radiocarbon
Accurate compound-specific 14C dating of archaeological pottery vessels
Pottery is one of the most commonly recovered artefacts from archaeological sites. Despite more than a century of relative dating based on typology and seriation1, accurate dating of pottery using the radiocarbon dating method has proven extremely challenging owing to the limited survival of organic temper and unreliability of visible residues2–4. Here we report a method to directly date archaeological pottery based on accelerator mass spectrometry analysis of 14C in absorbed food residues using palmitic (C16:0) and stearic (C18:0) fatty acids purified by preparative gas chromatography5–8.
Changes in the Near Eastern chronology between the 5th and the 3rd millennium BC. New AMS 14C dates from Arslantepe (Turkey)
In recent years the chronological framework provided by the AMS 14 C dating has had a great impact on archaeological studies in the Near East, also affecting the previous synchronization of cultural events across the Mediterranean region. Here we present a consistent set of 14 C dates from the site of Arslantepe (Turkey) between the 5 th and the 3 rd millennium BC. A total of 86 samples of charred wood remains were previously dated by the beta counting method, already providing a general framing to this exceptionally long sequence.
Tyrrhenian central Italy. Holocene population and landscape ecology
This paper compares changes in vegetation structure and composition (using synthetic fossil pollen data) with proxy data for population levels (including settlements and radiocarbon dates) over the course of the last 10 millennia in Tyrrhenian central Italy. These data show generalised patterns of clearance of woodland in response both to early agriculturalists and urbanism, as well as the specific adoption of tree crops and variations in stock grazing.
Jericho and the chronology of palestine in the early bronze age: A radiometric re-assessment
The absolute chronology of Early Bronze Age in the Levant has been the object of a major revision (Regev et al. 2012a), which implied an increase of at least two centuries in respect of traditional chronology. Such a shift back was based upon two sites (Tel Yarmouth, Megiddo) which were the backbone of the reform, but actually do not offer complete sequences for the whole EBA. This was the weakest stone of the revision, together with a partial understanding of stratigraphy/contexts from where samples were taken.