Welcome to the K12 section of the Radiocarbon WEBinfo site.

The aim
here is to provide clear, understandable information relating to radiocarbon
dating for the benefit of K12 students, as well as la people who are not
re!uiring detailed information about the method of radiocarbon dating
itself. " have tried here to answer some of the fre!uentl as#ed !uestions
that " receive from students via email, as well as providing some basic
information about scientific dating methods.
"Everything which has come down to us from heathendom is wrapped in a thick fog; it belongs to a space of
time we cannot measure. We know that it is older than Christendom, but whether by a couple of years or a
couple of centuries, or even by more than a millenium, we can do no more than guess." $Rasmus %erup,
&'anish anti!uarian(, 1)*2 &in Trigger, 1+)+,-1(..
The person who wrote these words lived in the 1)**s, man ears before archaeologists could
accuratel date materials from archaeological sites using scientific methods. Rasmus %erup/s
!uote reminds us of the tremendous scientific advances which have ta#en place in the 2*th
centur. "n %erup/s time, archaeologists could date the past onl b using recorded histories,
which in Europe were based mainl on the Egptian calendar. The used potter and other
materials in sites to date /relativel/. The thought that sites which had the same #inds of pots
and tools would be the same age. The relative dating method wor#ed ver well, but onl in
sites which were had a connection to the relative scale. 0ost sites could not be dated. When
radiocarbon dating was developed, it revolutionised archaeolog, because it enabled them to
more confidentl date the past, and to build a more accurate picture of the human past. The
archaeologist 1olin Renfrew &1+-2( called it the development of this dating method /the
radiocarbon revolution/ in describing its great impact upon the human sciences.
How was radiocarbon dating developed?
The radiocarbon method was developed
b a team of scientists led b the late 3rofessor
Willard 4. 5ibb of the 6niversit of 1hicago after the end of World War 2.
5ibb later received the %obel 3ri7e in 1hemistr in 1+8* for the radiocarbon discover.
Toda, there are over 12* radiocarbon dating laboratories around the world producing
radiocarbon dates for the scientific communit. The 119 method has been and continues to be
applied and used in man, man different fields including hdrolog, atmospheric science,
oceanograph, geolog, palaeoclimatolog, archaeolog and biomedicine.
How does radiocarbon dating work?
:ll plants and animals on Earth are made principall of carbon. 'uring the period of a plant/s
life, the plant is ta#ing in carbon dio;ide through photosnthesis, which is how the plant
ma#es energ and grows. :nimals eat plants, and some eat other animals in the food chain.
1arbon follows this pathwa through the food chain on Earth so that all living things are
using carbon, building their bodies until the die.
: tin part of the carbon on the Earth is called 1arbon<19 &119(, or radiocarbon. "t is called
/radio/<carbon, because it is /radioactive/. This means that its atomic structure is not stable and
there is an uneas relationship between the particles in the nucleus of the atom itself.
Eventuall, a particle is emitted from the carbon 19 atom, and carbon 19 disappears. 0ost of
the carbon on Earth e;ists in a slightl different atomic form, although it is chemicall
spea#ing, identical to all carbon.
"n the 1+9*s, scientists succeeded in finding out how long it ta#es for radiocarbon to
disappear, or deca, from a sample of carbon from a dead plant or animal. Willard 5ibb, the
principal scientist, had wor#ed in the team ma#ing the nuclear bomb during World War 2, so
he was an e;pert in nuclear and atomic chemistr. :fter the war he became ver interested in
peaceful applications of atomic science. =e and two students first measured the >half<life> of
radiocarbon. The half<life refers to the amount of time it ta#es for half the radiocarbon in a
sample of bone or shell or an carbon sample to disappear. 5ibb found that it too# ??8)
ears for half the radiocarbon to deca. :fter twice that time &about 11*** ears(, another half
of that remaining amount will have disappeared. :fter another ??8) ears, again another half
will have disappeared. @ou can wor# out that after about ?* *** ears of time, all the
radiocarbon will have gone. Therefore, radiocarbon dating is not able to date anthing older
than 8* or -* *** ears old. The Aob of a radiocarbon laborator is to measure the remaining
amounts of radiocarbon in a carbon sample. This is ver difficult and re!uires a lot of careful
wor# to produce reliable dates.
