Santa Lucía is a pottery production site dating to the Formative period (about 1600 BC to AD 200). It is located in the Cochabamba valleys of the eastern Bolivian Andes. The settlement consists of a residential area and a separate workshop area. A peripheral sector of ash mounds was used as refuse sites and burial grounds. The excavations yielded a total of 16 radiocarbon samples from all 3 sectors, which were dated at the Gliwice Radiocarbon Laboratory (Gliwice, Poland). The results from the deepest trench in the workshop sector (Trench 5) provide information for the stratigraphic sequence and help to define spatial and socioeconomic changes at around 600–500 BC with the beginning of the Late Formative or Santa Lucía III phase. The 14C dates from Santa Lucía, therefore, contribute to a better definition of the existing regional Formative period phases and finally to a better understanding of the processes during the Formative period in the south-central Andes.

Archival charcoal tree-ring segments from the Mississippian center of Kincaid Mounds provide chronometric information for the history of this important site. However, charcoal recovered from Kincaid was originally treated with a paraffin consolidant, a once common practice in American archaeology. This paper presents data on the efficacy of a solvent pretreatment protocol and new wiggle-matched 14C dates from the largest mound (Mound 10) at Kincaid. FTIR and 14C analysis on known-age charcoal intentionally contaminated with paraffin, as well as archaeological material, show that a chloroform pretreatment is effective at removing paraffin contamination. Wiggle-matched cutting dates from the final construction episodes on Mound 10 at Kincaid, indicate that the mound was used in the late 1300s with the construction of a unique structure on the apex occurring around 1390. This study demonstrates the potential for museum collections of archaeological charcoal to contribute high-resolution chronological information despite past conservation practices that complicate 14C dating.

Ecse Mound is a burial mound in the Hortobágy region of eastern Hungary. Built by prehistoric nomadic peoples from the east, it now stands on the border between two modern settlements. The construction of the mound was assumed to be related to representatives of the Pit Grave Culture populating the area between the Late Copper and Bronze Ages. This theory considered similarities in shape, orientation, and stratigraphy of this mound with other absolute-dated ones in the Hortobágy region alone. The mound comprises two construction layers as indicated by magnetic susceptibility and on-site stratigraphic observations. According to detailed sedimentological, geochemical analyses of samples taken from the bedrock, artificial stratigraphic horizons, and the overlying topsoil, there is a marked similarity between the soil forming the body of the mound in both artificial horizons and the underlying bedrock soil. In contrast the pedological, geological character of the modern topsoil is utterly different. According to our dating results, the uppermost stratigraphic horizon is coeval with the absolute-dated mounds in the region, assigning it to the period of the Pit Grave Culture. However, the lower anthropological horizon is older and dates to between the Early and Late Copper Ages.

We have studied the limitations of conventional mass spectrometry and have examined accelerator based methods which could help circumvent these limitations. In particular, cyclotron-based accelerator mass spectrometric (AMS) techniques are discussed with an emphasis on evaluating performances of superconducting mini-cyclotrons designed for use as AMS instruments. We discussed the design of superconducting mini-cyclotrons dedicated to radioisotope dating research.

Sequential thermal analysis allows for deconvoluting the refractory nature and complexity of carbon mixtures embedded in mineral matrices for subsequent offline stable carbon and radiocarbon (14C) isotope analyses. Originally developed to separate Holocene from more ancient sedimentary organic matter to improve dating of marine sediments, the Ramped Pyrolysis and Oxidation (RPO) apparatus, or informally, the “dirt burner” is now used to address pressing questions in the broad field of biogeochemistry. The growing interest in the community now necessitates improved handling and procedures for routine analyses of difficult sample types. Here we report on advances in CO2 purification during sample processing, modifications to the instrumentation at the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (NOSAMS) facility, and introduce sodium bicarbonate procedural standards with differing natural abundance 14C signatures for blank assessment. Measurements from different environmental samples are used to compare the procedure to the different generations of sequential thermal analyses. With this study, we aim to improve the standardization of the procedures and prepare this instrumentation for innovations in online stable carbon isotopes and direct AMS-interface measurements in the future.

