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Fifty Years of Radiocarbon Dating: This widely applied technique has made major strides since its introduction a half-century ago at the University of Chicago Author(s): R. E. Taylor Reviewed work(s): Source: American Scientist, Vol. 88, No. 1 (JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2000), pp. 60-67 Published by: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27857964 . Accessed: 08/02/2012 10:11
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Fifty

Years

of Radiocarbon

Dating

This widely applied technique made major stridessince its introduction has a ago half-century at the Universityof Chicago
R. E. Taylor
the 1350s, when a linen fabric bearing Sincefull-scale frontand back images ofwhat ap man was first peared tobe a crucified displayed in a small village inFrance, many people debat ed whether this famous cloth?later enshrined in theCathedral of St. John the Baptist inTurin, have once served as the burial Italy?could shroud for Jesus ofNazareth. Arguments raged for six centuries about the "Shroud of Turin;" then,during the 1980s, a group of scientists de cided to seek a final answer to the question of authenticity. Investigators in England, Switzer land and theUnited States analyzed swatches from the linen shroud (along with other ancient textile samples of known vintage). They applied thenow-famous technique for deterrnining the age of organic materials using the radioactive
carbon

neutrons.

ticles eventually rain down on the earth and strike molecules of atmospheric gas, producing
Some of these neutrons in turn react

surements showed that the flax from which the linenwas produced grew sometime in the 13th or 14th century A.D.?far too recently to have had anything to do with the death of Jesus. medieval arti Assigning a reliable age to this fact is just one of a long string ofnotable accom plishments sinceWillard F. Libby and his col leagues at theUniversity of Chicago introduced radiocarbon dating in December of 1949 (an R. E. Taylor currently chairs achievement that brought Libby the 1960 No theDepartment of Anthropolo bel Prize for chemistry). A 1974 article by the gy at theUniversity ofCalifor late Elizabeth K. Ralph and Henry Michael of nia, Riverside, where he directs theUniversity of Pennsylvania recounted for the radiocarbon laboratory. readers of American Scientist the firstquarter Taylor received his Ph.D. in an of at the thropology University of century progress since Libby and his cowork ersmade their California, Los Angeles in pioneering determinations of age 1970. He has written exten Here I review the entire fivedecades using 14C. on the of development of this remarkable sively application of ra technique, diocarbon and other one that dating today requires no more carbon than methods in archaeology, with what can be found in a few strands of hair.
particular emphasis on issues New World. Address: Radio

isotope

14C?or

carbon-14.

These

mea

the surrounding peopling the of

Geophysics and Planetary

Institute of Anthropology, of

carbon Laboratory, Department

Physics, University ofCalifor nia, Riverside, CA 92521. In ternet: retaylor@citus.ucr.edu

Long Ago and Far Away Radiocarbon dating depends on a chain of nat ural events, some having taken place in deep space long ago. The sequence begins invarious parts of the galaxy,where charged particles are accelerated to immense velocities, forming what are known as cosmic rays. fractionof these A par
88

with nitrogen, 14N, to form 14C, which quickly combines with oxygen to form molecules of ra dioactive carbon dioxide (14C02). By the time the radioactive 14C02 reaches the earth's surface, it has mixed fully with normal carbon dioxide and accounts forabout one molecule in 1012. The vast majority of this 14Ceventually enters the oceans. But 1 or 2 percent goes into the ter restrialbiosphere, because plants absorb carbon from C02 in the air during photosynthesis. Thus vegetation, and the animals that feed on it,are tagged with 14C. Living thingsmaintain a 14C content that is about equal to the atmospheric concentration because the carbon atoms thatundergo radioac tive decay within their bodies are continually replaced. But once an organism dies and its metabolic processes cease, the amount of 14Cbe measured gins todiminish. The rate of decline is by the 14Chalf-life, about 5,730 years. Recognizing these phenomena, Libby real ized that the age of ancient organic matter can be found from its residual 14C content, as mea sured by the radiation emitted by thematter. For the radiocarbon age to correspond with its actual age, several conditions must be satisfied. First, the atmospheric ratio of 14C to normal car bon (12C)must have remained essentially con stant. Second, the ratio of carbon isotopes in the measured material must not have changed?ex cept by the radioactive decay of 14C?since the death of the organism. Third, there should have been rapid and complete mixing of 14C through the various carbon reservoirs. Finally, the method assumes that the presumed half-life of 14C is correct and that suitable analyses can re veal small concentrations of radiocarbon with appropriate levels of accuracy and precision. 14C employed Libby's means ofmeasuring elemental carbon in amorphous form ("carbon black"), which he placed in a special type of Geiger counter.He originally built this type of apparatus forhis dissertation research at U.C.

