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Carbon dating, the archaeological workhorse, is getting a major reboot

A long-anticipated recalibration of radiocarbon dating could shift the age of some prehistoric samples hundreds of years
  1. Nicola Jones
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Radiocarbon dating — a key tool used for determining the age of prehistoric samples — is about to get a major update. For the first time in seven years, the technique is due to be recalibrated using a slew of new data from around the world. The result could have implications for the estimated ages of many finds — such as Siberia’s oldest modern human fossils, which according to the latest calibrations are 1,000 years younger than previously thought.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01499-y

References

  1. Cheng, H. et al. Science 362, 1293–1297 (2018).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. van der Plicht, J. et al. Radiocarbon https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.22 (2020).

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