New Developments in Radiocarbon Dating

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating was developed by Willard Libby in the late 1940s. It is a scientific method that takes advantage of the radioactive isotope of carbon to determine the age of carbonaceous material. Radiocarbon continues to be the main dating method in archaeology. This chapter provides a brief outline of the radiocarbon dating method and discusses the latest developments in the context of archaeology. Radiocarbon measurements are not directly correlated with calendar years due to atmospheric variation in past 14 C levels. Radiocarbon determinations, therefore, require calibration before they can be interpreted in absolute calendar terms. Bayesian age modelling is the main method used for chronology building in archaeological applications. This is a statistical approach that enables the quantitative analysis of radiocarbon results in the context of existing, pertinent knowledge. These priors consist primarily of relative and stratigraphic information derived from archaeological excavation.