60

American

Scientist, Volume

Figure 1. Testing material from the Shroud of Turin to determine whether this linen is old enough to have served as the took burial cloth for Jesus of Nazareth is just one of thewidely known applications of radiocarbon dating. Sampling inApril 1988 under the gaze ofmany observers, including Paul Damon place at the Turin Cathedral (standing at right), a radiocarbon of Arizona, and Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero expert from the University (farthest left), then Arch bishop of Turin. (Photograph from the archive of Giovanni Riggi, provided courtesy of Paul Damon.)

decay inside the sample. With this scheme, Lib by and his young collaborators were able to demonstrate the inverse relation between the 14C content and age for a series of known-age their first "Curve of samples, publishing mak ties overcame?in Knowns" inDecember 1949. encountered?and they Successful as they were, these procedures ing radiocarbon dating practical. were destined to change a great deal within just The key was finding an effectiveway to dis tinguish between background radiation and the a decade. The production ofmassive amounts relativelyweak and infrequent beta decay from of artificial radiocarbon from the atmospheric 14C innatural samples. Their solution was anti testing of nuclear weapons complicated the use measure coincidence counting, a technique that had been of elemental carbon for low-level 14C employed in the study of cosmic rays since the ments. The problem is that solid carbon, like a 1930s. Following this approach, they compared charcoal filter, tends to absorb stray com from the counter containing the sample pulses pounds, and many of the organics in the envi ronment at that point had become mildly ra with pulses received froma ring of surrounding the "guard ring." Signals that dioactive. So by themid-1950s, proportionalgas Geiger counters, did not also register on the guard ring, that is, and liquid scintillationcounting, techniques that those in "anticoincidence," reflected radioactive involve only purified C02 or hydrocarbon gas
2000 January-February 61

mid-1930s, while he was study Berkeley in the the radioactivity of rare-earth elements. Tes ing timony by thosewho labored with Libby at the University of Chicago, James R. Arnold and Ernest C. Anderson, records the great difficul

can Unfortunately, none of these facilities date with any precision samples that are less than about 300 years old, except under very spe cial conditions. This limitation stems from the natural fluctuations in 14C production com with two effectsofmodern bined, more recently, civilization: the release of enormous quantities of fossil fuel carbon dioxide and theproduction of "bomb" 14C from atmospheric nuclear test can be inferredde ing.The maximum ages that on characteristics of the instrumentation pend and other details of the experimental configura values, counter size, length tion?sample-blank of counting and, to some degree, the amount of material available for analysis. Modern laboratories with counters designed towork with older material can readily mea suremoderately sized pieces of organic matter that are as much as 40,000 to 50,000 years old. a Employing somewhat larger samples, few lab oratories have developed the capability to ob tain age estimates up to about 70,000 years. And with isotopie enrichment, some investigators have measured a small number of specimens that are as much as 75,000 years old?a truly re markable feat considering that this interval rep resents 13 half-lives, or a diminution ofmore than 8,000 times in the original, tiny radioactiv mea ityof organic matter. But improvements in surement are justpart of the story of thepast 50 years: Specialists in radiocarbon dating have also made considerable progress inunderstand ing the surprisingly complicated relationship between 14C content and elapsed time. Calibrating Radiocarbon Time A early as 1958, the pioneering 14C investigator Hessel de Vries (of theUniversity ofGroningen in theNetherlands) noted certain discrepancies between radiocarbon ages and true ages. Seek ing an understanding of the geophysical impli cations of these variations, several investigators, notably the lateHans Suess of theUniversity of California, San Diego, along*with others, such as Paul Damon at theUniversity ofArizona and Mimze Stuiver at theUniversity of Washington, began to study thisphenomenon. Suess quickly after atoms of carbon, 14C, are created high in the atmosphere Figure 2. Radioactive were su on recognized a long-term trend which of gas and give rise to short-lived cosmic rays strike molecules products spallation shorter-term components, later perimposed Some of these neutrons that emit neutrons. (those slowed through collisions with dubbed De Vries effects less formally, "wrig or, can hit nitrogen atoms (14N) and transform them to 14C. molecules) atmospheric or "time to 14C02, radiocarbon is taken up by terrestrial plants oxidized gles," "wiggles," "kinks," "windings" and, in Quickly The presence of these deviations in the into also mixes in the atmosphere animals. Most of the radiocarbon turn, warps." generated a chemist at the University of 14C time scale indicated that at least one of the these processes, Willard the sea. Recognizing Libby, mea could be ascertained that the age of an organic sample realized method?most probably theas by Chicago, postulates of the after death at a decrease content, which would of a constant concentration of 14C in exponentially suring its radiocarbon sumption rate governed the atmosphere?is violated tovarying degrees. by the half-life of 14C, about 5,730 years. Among the investigators studying these so were Ralph andMichael, es (such as acetylene and methane) or liquids called secular variations American Scientist as benzene), had largely replaced the orig who used their 1974 article in (such to focus attention on early sets ofmeasurements inalmethod. These strategies became the basis on which tens of thousands of radiocarbon that illustrated clearly the systematic anomalies more than in the 14C time scale. They and otherswere able since been deterrnined in dates have to document the amount of offsetbetween "14C world. 40 laboratories scattered throughout the
62 American Scientist, Volume 88

