Year: 2006
Type: article
Abstract: The Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU) has used an ultrafiltration protocol to further purify gelatin from archaeological bone since 2000. In this paper, the methodology is described, and it is shown that, in many instances, ultrafiltration successfully removes low molecular weight contaminants that less rigorous methods may not. These contaminants can sometimes be of a different radiocarbon age and, unless removed, may produce erroneous determinations, particularly when one is dating bones greater than 2 to 3 half-lives of 14C and the contaminants are of modern age. Results of the redating of bone of Late Middle and Early Upper Paleolithic age from the British Isles and Europe suggest that we may need to look again at the traditional chronology for these periods.
Source: Radiocarbon
Authors: T F G Higham, R M Jacobi, C Bronk Ramsey
Institutions: University of Oxford, British Museum, Natural History Museum
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W24483954