Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T02:34:55.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

When 14C Dates Fall Beyond the Limits of Uncertainty: An Assessment of Anomalies in Western Mediterranean Bronze Age 14C Series

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2016

Vicente Lull
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Rafael Micó*
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Cristina Rihuete-Herrada
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Roberto Risch
Affiliation:
Department of Prehistory, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
*
1.Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].

Abstract

The aim of this article is to bring to light a serious problem affecting radiocarbon dates produced at least from 2009 onwards by the AMS Leibniz laboratory at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität (Kiel, Germany). Archaeological observations and cross-checkings between several laboratories confirm that in a significant number of dates, clear deviations of the results from chronological schemes based on stratigraphical sequences and hundreds of measurements have occurred, which usually implies an aging of the 14C values.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 2015 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Castro, P, Chapman, R, Gili, S, Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R, Sanahuja, ME. 1993–1994. Tiempos sociales de los contextos funerarios argáricos. Anales de Prehistoria y Arqueología de la Universidad de Murcia 9–10:77105.Google Scholar
Castro, P, Chapman, RW, Colomer, E, Gili, S, González Marcén, P, Lull, V, Micó, R, Montón, S, Rihuete, C, Risch, R, Ruiz, M, Sanahuja, ME, Tenas, M, Van Strydonck, M. 1995. La serie radiocarbónica de Gatas (Turre, Almería). Diacronía y fasificación del depósito arqueológico. Anuario Arqueológico de Andalucía 1992:2736.Google Scholar
Castro, P, Chapman, R, Gili, S, Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R, Sanahuja, ME. 1999. Proyecto Gatas 2. La dinámica arqueoecológica de la ocupación prehistórica. Seville: Consejería de Cultura de la Junta de Andalucía.Google Scholar
Friedrich, S, Schlenker, B, Schunke, T. 2014. Radiometrische Mehrfachbeprobungen an archäologischen Befunden aus Salzmünde, Saalekreis: Ein Diskussionsbeitrag zur Interpretation von 14C-Daten. Archäologie in Sachsen-Anhalt 7/14:2431.Google Scholar
Gili, S, Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 2006. An island decides: megalithic burial rites on Menorca. Antiquity 80(310):829–42.Google Scholar
González Marcén, P, Lull, V, Risch, R. 1992. Arqueología de Europa 2250–1200 A.C. Madrid: Síntesis.Google Scholar
Lull, V. 2000. Argaric society: death at home. Antiquity 74(285):581–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 1999. La Cova des Càrritx y la Cova des Mussol: Ideología y Sociedad en la Prehistoria de Menorca. Barcelona: Consell Insular de Menorca, Ajuntament de Ciutadella y Fundació Rubió Tudurí Andrómaco.Google Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 2005. Property relations in the Bronze Age of southwestern Europe: an archaeological analysis of infant burials from El Argar (Almeria, Spain). Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 71:247–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 2010. Límites históricos y limitaciones del conocimiento arqueológico: la transición entre los grupos arqueológicos de Los Millares y El Argar. In: Bueno, P, Gilman, A, Martín Morales, C, Sánchez-Palencia, FJ, editors. Arqueología, sociedad, territorio y paisaje. Estudios sobre Prehistoria reciente, Protohistoria y transición al mundo romano. Homenaje a Ma Dolores Fernández-Posse. Madrid: Bibliotheca Praehistorica Hispana XXVIII, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. p 7594.Google Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 2011. El Argar and the beginning of class society in the western Mediterranean. In: Müller, J, Hansen, S, editors. Sozialarchäologische Perspektiven prähistorischer Gesellschaften: die Entstehung von sozialer Ungleichhheit. Berlin: Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Col. Archäologie in Eurasien 24. p 381414.Google Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 2013. Political collapse and social change at the end of El Argar. In: Meller, H, Bertemes, F, Bork, H-R, Risch, R, editors. 1600 – Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera Eruption? Halle: Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte. p 283302. In German.Google Scholar
Lull, V, Micó, R, Rihuete, C, Risch, R. 2014. The La Bastida fortification system: new light and new questions on the Early Bronze Age societies in the Western Mediterranean. Antiquity 88(340):395410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menasanch, M. 2004. Secuencias de cambio social en una región mediterránea: análisis arqueológico de la depresión de Vera (Almería) entre los siglos V y XI. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1132. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Micó, R. 2005. Cronología absoluta y periodización de la Prehistoria de las Islas Baleares. British Archaeological Reports, International Series 1373. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
Nájera, T, Molina, F, Jiménez-Brobeil, S, Sánchez Romero, M, Al-Oumaoui, I, Aranda, G, Delgado-Huertas, A, Laffranchi, Z. 2010. La población infantil de la Motilla del Azuer: un estudio bioarqueológico. Complutum 21(2):69102.Google Scholar
Peška, J. 2013. Das Besiedlungsbild in der Blütezeit der Frühbronzezeit im Gebiet des mittleren Donauraumes. In: Meller, H, Bertemes, F, Bork, H-R, Risch, R, editors. 1600 – Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera Eruption? Halle: Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte. p 387409. In German.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Bard, E, Bayliss, A, Beck, JW, Blackwell, PG, Bronk Ramsey, C, Buck, CE, Cheng, H, Edwards, RL, Friedrich, M, Grootes, PM, Guilderson, TP, Haflidason, H, Hajdas, I, Hatté, C, Heaton, TJ, Hoffmann, DL, Hogg, AG, Hughen, KA, Kaiser, KF, Kromer, B, Manning, SW, Niu, M, Reimer, RW, Richards, DA, Scott, EM, Southon, JR, Staff, RA, Turney, CSM, van der Plicht, J. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55(4):1869–87.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1973. Before Civilization. London: Jonathan Cape.Google Scholar
Siret, L, Siret, H. 1887. Les Premières Âges du Métal dans le Sud-est de l'Espagne. Antwerpen (1890 edition in Spanish at Barcelona. Available at http://www.arqueomurcia.com/index.php?a=pu_libro_siret&PHPSESSID=1f79957ee1a9b0501984a34ee3ccb604.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Reimer, P, Reimer, R. 2015. CALIB Radiocarbon Calibration. URL: http://calib.qub.ac.uk/calib/.Google Scholar