time" and "real time" for thepast 7,000 years by measuring the radiocarbon ages ofwood from California giant sequoia and bristlecone pine? which the true ages could be deter samples for mined by counting themany yearly growth rings in these venerable trees. These findings sparked a series of furthereffortsto calibrate the radiocarbon method, allowing true ages to be calculated by adding or subtracting the appro priate offset. When Ralph and Michael wrote their review, many workers were assuming that the long term component of the variation follows a sine wave function,with a maximum deviation of 800 to 1,000 years formaterials living about 7,000 years ago. But that surmise proved pre mature. In the past 25 years, investigators have in extending the 14C calibration succeeded much furtherback in time. For instance, com parisons between 14C and tree-ring counts of Irish oak and of German oak and pine pushed the limit to about 11,800 years ago. Probing the discrepancy between conven tional radiocarbon ages and true ages by count ing tree rings is currentlynot possible forearlier ex periods. But investigators have nevertheless tended the calibration using othermaterials and other radioisotopic clocks. For instance, the measurement of trace amounts of uranium-234 and thorium-230 in samples of ancient coral (calcium carbonate) provide estimates of their antiquity. So by pairing 234Tj/230xhages wim 14C ages from such coral samples, geologists, geochemists and oceanographers working to gether over the past decade have extended the calibration to about 24,000 years ago (or,as ex pressed inuncorrected 14C time, to about 20,300 years before 1950, the unspoken reference date a specialists commonly use when they give number of radiocarbon years "before present"). Rather than displaying a sine wave, the long termoffset appears to slowly diminish, from its value of about 3,700 years for that time to less than 200 years for the past two irtillennia. For earlier intervals, the offsetsbetween ages obtained from 14C and other dating methods show discrepancies inmany cases. For exam ple, using materials from aboriginal hearths found near Lake Mungo, Australia, investiga tors have compared radiocarbon ages with those obtained fromhearth stones using thermo luminescencedating, a technique thatmeasures the photons released from quartz when inter nal high-energy electrons are freed by heat. Be cause sunlight can also liberate these trapped electrons, thermolurrtinescence dating gauges the amount of time an object has been buried. The differences between thermoluininescence and 14C ages for these hearths suggest that the offset in the radiocarbon time scale for about 29,000 years ago may have been in the range of 3,500 to 5,000 years. But comparisons between 14C results and ages obtained frommineral

of 14C in a sample is complicated of trace quantities by back radiation, which sets off the instruments used to count the num ground that decay and release an electron. The solution Libby and ber of atoms of radiocarbon Figure 3.Measurement environmental his colleagues heavy used in the late 1940s was to surround the decay-counting apparatus with shielding and a ring of small detectors (photograph). They could thus distinguish the shield (A-A' on diagram) from puls pulses caused by radiation that had penetrated es originating with signals which would be "anticoincident" inside the detector ( '), from the "guard ring. "(Photograph courtesy of the University 2000 of Chicago Library.) 63

January-February

SAMPLES OF KNOWN AGE

^TaE

ERiNGC5? f 50 a OD

PTOLEMYC2O0 ? 150BCD

eh

TayinATC673 REDWOOD

? 5Oa0O C979 ?3?aC.) ? SOBO

Curve Calculated From Present Day Point half Life Or Anoknown Radiocarbon, 5720 ? 47 years