What kind of things can you date using radiocarbon?
Because carbon is ver common on Earth, there are alot of different tpes of material which
can be dated b scientists. Below is a list of the different #inds of materials which can be
dated,
1harcoal, wood, twigs and seeds.
Bone.
0arine, estuarine and riverine shell.
5eather.
3eat
1oprolites &samples of preserved faeces(.
5a#e muds &gttAa( and sediments.
Boil.
"ce cores.
3ollen.
=air.
3otter.
0etal casting ores.
Wall paintings and roc# art wor#s.
"ron and meteorites.
Bird eggshell.
1orals and foraminifera.
Blood residues.
Te;tiles and fabrics.
3aper and parchment.
4ish remains.
"nsect remains.
Resins and glues.
:ntler and horn.
Water.
How did Libby test his method and find out if it worked correctly?
5ibb tested the new radiocarbon method on carbon samples from prehistoric Egpt whose
age was #nown. : sample of acacia wood from the tomb of the pharoah Coser was dated for
e;ample. Coser lived during the 2rd 'nast in Egpt &2-**<28** B1(. 5ibb figured that
since the half<life of 119 was ??8) ears, the should obtain a radiocarbon amount of about
?*D of that which was found in living wood because Coser/s death was about ?*** ears ago.
The results the obtained indicated this was the case. 0an other radiocarbon dates were
conducted on samples of wood of #nown age. :gain, the results were good. "n 1+9+, 5ibb
and his team published their results. B the earl 1+?*s there were ) new radiocarbon
laboratories, and b the end of the decade more than 2*.
How much sample material do you need to date using radiocarbon?
: new wa of radiocarbon dating was developed in the late 1+-*s called >:0B Radiocarbon
dating>. :0B stands for :ccelerator 0ass Bpectrometr. :0B dating is important because
using it ou can date ver small si7es carbon samples. "magine a grain of rice, this can be
dated now with radiocarbon. We can date pollen grains, seeds, tin pieces of charcoal. What
about a hair from someone/s headE That too can be dated using :0BF We can now date a
variet of ver, ver small samples, so man more #inds of archaeological and geological
samples can be dated than ever before so :0B is a tremendous brea#through for
archaeologists and other researchers.
How much does it cost to date using radiocarbon dating?
The cost varies between different laboratories. Gn average, a single date will cost about 2?*
6B dollars. The high cost is because it is a big Aob to date a sample. "t ta#es a long time to
change the carbon material into the form it needs to be in to be able to be dated. :s well as
that, the e!uipment is ver e;pensive and has ongoing costs associated with it. :n :0B
dating instrument for e;ample, costs around H2<2 million dollars.
What are the oldest things that can be radiocarbon dated?
:nthing that is less than about ?* or 8* *** ears can be radiocarbon dated. Beond 8* ***
ears there is hardl an radiocarbon left in a sample that is original. Gften, in ver old
material, there is contamination which can significantl affect the accurac of a date. 'ating
material from the archaeological or geological record beond 2* *** ears can be ver
difficult indeed unless the depositional situation of the sample is favourable and scientists can
remove an contamination. Even a small amount of c19 from a contaminant can produce an
incorrect date in an old sample. Gften, radiocarbon daters release dates as being /greater than
?* *** ears/ or /greater than 9? *** ears/ because of the difficult in reliabl giving a date at
this age.
"n some places, such as :ustralia, archaeologists have recognised the problems in dating the
oldest sites, which ma stretch bac# over ?* < 8* *** ears. Gther techni!ues such as GB5
&Gpticall Btimulated 5uminescence dating( which use different methods of determining age,
are often used in parallel with radiocarbon to determine the ages of the uppermost parts of the
site. The ages derived are compared with another, and usuall, there has been good agreement
between the methods. :t sites in the far north of the continent, the oldest dates have been
obtained using GB5, at about 8* *** ears. :gain, this is reall Aust beond the c19 limit for
sites such as these.
