Refining Carbon Dating

Japanese lake sediments will help archaeologists better estimate the dates of artifacts and past events.

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Image by Gordon SchlolautThe sediment of a Japanese lake has preserved a time capsule of radioactive carbon, dating back to 52,800 years ago. By providing a more precise record of this element in the atmosphere, the new data will make the process of carbon-dating more accurate, refining estimates by hundreds of years.

The data will allow archaeologists to better gauge the age of their samples and estimate the timing of important events such as the extinction of Neanderthals or the spread of modern humans through Europe.

“It’s like getting a higher-resolution telescope,” said Christopher Bronk Ramsey from the University of Oxford, who led the study. “We can look [with] more detail at things [such as] the exact relation between human activity and changes in climate.” The results are published today (October 19) in Science.

Radiocarbon dating relies on a naturally-occurring radioactive isotope of carbon called carbon-14, which is formed in the atmosphere and taken up by plants. Carbon-14 decays at a predictable rate, so by measuring its levels in archaeological remains, researchers can estimate when the ancient ...

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