SCS0STRISCI?43

ZoSCR^NEFEflu) 2?50?75

1000

2000 3000 Historical

5000 4000 AgeCycarS)

6000

problems because they introduce built-in uncer tainties indating: Calendar ages can oftenbe ex pressed only as broad ranges, even when the 14C concentrations are known precisely. Thus radio carbon dates for some time periods will be in herently less precise than those forothers. Radiocarbon specialists have considered var ious strategies to increase precision. Some em ploy Bayesian statistics?a technique for com bining stratigraphie ordering and 14C ages?to prevent the errorbars in a ordered series of sam ples from overlapping. Among other things, such a strategy assumes that samples from low er beds must be older than those obtained high er in the stratigraphie column. Another novel calibration procedure is "wiggle-matching." mea This maneuver requires a sequence of 14C surements for closely spaced tree rings taken froma sample ofwood of unknown age.Match ing the shifts in these values against the known pattern of short-termde Vries effects in the cali bration curve permits a more precise age of the sample to be found. For example, Austin Long and his colleagues at theUniversity ofArizona used this strategy to determine the cutting date for a timber from a 4th-century Japanese tomb with an uncertainty of only five years. Accelerated Progress So in some cases radiocarbon dates are clearly
becoming more accurate.

Figure young These

here as decay counts per minute per gram of carbon) a rate commensurate with the half-life of 14C. This

in December 1949, when Libby and a initially demonstrated their first "Curve of Knowns" (above). James Arnold, colleague, published content in samples of known age (expressed that radiocarbon results showed 4. Success was

from another young colleague, Ernest Anderson (be Libby (below, at right) received of Chicago low, at left). (Photograph courtesy of the University Library; graph reprint ed with permission from Science.)

over time at did, in fact, decrease on help achievement depended

was

ing easier to obtain. The chief difficulty in the past was that a considerable amount ofmaterial
needed to measure radiocarbon concentra

They

are

also

becom

mermoluminescence

specimens by assessing the radioactive decay of potassium into argon suggest less of an offset for this same period. Studies of ancient changes in the intensityof the earth's dipole magnetic field (and thus its ability to shield the planet from cosmic rays)? a currently considered to be major cause of the offsets in 14Cages?also cast doubt on long-term themagnitude of the discrepancy found using
as a yardstick. One inter

pretation of thegeomagnetic evidence argues for a slowly decreasing offset in radiocarbon ages, one that starts in the range of 1,500 to 2,700 years material living between 25,000 and 40,000 for deductions drawn from years ago. Interestingly, the geomagnetic measurements predict that 14C ages should be largely correct for carbon that is about 45,000 to 50,000 years old. Further work will be needed to confirm that the systematic error in radiocarbon ages for500 century-oldmaterial is truly so small and to ex amine the short-term secular variations at such remote times.But investigatorsnow have a good handle on the "wiggles" in the calibration for the last twelve millennia. These variations are well documented, yet they cause considerable
64 American Scientist, Volume 88

tion?and thus age?by counting decay events with an ionization or scintillationdetector.Decay counting registers only a tiny fractionof the 14C atoms present. For example, of the 60 billion atoms of 14C in 1 gram of pre-industrial carbon, fewer than 14 of these atoms will, on average, decay during each minute ofmeasurement. Practitioners tolerated the inherent ineffi ciency in decay counting from Libby's first in 1946 until 1977, when physicist work Richard Muller of theUniversity of California, Berkeley proposed that radiocarbon concentra tions could be found directly with a cyclotron. This high-energy accelerator, which sends par ticles along a spiral trajectory,could be used as an ultrasensitive mass spectrometer to distin guish ionized carbon isotopes by their charge to-mass ratio. Detecting 14C in thisway was possible, but consistent results proved difficult to achieve despite years of effort. mass spectrometry, Another type of accelerator as this approach was called, was described in dependently by two groups of physicists within initial publication. Both months ofMuller's led by D. Erie Nelson at Simon groups?one Fraser University and the second involving a collaboration of investigators at theUniversities of Toronto and Rochester, and theGeneral Ionex that therewere no known Corporation?noted

