The Development of Exact-Year Radiocarbon Dating

Date and Time
Presenters
Michael Dee

Extreme solar storms created spikes in the production of radiocarbon in the ancient past. The years in which these events took place are exactly known because the uplifts in radiocarbon are observable in known-age tree-ring archives. Moreover, they are also present in all other plant material that grew at the time. Thus, by matching the signals found in the tree-ring archives with those in archaeological timbers, exact dates may be assigned to ancient structures. Michael Dee, Assistant Professor of Isotope Chronology, University of Groningen