What is the youngest thing that can be radiocarbon dated?
This is a difficult one, because we can date prett much anthing from toda or in modern
times, but getting an actual /date/ is hard. "n the 1+?*s and 8*s, people blew up alot of nuclear
bombs, and one thing that happened because of this was that alot of radiocarbon was created
in the air artificiall. Radiocarbon is a side effect of nuclear bombs. "n the earl 1+8*s the
amount of radiocarbon produced b bombs was bigger than the amount of radiocarbon
naturall presentF "t sounds bad, and nuclear bombs are not pleasant when the are generated,
but for science there have been some spinoffs because we have been able to stud the
movement of this radiocarbon through the environment and learn alot about how radiocarbon
is transported naturall. Bo this has been beneficial. We can also date things that have
happened since 1+?* rather well because of the sudden Aump in radiocarbon on Earth, so that
it is possible to figure out within 2<2 ears sometimes, the date of a sample.
Ienerall, we can date things prett well over the past 1*** ears, it becomes difficult from
about 1-** :' to 1+** :' because of natural changes in radiocarbon, and since 1+?* :'
dating is !uite possible.
What kinds of famous things have been radiocarbon dated?
The 'ead Bea Bcrolls are a ver famous archaeological discover, and man have been dated
b using :0B at the :ri7ona :0B laborator. The date from the first centur B1 to the first
centur :'. There was close agreement between the radiocarbon dates and the dates which
had been estimated using the writing stles used on the scrolls, and in some cases the dates
recorded on the scrolls themselves.
What about the "cemanE The "ceman is a ver famous fro7en bod found in northern "tal in
1++1. Bamples of his bones, grass boot, leather and hair were dated, the results showed that he
lived almost ??** ears ago &22**<21** B1(, during the age when people first began using
copper in Europe. Radiocarbon dating was tremendousl important in dating the precise age
of the "ceman.
How, in your opinion, did the use of radiocarbon dating change the way
scientists are able to interpret and understand history?
Before 1+?*, when radiocarbon dating was first developed b scientists from the 6B,
archaeologists had no wa of #nowing precisel how old &in numbers of ears( an
archaeological site or artefact was. "n some parts of the world, where historic records
e;tended bac# far enough in time, such as in the 0editerranean, archaeologists had dated
artefacts b comparison with material from other sites which could be historicall dated. This
method was called >relative dating> and it is still used toda. Radiocarbon dating enabled
archaeologists and other scientists to verif the ages of carbon<bearing materials ndependentl
and almost overnight revolutionised the approach of dating the past. The reason was that now
an samples could be dated, so long as the were once living organisms. Radiocarbon dating
is one of the critical discoveries in 2*th centur science and it provided one of the most
important tools for archaeologists in their !uest to uncover the past. "nstead of spending large
amounts of time solving the problem of >when> something happened, archaeologists could
now concentrate on investigating >how> and >wh> things happened.
What if any arguments were provoked because of the use of radio-carbon
dating?
Gne of the most controversial e;amples of the use of radiocarbon dating was the analsis of
the Turin Bhroud, the supposed burial cloth of Jesus. The shroud itself appears to show a
person who was crucified and is an obAect of some veneration because of its supposed
association with 1hrist. "ts histor dates bac# at least as far as the mid 19th centur :'. The
first photograph of the shroud showed the man as a negative image, a #ind of three
dimensional picture. This, along with other discoveries, such as the supposed presence of
pollen spores from "srael on the cloth have suggested the shroud might be an important and
genuine relic. "n the 1+)*s, the :rchbishop of Turin gave permission to a group of scientists
to date small pieces of fabric sampled from the shroud. Radiocarbon laboratories at Tucson
&6B(, G;ford &England( and Curich &Bwit7erland( dated the samples, along with 2 control
samples of varing ages. The results were ver consistent and showed the shroud dated
between 128*<12+* :'. This fits closel with its first appearance in the historical record and
suggests strongl that it is a medieval artefact, rather than a genuine 2***<ear<old burial
cloth.