stable negative nitrogen ions. By using negative Over the last 20 years, investigators have in deed realized the first two of these anticipated ions, the accelerator would discriminate against most difficul would create the benefits. For both sample sizes and counting 14N, the ion that times, thousand-fold reductions have been ty in measuring 14C.Both groups also used tan dem electrostatic As thename implies, possible. However, theprojected third advance accelerators. these devices employ two stages: A negative ion has not materialized. Why not? It turns out beam is first accelerated and passes through a that sensitivity is limited not by the detector "stripper,"which removes electrons, converting but by the tainting of samples with modern the beam to positive ions. These particles are carbon, which is commonly introduced as the then furtheraccelerated. The stripping process materials are prepared for analysis. Much of breaks up molecules ofmass 14,which would this contamination stems from the current re otherwise interfere A most laboratories that samples be with the detection of 14C. quirement in mass spectrometer, essentially a large electro measurement converted to graphitic carbon for mass So in magnet, separates the isotopes of carbon so that with an accelerator spectrometer. the 14Catoms can be counted directly. vestigators at these facilities face the same The advent of accelerator mass spectrometry problem that hampered Libby's use of solid at the end of the 1970s brought about an enor carbon samples a half-century ago. Even a few mous boost in detection efficiency, one that parts per million ofmodern carbon in a sample promised three important advantages. First, the will limit the effectivemaximum ages that can amount of carbon required should plummet be resolved. So in practice, 14Cdating with ac from grams tomilligrams. Second, counting celerator mass spectrometry has not broken times should be reduced from days, weeks or through the age barrier established by decay even months to justminutes. Finally, the sensi it still lies counting: In routine application, tivity of detection should increase so that the somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 years; maximum age datable with radiocarbon might only rarely can 60,000 be achieved. extend from the then routine 40,000 to 50,000 Also, the ages estimated with particle acceler ators are no more or less accurate or precise than years to as much as 100,000 years.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

"

^ :

?o

<_)

Fig 1.

Cf?LENDRIC DRTE (RG-BCJ

of known age to be "calibrat radio offsets

of samples Figure 5. Measurements have allowed the radiocarbon method

on wood extracted initially depended trees, for which age could be derived the 1970s yearly growth rings. During sults of such studies were taken offsets varied

ed" by adding or subtracting the offset between carbon age and true age. Efforts to establish

from ancient

as suggested sinusoidally, by the sum et al. (1982) (above). But later Bard mary plot of Kline et al. (1990) compared radiocarbon results for coral samples with measurements grows even age estimates on the same larger derived samples and determined

by counting and 1980s, re to indicate that age

from 234fj/230Th

that the offset does

graph reprinted lower graph reprinted

not vary sinusoidally; rather, it for earlier periods (right). (Upper from Radiocarbon; by permission by permission from Nature.)

