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14C Dating of Humic Acids from Bronze and Iron Age Plant Remains from the Eastern Mediterranean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

E M Wild ,
P Steier ,
P Fischer  and
F Höflmayer
E M Wild*
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), Faculty of Physics, Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Währinger Straße 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
P Steier
Affiliation:
University of Vienna, Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), Faculty of Physics, Isotope Research and Nuclear Physics, Währinger Straße 17, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
P Fischer
Affiliation:
Cypriote and Near Eastern Archaeology, Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
F Höflmayer
Affiliation:
German Archaeological Institute (DAI), Orient Department, Podbielskiallee 69-71, 14195 Berlin, Germany
*
2Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Radiocarbon dating of plant remains is often difficult due to the complete dissolution of the samples in the alkaline step of the ABA pretreatment. At the VERA laboratory, this problem was encountered frequently when numerous Bronze and Early Iron Age samples from the eastern Mediterranean were dated in the course of the special research program SCIEM2000 and in other collaborations with archaeologists focused on that area and time period. For these samples, only a 14C age determination of the humic acid fraction was possible. Humic acids from archaeological samples are always assessed as a second-choice material for 14C dating. It is assumed that the 14C ages may be affected by the presence of humic acids originating from other (younger) organic material, e.g. from soil horizons located above a sample. Therefore, when humic acids are dated a verification of the dates is crucial. To address this basic requirement, we started some time ago to date both fractions of charred seeds, wood, and charcoal samples whenever available, i.e. the residue after the ABA treatment and the humic acids extracted from the samples in the alkaline step. The results of this comparison showed that for the investigated eastern Mediterranean archaeological sites, 50 (out of 52) humic acid dates were in agreement with the 14C dates of the respective ABA-treated samples. Statistical analysis of the age differences leads to the conclusion that the extracted humic acids originated from the samples themselves or from contemporaneous material and were not appreciably contaminated by extraneous material of different age.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 2: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 599 - 607
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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