in the Eastern Mediterranean. To test for interlaboratory variation and improve the robustness of the annual dataset for calibration purposes, we have generated a replicate sequence from the same Irish oaks at ETH Zürich. These data are compatible with the Irish oak 14C dataset previously produced at the University of Arizona and are used (along with additional data) to examine inter-tree and interlaboratory variation in multiyear annual 14C time-series. The results raise questions about regional 14C offsets at different scales and demonstrate the potential of annually resolved 14C for refining subdecadal and larger scale features for calibration, solar reconstruction, and multiproxy synchronization.

Annually resolved tree-ring samples of the time period 1625–1510 BCE were analyzed from the German oak tree-ring chronology. Blocks of the same tree rings were previously used to generate IntCal calibration data. The new dataset shows an offset to the calibration data IntCal13 of 24 years and resembles annual data for the same time period derived from tree-ring records in other growth locations. A subset of samples of the period 1625–1585 BCE was additionally measured in three other laboratories (ETH, AAR, AA) for quality control.

Eighteen new high-precision radiocarbon (14C) dates obtained for dendrochronologically dated wood from Bodegraven, the Netherlands are reported. They are relevant for establishing the revised calibration curve around the time of the Bronze Age Santorini eruption. Most of our new data overlap within one sigma with IntCal13, but a few data points are slightly increased in 14C age compared to IntCal13.

Single-year measurements of radiocarbon (14C) in tree rings have led to the discovery of rapid cosmic-ray events as well as longer lasting anomalies, which have given new insights into the Sun’s behavior in the past. Here, we present two new single-year 14C records based on Danish oak that span the periods AD 692–790 and 966–1057, respectively, and consequently include the two rapid cosmic-ray events in AD 775 and 994. The new data are presented along with relevant information on the dendrochronological dating of the wood pieces, implying that these new measurements may contribute towards generating the next international calibration curve. The new data covering the AD 966–1057 period suggest that the increase in atmospheric 14C associated with the cosmic-ray event in AD 994 actually occurred in AD 993, i.e. one year earlier than the year reported in Fogtmann-Schulz et al. (2017) based on oak from southern Denmark. Careful reanalysis of the dendrochronology that underpins the new 14C records based on oak material from southern Denmark reveals that the cosmic-ray event reported in Fogtmann-Schulz et al. (2017) actually took place in AD 993.

Terrestrial plant macrofossils from the sedimentary record of Lake Suigetsu, Japan, provide the only quasi-continuous direct atmospheric record of radiocarbon (14C) covering the last 50 ka cal BP (Bronk Ramsey et al. 2012). Since then, new high precision data have become available on U-Th dated speleothems from Hulu Cave China, covering the same time range (Cheng et al. 2018). In addition, an updated varve-based chronology has also been published for the 2006 core from Lake Suigetsu (SG06) based on extended microscopic analysis of the sediments and improved algorithms for interpolation (Schlolaut et al. 2018). Here we reanalyze the radiocarbon dataset from Suigetsu based on the new varve counting information and the constraints imposed by the speleothem data. This enables the new information on the calendar age scale of the Suigetsu dataset to be used in the construction of the consensus IntCal calibration curve. Comparison of the speleothem and plant macrofossil records provides insight into the mechanisms underlying the incorporation of carbon into different types of record and the relative strengths of different types of archive for calibration purposes.

We present new updates to the calendar and radiocarbon (14C) chronologies for the Cariaco Basin, Venezuela. Calendar ages were generated by tuning abrupt climate shifts in Cariaco Basin sediments to those in speleothems from Hulu Cave. After the original Cariaco-Hulu calendar age model was published, Hulu Cave δ18O records have been augmented with increased temporal resolution and a greater number of U/Th dates. These updated Hulu Cave records provide increased accuracy as well as precision in the final Cariaco calendar age model. The depth scale for the Ocean Drilling Program Site 1002D sediment core, the primary source of samples for 14C dating, has been corrected to account for missing sediment from a core break, eliminating age-depth anomalies that afflicted the earlier calendar age models. Individual 14C dates for the Cariaco Basin remain unchanged from previous papers, although detailed comparisons of the Cariaco calibration dataset to those from Hulu Cave and Lake Suigetsu suggest that the Cariaco marine reservoir age may have shifted systematically during the past. We describe these recent changes to the Cariaco datasets and provide the data in a comprehensive format that will facilitate use by the community.

We undertook a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis of Northern Hemisphere tree-ring datasets included in IntCal20 in order to evaluate their strategic fit with the demands of archaeological users. Case studies on wiggle-matching single tree rings from timbers in historic buildings and Bayesian modeling of series of results on archaeological samples from Neolithic long barrows in central-southern England exemplify the archaeological implications that arise when using IntCal20. The SWOT analysis provides an opportunity to think strategically about future radiocarbon (14C) calibration so as to maximize the utility of 14C dating in archaeology and safeguard its reputation in the discipline.

Connecting calendar ages to radiocarbon (14C) ages, i.e. constructing a calibration curve, requires 14C samples that represent, or are closely connected to, atmospheric 14C values and that can also be independently dated. In addition to these data, there is information that can serve as independent tests of the calibration curve. For example, information from ice core radionuclide data cannot be directly incorporated into the calibration curve construction as it delivers less direct information on the 14C age–calendar age relationship but it can provide tests of the quality of the calibration curve. Furthermore, ice core ages on 14C-dated volcanic eruptions provide key information on the agreement of ice core and radiocarbon time scales. Due to their scarcity such data would have little impact if directly incorporated into the calibration curve. However, these serve as important “anchor points” in time for independently testing the calibration curve and/or ice-core time scales. Here we will show that such information largely supports the new IntCal20 calibration record. Furthermore, we discuss how floating tree-ring sequences on ice-core time scales agree with the new calibration curve. For the period around 40,000 years ago we discuss unresolved differences between ice core 10Be and 14C records that are possibly related to our limited understanding of carbon cycle influences on the atmospheric 14C concentration during the last glacial period. Finally, we review the results on the time scale comparison between the Greenland ice-core time scale (GICC05) and IntCal20 that effectively allow a direct comparison of 14C-dated records with the Greenland ice core data.

The curves recommended for calibrating radiocarbon (14C) dates into absolute dates have been updated. For calibrating atmospheric samples from the Northern Hemisphere, the new curve is called IntCal20. This is accompanied by associated curves SHCal20 for the Southern Hemisphere, and Marine20 for marine samples. In this “companion article” we discuss advances and developments that have led to improvements in the updated curves and highlight some issues of relevance for the general readership. In particular the dendrochronological based part of the curve has seen a significant increase in data, with single-year resolution for certain time ranges, extending back to 13,910 calBP. Beyond the tree rings, the new curve is based upon an updated combination of marine corals, speleothems, macrofossils, and varved sediments and now reaches back to 55,000 calBP. Alongside these data advances, we have developed a new, bespoke statistical curve construction methodology to allow better incorporation of the diverse constituent records and produce a more robust curve with uncertainties. Combined, these data and methodological advances offer the potential for significant new insight into our past. We discuss some implications for the user, such as the dating of the Santorini eruption and also some consequences of the new curve for Paleolithic archaeology.