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Borderline radiocarbon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2014

J. van der Plicht*
Affiliation:
Center for Isotope Research, University of Groningen; also at Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

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Radiocarbon dating of peat has its intrinsic problems. This is often caused by mobile organic fractions. For the Weichselian Pleniglacial, another methodological problem arises: the limit of the 14C dating method. This is discussed in terms of bulk (i.e. non-selected material, generally dated conventionally) vs AMS (i.e. selected botanical remains) dates, contamination, background and calibration, guided by a series of peat samples from the Belgian/Dutch border.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2012

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