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Radiocarbon, Volume 43, Number 2A (2001: Recent submissions
Now showing items 1-20 of 53
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Radiocarbon, Volume 43, Number 2A (Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference, Part 1 of 3, 2001)Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, 2001-01-01
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Thanks from RadiocarbonDepartment of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, 2001-01-01
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Editorial BoardDepartment of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, 2001-01-01
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Conference ParticipantsDepartment of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, 2001-01-01
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Acknowledgments of Financial SupportDepartment of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, 2001-01-01
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Transition Dating' – A Heuristic Mathematical Approach to the Collation of Radiocarbon Dates from Stratified SequencesA heuristic approach, nicknamed "transition dating," was used to date sequences of early Iron Age contexts using a series of 14C determinations. The basic principles of transition dating are simple and intuitive: 1) attempt to date transitions between periods, phases, etc. Rather than the phases themselves, and 2) the most plausible date for that transition is one that is later than the dates from contexts preceding it, and is still earlier than the dates succeeding it. Hypotheses regarding the actual date of each transition may be evaluated using an appropriate loss function. These loss functions can also be adjusted or weighted by the user to account differentially for the various factors causing the distortion or "fuzz" in the dates.
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The Filling of Gaps in Geophysical Time Series by Artificial Neural NetworksNowadays, there is a large number of time series of natural data to study geophysical and astrophysical phenomena and their characteristics. However, short length and data gaps pose a substantial problem for obtaining results on properties of the underlying physical phenomena with existing algorithms. Using only an equidistant subset of the data with coarse steps leads to loss of information. We present a method to recover missing data in time series. The approach is based on modeling the time series with manifolds of small dimension, and it is implemented with the help of neural networks. We applied this approach to real data on cosmogenic isotopes, demonstrating that it could successfully repair gaps where data was purposely left out. Multi-fractal analysis was applied to a true radiocarbon time series after recovering missing data.
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The Chemical and Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Archaeological Wood Cellulose and Monosaccharide Purification by High pH Anion Exchange Chromatography for Compound-Specific Radiocarbon DatingPreliminary experiments were carried out on archaeological wood to investigate methods of cellulose hydrolysis and carbohydrate monomer purification for the purpose of compound-specific radiocarbon dating. The Chelford log, a known 14C dead source of wood cellulose, was selected for study in order to investigate the levels of contamination introduced during sample purification. Two methods of hydrolysis were examined, mineral acid hydrolysis and enzyme hydrolysis using cellulase from Penicillium funiculosum. Under the conditions described, enzymolysis was far superior to acid hydrolysis in terms of the glucose monomer yield. Glucose monomer purification was accomplished using high pH anion exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection. This high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method does not require sample derivatization and the chromatography products can be collected in water. These characteristics make it potentially well suited to carbon dating applications. 14C dating of chromatographically purified glucose fractions revealed significant levels of contamination had accumulated during both protocols. Glucose contamination from the cellulase enzyme preparation was a major source of contamination within the enzymatically hydrolyzed samples. Ultrafiltration of the enzyme removed some but not all of this contamination. The contamination must be reduced 10-fold before the methodology could be viable for dating. This hydrolysis/HPLC method is also being investigated for 14C dating of other carbohydrate polymers such as chitin.
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Solar Activity and Regional ClimateWe performed a statistical analysis of the data on summer temperature anomalies in northern Fennoscandia (8-1995 AD) and found that a 70-130-yr cycle is present in this series during most of the time period. A comparison of the reconstructed northern Fennoscandia temperature with different indicators of solar activity (Wolf numbers, the length of solar Schwabe cycle, extended bi-decadal radiocarbon series, and data on sunspots observed by naked eye) shows that the more probable cause of the periodicity is the modulation of regional northern Fennoscandia climate by the long-term solar cycle of Gleissberg. The effect of this century-scale solar modulation of the global Northern Hemisphere temperature is weaker.
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Seasonal Fluctuation of Stable Carbon Isotopic Composition in Japanese Cypress Tree Rings from the Last Glacial Period—Possibility of Paleoenvironment ReconstructionSeasonal variations of delta-13C were analyzed for two Japanese cypress trees (Chamaecyparis obtusa), one buried and one living. Both trees were different in age but sampled in areas geographically close to each other in central Japan. A buried cypress with 394 annual rings was excavated from Old Fuji mudflow, the last glacial strata of the dormant Mt. Fuji volcano. The accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon date of this glacial sample was 18,600 +/120 BP (NUTA-4884). A living tree stem, which has 192 rings, was cut from the Izu Peninsula in 1986. In order to measure the seasonal delta-13C fluctuation, the tree rings were divided equally into three earlywood and one or two latewood consecutive sections. The delta-13C value within an annual ring generally increased from the first to the third or fourth sections then decreased in the last section. This pattern of the variation was similar in the glacial and modern samples. The delta-13C value within an annual ring seems to be controlled by environmental factors (not plant physiological ones), since there was no isotopic shift in the seasonal delta-13C variation at the earlywood-latewood boundary, which was controlled by plant physiology. The result suggests the potential to reconstruct the paleoenvironment within a year using the seasonal delta-13C variation, though site-specific conditions such as soil characteristics would also affect to its fluctuation.