&@ou can read the original scientific paper on the age of the Bhroud here(.
Can you find the age of rocks by using radiocarbon dating or are they
generally too old? If a rock was shot from a volcano and isnt that old,
can we use radiocarbon dating?
Bamples of roc# are not able to be dated using radiocarbon, because roc#s contain no organic
carbon from living organisms that are of recent enough age. 0ost roc#s formed hundreds of
thousands if not millions of ears ago. Ieologic deposits of coal and lignite formed from the
compressed remains of plants contain no remaining radiocarbon so the cannot be dated.
Radiocarbon dating is limited to the period * < 8* *** ears, because the /half<life/ of
radiocarbon is about ?-** ears, so to date roc#s scientists must use other methods. There is a
number of different techni!ues available. We can date volcanic roc#s using a method called
argon<argon dating for instance. This method uses principles of isotopic deca li#e
radiocarbon, but different isotopes &argon<2+ and argon 9*( which have a longer halflife
&12?* million ears(. This means scientists can date roc# which is man millions of ears old.
The techni!ue can date materials the si7e of one grain of volcanic ash, using a laser. There are
other methods which can be used as well which operate using different radiochemistries. The
onl wa to date a volcanic ash laer using radiocarbon dating is to find ash within a la#e
sediment or peat laer and then date the organic carbon from above and below it, and
therefore fi; an age for the ash event. This is a commonl used approach to date volcanic
events over the past 8* *** ears around the world.
How do you know that radiocarbon really works?
"t is possible to test radiocarbon dates in different was. Gne wa is to date things that ou
alread #now the age of. 5ibb did this when he first developed the method, b dating
artefacts of Egptian sites, which were alread dated historicall. :nother wa is to use tree
rings. Ever ear a tree leaves a ring, the rings increase in number over time until a pattern of
rings is formed. Bometimes the tree has man hundreds of rings. Bcientists can date the age of
the tree b counting and measuring the rings. Radiocarbon daters can then date the tree rings
and compare the dates with the real age of the tree. This is a ver good wa of testing
radiocarbon, and we now #now that there are some differences in radiocarbon dates and real
time. 0ost of the time radiocarbon dating is accurate, but sometimes it is different from the
real age b a small amount. 6sing a calibration curve, which is based on radiocarbon dates of
tree rings over the last 1**** ears, radiocarbon daters can correct for this problem.
We can also test radiocarbon b comparing the results with the dates produced b other dating
methods, and there are man of those. These methods are completel different to radiocarbon
dating and use different methods to provide dates. Bome of the dating methods include
6raniumKThorium dating &dating coral etc(, Thermoluminescence &potter, sediments(,
Gbsidian =dration &obsidian(, Electron Bpin Resonance &teeth(, :mino :cid Racemisation
dating &eggshell, bones(, and man others.
"f ou have an other !uestions or comments, contact 'r Tom =igham &Email,
thomas.highamLarchaeolog<research.o;ford.ac.u#(.
!ooks which might interest for younger readers"
0ummies, 'inosaurs, 0oon Roc#s , =ow We Know =ow Gld Things :re
b James Jespersen, Jane 4it7<Randolph, Bruce =iscoc# &"llustrator(. "BB%, *8)+21)9)*.
@ou can bu this Boo# at :ma7on.com for onl 6B12.**. Recommended for oung adults
1*<19 ears. @ou can read reviews of this boo# as well.
#nline articles of interest$
Tr this, Ieolabs on<line Mirtual 'ating <an interactive !ui7 for =igh Bchool students. 4or
other interesting topics visit the Ieolabs on<line =ome 3age.
4or students with !uestions about the reliabilit of radiometric dating vs creationist arguments
visit Tim Thompson/s web page which includes a list of resources on this topic.
INDEX | Introduction | Measurement | Applications | WWW Links | k12 | Publication | Corrections |
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