2000

January-February

65

garded as among the earliest example of culti vated maize in theNew World, seemingly as much as seven millennia old. But this idea was established at thebeginning of the 1970s,when it was not possible tomeasure the radiocarbon content of the small amount ofmaize recovered. Archaeologists had to obtain age estimates from were thought todate from pieces of charcoal that the same period. (Charcoal, unlike unburned wood, can survive many centuries of burial.) In 1989, Long and his colleagues measured the 14C content in milligram amounts ofmaize with accelerator mass spectrometry and found that the seeds were less than 5,000 years old. So over the past decade, archaeologists have had to rethink their ideas about justwhere the center ofmaize domestication in Mesoamerica have been. may Accelerator mass spectrometry has also most acrimonious helped to address one of the New World archaeology?the nature debates in and timing of the peopling of theWestern Hemisphere. Historically, arguments have cen tered on two issues: the strengthof the evidence forhuman presence and its dating. Many ar chaeologists have questioned thevalidity ofma terialswith radiocarbon dates in excess of the well-documented Clovis period, for which the ages of artifacts range from about 10,890 to 11,570 radiocarbon years. Beginning in themid-1970s, my colleagues and I undertook a direct examination of bone from human skeletons found at different ar chaeological sites inNorth American that, on various grounds, had been declared to be pre Clovis in age. The sensitivity of accelerator mass Figure 6. Gas and liquid-scintillation counting replaced solid-carbon counting during the 1950s, in part because of the massive amount of artificial 14C created by the then spectrometry eventually permitted us to obtain in the atmosphere. Solid carbon samples would 14C ages from different chemical fractions of frequent testing of nuclear bombs of "bomb 14C" from the air, just as a carbon filter ab these bones, including amino acids and other quickly absorb trace amounts sorbs many other gaseous lines to purify and handle gas organic compounds. Vacuum highly specific organic constituents. We could for radiocarbon samples dating, such as the apparatus pictured here at the Isotope thus judge whether the bones might have ab of California, Los Angeles, were widely (Pho Laboratory of the University employed. sorbed older carbon, for example, from the of Chemistry.) tograph courtesy of the UCLA Department were buried. which they ground in those obtained by decay counting. But the new The work of several laboratories revealed that all of the alleged pre-Clovis ages were unreli approach provided a way tomeasure samples with extremely small amounts of carbon. Ex able. Although there now is evidence that at least one site inSouth America (Monte Verde in periments thatwould not have been mounted or would not have been practical with conven Chile) may have been occupied about 1,000 tional decay counting were suddenly possible. years before theClovis period, no human skele In the biomedicai sciences, for example, clini ton fromNorth America has yielded ages any cians could use natural concentrations of 14C to older than 11,000 radiocarbon years. trace theflow of a compound within a patient's So the peopling ofNorth America probably rather than having to administer a more body, begins, as most prehistorians have long be radioactive solution. This advance thus lieved, at the very end of the last ice age. But highly were previously deemed the story is certainly not a simple one, and the fi permitted studies that tobe overly dangerous. nal chapter has not been written. Our recent 14C In archaeology, the leap was no smaller. Very measurements on human skeletons recovered from Kennewick in quickly, scientists could be quite selective about Washington and Spirit Cave what theywanted tomeasure. A good illustra inNevada hint at some of the complications. tion of the gains that ensued comes from a 1989 These remains, between 8,000 and 10,000 years old, seem to show skeletal features similar to study ofmaize specimens excavated from two rock shelters in the Tehuacan Valley ofMexico. those of early South Asian populations, unlike The Zea mays found at those sites had been re more recentNative Americans. It appears that
66 American Scientist, Volume 88

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of 14C became possible af Figure 7. Direct measurement ter 1977, when physicists began to couple particle accel erators with mass spectrometers. One of the first demon atMcMaster strations of this technique

FIG. 1a

isotopes of carbon to be separated. They shared their pi measure ideas for conducting radiocarbon oneering ments in thisway with a diagram (right), generated using one of the firstMacintosh computers. (Photographs and diagram courtesy of D. Erie Nelson.)

took place using an accelerator and his (above). D. Erie Nelson University combined this impressive instrument with a colleagues large analyzing magnet (far right), allowing the different

the late ice-age inhabitants of North America may have been much more genetically diverse thanwas previously imagined. An Impressive Half-Century Now, at the 50th anniversary, it is difficult for many people to appreciate justhow dramatical ly the advent of radiocarbon dating transformed archaeology. Libby's inventionmade the study ofworld prehistory trulypossible, contributing a time scale that may not have been perfect (par at the outset) but that transcended the ticularly former jumble of regional schemes. Radiocarbon dating continues to provide the chronological foundation, directly or indirectly, most investigations into the past 500 cen for turies of prehistory.And it regularly contributes to many other fields of science, fromgeology to astrophysics, a breadth that is perhaps fitting for a method that owes its current level of so workers in somany disciplines. phistication to Acknowledgment The author would like to thankDr. John Southon (Centerfor Accelerator Mass Spectrometry,Law

renceLivermoreNational Laboratory)for his valu able assistance in thepreparation of thisarticle. Bibliography

Arnold,

J.R., and W. R Libby. 1949. Age determinations content: Checks with of samples by radiocarbon known age. Science 110:678-680.

Bard, E., B. Hamlin, R. G. Fairbanks and A. Zindler. 1990. of the 14C timescale over the past 30,000 Calibration years using mass spectrometric U-Th ages from Bar bados corals. Nature 345:405-410. and E. K. Ralph. 1982. C. Kline, J.,J. Lerman, P. E. Damon of radiocarbon dates: Tables based on the Calibration on calibrating the ra consensus data of theworkshop diocarbon timescale. Radiocarbon 24:103-150. 1974. Twenty-five years of Ralph, E. K,.and H. N. Michael. radiocarbon dating. American Scientist 62:553-560.

Links

to Internet resources for further exploration are of "Fifty Years of Radiocarbon Dating" available on the American Scientist Web site: http: / / www.arnsci.org/amsei/ OOarticles/taylor.html articles/

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