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High-Precision Decadal Calibration of the Radiocarbon Time Scale, AD 1950–2500 BC

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Minze Stuiver  and
Bernd Becker
Minze Stuiver
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences and Quaternary Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
Bernd Becker
Affiliation:
Institute for Botany, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, West Germany
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The radiocarbon ages of dendrochronologically dated wood samples, each covering 10 years, are reported back to 2500 yr BC. The decadal calibration curve constructed from these data is an extension of the curve previously given for the AD interval (Stuiver, 1982). A major difference with the previous work, however, is the assessment of the error in the radiocarbon age determination. Whereas previously this error was only based on the Poisson counting statistics of the accumulated number of counts for the sample and standards, the current calibration error is based on an estimate of the reproducibility in the radiocarbon activity determination. As a consequence, the uncertainty in the current calibration curve is, on average, 1.6 times that of the AD curve previously given.

Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 28 , Issue 2B , 1986 , pp. 863 - 910
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

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