The preparation and calibration of a secondary standard for the INGEIS Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory are presented. This standard is barium carbonate with a specific activity almost twice that of NBS oxalic acid. It was prepared from BaCO3 with high specific activity and commercial potassium carbonate by an isotopic dilution technique. The advantages of this standard are: 1) the preparation is simple and can be achieved with ordinary labware; 2) the production of CO2 by acid attack from this carbonate shows minimum isotopic fractionation. At least, it has less fractionation than wet oxidation of oxalic acid, the problems of which are described in the literature. This standard ensures better reproducibility in activity measurements; 3) despite some problems of activity exchange with atmospheric CO2 concerning carbonates, measurements of activity over a period of about two years have shown no significant deviation from the mean value. A tentative explanation of this phenomenon is also given. The activity ratio between BaCO3 and NBS oxalic acid is given with its error, and the statistical tests used in the calibration are briefly explained. Finally, a control chart for the activity of the standard over a long period is drawn, showing non-significant deviation and supporting the usefulness of this standard.

We follow the same method of radiocarbon dating used in the Gif-Sur-Yvette dating laboratory. Samples are inspected and foreign material removed. Wood and charcoal samples are treated with 0.1N ammonium hydroxide and 0.1N hydrochloric acid. Shells are treated with 10% hydrochloric acid to eliminate surface contamination. Bone samples are treated with 0.1N ammonium hydroxide to remove humic acids and 10% HCl to remove inorganic carbonate and retain collagen for radiocarbon measurements. Sample CO2 is produced by combustion in oxygen. The stream of gases passes over CuO at 600°C to insure complete oxidation of C to CO2 and through traps containing, respectively, silver nitrate and sulfuric chromic acid solution for purification; barium carbonate is precipited from barium hydroxide bubblers. After filtering and drying, CO2 is liberated from barium carbonate by sulfuric acid. The CO2 is used to fill a 1.2L steel proportional counter at 740mm Hg. Age calculations are based on a 14C half-life of 5568 ± yr and 0.95 of activity of the NBS oxalic acid standard; ages are quoted in yr before 1950. Finite ages are quoted with 1σ criterion corresponding to the standard deviation based only on counting errors; the maximum age is quoted with 4 σ criterion above background.

Travertine precipitated during the past ca. 120 years, from thermal waters in one of the historical Spas of the Buda Thermal Karst (Hungary) was investigated using radiocarbon (14C). The age of the deposit is based on the historic date of the structure on which the travertine was deposited. A textural study of the travertine buildup using a ~22-cm-long diamond-core crosscutting was undertaken. The original aim of the study was to improve our understanding of the controls and possibly also the rate of travertine-precipitation. In addition to characteristic, mm-scale, regular laminations, 0.5–1.0 cm dark-colored intervals were also observed in the core. Correlation of these latter textural changes with well-known changes in the water management of the Spa was greatly hindered by the lack of age data from the interior of the core. Therefore, in addition to the two known points (beginning in 1883 AD and ending 2004 AD) at least one age-datum point, somewhere inbetween, was necessary. Since the timespan of the core obviously included the 1960s of the last century, we expected that the 14C anomaly related to the atmospheric nuclear tests of those years could be detected by isotope-geochemistry. This paper gives a brief overview of the textural features of the investigated travertine and presents the dataset proving the incorporation of considerable amounts of atmospheric carbon in the carbonate precipitate, which, indeed, facilitated the indirect dating of the part of the core containing “bomb” 14C, and this helped us to unfold the factors controlling the observed textural changes of the travertine.

Due to an increasing number of nuclear reactors in operation, the radiocarbon (14C) released from nuclear power plants (NPPs) has become an important anthropogenic source of 14C. The examination of seasonal Δ14C and monthly Sr/Ca, Mg/Ca variations in a coral in Daya Bay (China) shows that NPPs located there have an impact on the Δ14C level and sea surface temperature (SST). The Mg/Ca variation was in good correlation with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) before the operation of Ling’ao NPP in 2002, but this correlation became weak due to an abnormally higher SST after 2002. As illustrated by the Δ14C variation in the coral, there were two relative increases of Δ14C values in 1994 and 2002 when Daya Bay NPP and Ling’ao NPP began operations, respectively. The 14C released from NPPs, instead of oceanic circulation, is probably the primary factor on the Δ14C variation in Daya Bay during the NPPs’ operation. The relative increase in Δ14C value was ~80‰, which equals to ~18 Bq/kgC in specific activity. The seasonal variability in Δ14C value usually peaked in summer, the real reason of which was unknown. This study sheds light on how the NPPs influence the 14C content and SST in surrounding marine environment.

Higham et al.'s (2005) recent article in Radiocarbon 47(3) concerning diet-induced anomalies on radiocarbon ages for various faunal samples from Shag River Mouth is a well-considered study, building upon methodologies and research questions examining the phenomena of dietary anomalies addressed by Beavan Athfield and coauthors (cf. Beavan-Athfield et al. 1999, 2001a; Beavan-Athfield and Sparks 2001a,b,c). However, exception must be taken with one comment appearing in Higham et al. (2005) that suggests to the reader that there is a problem with the laboratory practice associated with rat bone dates measured at the Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory of GNS Science, New Zealand.

