Abstract
IN a recent communication, C. Crowe1 uses published dates on samples of known age in an attempt to investigate variations of the concentration of carbon-14 in living material during the past 5,000 years. He concludes that the activity has followed a cycle with a maximum change of 10 per cent and with some evidence of a sharp peak of about 10 per cent about 2,000 years ago. His proposed curve is most striking, for the effect, if real, would imply, for example, that all 1,000-year old samples should give radiocarbon ages of more than 1,700 years, a result which has not yet been obtained in practical measurement despite the growing number of accurate measurements on tree rings and other materials of known age.
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References
Crowe, C., Nature, 182, 470 (1958).
de Vries, Hl., Proc. K. Ned. Akad. Wetensch., B, 61, 94 (1958).
Münnich, K. O., Science, 126, 194 (1957).
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BARKER, H. Carbon-14 Activity during the Past 5,000 Years. Nature 182, 1433 (1958). https://doi.org/10.1038/1821433a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1821433a0
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