The Menlo Park Radiocarbon Laboratory utilizes gas proportional counting of carbon dioxide in counters installed 9.5m below the ground surface for background reduction (Robinson, 1977, 1979; Robinson & Trimble, 1981, 1983). The reported results of geologic samples closely follow the guidelines of Stuiver and Polach (1977). The standard errors for analyses earlier than USGS-500 are based solely upon counting statistics, while later analyses include estimates of uncertainty in voltage, pressure, temperature, and δ13C. Unless otherwise noted, organic samples are pretreated in NaOH and HCl, and carbonate samples in HCl.

Since 1977, the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo has been reexamining the archaic Royal necropolis Umm el-Qaab at Abydos (ca. 500 km south of Cairo). The necropolis consists of the tomb complexes of six kings and one queen of Dynasty I as well as two kings of Dynasty II in the southern part, the cemetery with royal tombs from Dynasty 0 and early Dynasty I in the middle and the predynastic cemetery in the northern part. Although partly destroyed and deprived of most of their contents, the tombs and the remaining artifacts are a major source for the early dynastic period and are of utmost importance for the understanding of predynastic development during Naqada I–III and the chronology of the formation of Egyptian culture. Sixteen newly 14C-dated samples were mainly taken from remains of wooden roofs and coffins, or in the case of the earliest tombs from mattings. The dating results in general are in good accordance with the relative archaeological dating of the tombs, but 100–150 yr earlier than the so far established historical chronology.

This work focuses on building a high-resolution age-depth model for quantitative palaeoclimate study from the Mohos peat bog, East Carpathian mountains. The investigated core presents a continuous peat profile for the last 12 kyr. The chronology was based on 36 accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) analyses of the separated Sphagnum samples from different depths of the profile. Dry Sphagnum samples for AMS dating were prepared using the classic acid-base-acid (ABA) method followed with an oxidative bleaching step to get clean cellulose. Sphagnum cellulose samples were measured by AMS using the EnvironMICADAS at the ICER (Debrecen, Hungary). A high-resolution chronology was obtained with the use of Bayesian age-depth modeling. Peat accumulation rate has been calculated and the sections with variable accumulation rate values were observed along the profile.

This list continues our program to put into print our large backlog of unpublished dates. Those listed here are not a specific block of dates but simply those ready for publication.

Measurements have continued with the same proportional counter system, sample pretreatment procedure, methane preparation and measurement, and calculation using a half-life of 5568 ± 30 yr as described previously (R., 1970, v. 12, p. 298-318). Uncertainties quoted are single standard deviations originating from standard, sample, background counting rates and half-life. No C13/C12 ratios were measured.

The Pleistocene history of the leopard (Panthera pardus) in Europe has been documented by the material obtained from 312 localities, with the last dated ∼1.1 Myr. The relatively small and gracile form of the leopard was very rare during the late Early and Middle Pleistocene. Only after the disappearance of the jaguar (Panthera gombaszoegensis) did P. pardus spread widely in Europe, increasing in size and ecologically substituting P. gombaszoegensis. The number of late Middle Pleistocene localities with leopard remains, younger than 300 kyr, increased considerably. The leopard reached the maximum extension of its geographical range in the Late Pleistocene. The Iberian Peninsula was the last European refuge for this cat. Six sites, the Naciekowa, Obok Wschodniej, Radochowska, and Wschodnia Caves from the Sudety Mountains and the Biśnik and Dziadowa Skała Caves from the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, have documented the presence of the leopard in Poland between MIS 10/9 and MIS 3. These records are from rocky regions with rugged terrain and are located in the territory of Silesia (southern Poland). A newly obtained radiocarbon date (43–42 kyr) from the Radochowska Cave directly confirms the occurrence of P. pardus in the Sudety Mountains in the middle part of MIS 3.

The following dates are samples measured since publication of Kiel III (Radiocarbon, v. 10, p. 328–332). Age calculations are based on 95% of the activity of NBS oxalic-acid standard as modern value of A.D. 1950. Results are calculated with Libby half-life and reported in yr before 1950. Error corresponds to 1σ variation of sample net counting rate as well as modern standard and background, but does not include the uncertainty in C14 half-life and in secular C14 variations. Dates are not corrected for isotopic fractionation.