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Sample Preparation of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Groundwater for AMS 14C AnalysisThis study describes a sample preparation technique used to isolate dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater for radiocarbon analysis using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The goal of the work is to improve our ability to determine groundwater residence times based on 14C measurements of the DOC fraction in groundwater. Water samples were collected from carbonate and volcanic rock aquifers in southern Nevada. Multiple measurements of total dissolved organic carbon (TDOC) in groundwater from one site are used to demonstrate the reproducibility of the analytical procedure. The reproducibility of the method is about one percent (1sigma) for a 0.5 mg sample. The procedural blank for the same size sample contains about 1 percent modern carbon (pMC).
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Searching Solar Periodicities in the Late Glacial Record of Atmospheric RadiocarbonAccelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dating of the late glacial section of laminated sediments from Lake Gościąż and Lake Perespilno, Poland, performed with time resolution of 20-30 years suggests quasi-periodic oscillations of Delta-14C. The regularity of oscillations has been checked by the Maximum Entropy and Fast Fourier Transform methods (MEM and FFT), which revealed peaks at 200 and 230 yr. These periods are similar to those found in the high-precision Holocene Delta-14C record, and attributed to the changing sun. The analytical assessment of the significance of the FFT and MEM peaks is problematic because of non-uniform spacing and various uncertainties in the input data. The significance of the peaks has therefore been studied by the Monte-Carlo method. Because the original data were approximated with a spline function, the amplitude of the MEM and FFT peaks depends on the stiffness of the spline, which is strongly related to the "real" uncertainty of 14C ages. The Monte-Carlo experiments demonstrate that the significance levels of the MEM and FFT peaks also depend on the spline stiffness. Therefore, the existence of solar 14C variations in the Late Glacial remains an open question.
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Radiocarbon Reservoir Correction Ages in the Peter the Great Gulf, Sea of Japan, and Eastern Coast of the Kunashir, Southern Kuriles (Northwestern Pacific)The radiocarbon reservoir age correction values (R) for the Russian Far East are estimated as 370 +/26 yr for the northwestern Sea of Japan, and 711 +/46 yr for the southern Kurile Islands.
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Radiocarbon Measurements of Tree Rings from 14 ka Huon PineWe have measured the radiocarbon content of tree rings from a section of Huon pine retrieved from Tasmania. The sample was divided into 39 five-ring sub-samples covering a period of 194 years. Radiocarbon ages of each of these sub-samples was determined by making four measurements of each sub-sample at the Arizona AMS laboratory (Table 1). The resulting 1-sigma precisions are about 0.5%. A comparison of our data with the appropriate curve in INTCAL98 indicates that the calendar age of our sample is close to 14,000 cal BP. Using this age calibration, we have constructed a plot of Delta-14C versus assumed calendar age. This plot shows an essentially constant value over the youngest 125 rings of our sample. Over the oldest 75 yr of the sample, the Delta-14C curve exhibits three fluctuations, the largest of which is about 65 per mil. The time of the peaks in the Huon-pine 14C curve corresponds approximately with the European Bolling/Allerod climatic event. Work is in progress to extend the data 100 yr more toward older ages.
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Radiocarbon Dating of Wood Using Different Pretreatment Procedures: Application to the Chronology of Rotoehu Ash, New ZealandWe compare radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ages of wood samples subjected to a conventional acid-base-acid pretreatment with stepped combustion (ABA-SC) with results from the same samples subjected to an acid-base-wet oxidation pretreatment with stepped combustion (ABOX-SC) and cellulose extraction with stepped combustion (CE-SC). The ABOX-SC procedure has been shown previously to lead to lower backgrounds for old charcoal samples. Analyses of relatively uncontaminated " 14C-dead" samples of wood suggest that backgrounds of 0.11 +/0.04 pMC are obtainable for both the ABOX-SC and ABA-SC procedures. Where wood is significantly contaminated the ABOX-SC technique provides significantly better decontamination than either the ABA-SC technique or cellulose extraction alone, although CE-SC can produce comparably low backgrounds to the ABOX-SC procedure. We also report the application of the ABOX-SC, ABA-SC and CE-SC procedures to wood samples associated with the chronologically controversial Rotoehu Ash eruption, New Zealand. New 14C-AMS dates from wood sampled from below the Rotoehu Ash span an age range of 43-50 ka BP consistent with recently presented OSL dates of 42-44 ka obtained for palaeosols beneath the ash.
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Radiocarbon Dating of Single Compounds Isolated from Pottery Cooking Vessel ResiduesWe have developed and demonstrated a practical methodology for dating specific compounds (and octadecanoic or stearic acid—C18:0—in particular) from the lipid material surviving in archaeological cooking pots. Such compounds may be extracted from about 10 g of cooking potsherd, and, after derivatization, can be purified by gas chromatography. To obtain sufficient material for precise dating repetitive, accumulating, GC separation is necessary. Throughout the 6000-year period studied, and over a variety of site environments within England, dates on C18:0 show no apparent systematic error, but do have a greater variability than can be explained by the errors due to the separation chemistry and measurement process alone. This variability is as yet unexplained. Dates on C16:0 show greater variability and a systematic error of approximately 100-150 years too young, and it is possible that this is due to contamination from the burial environment. Further work should clarify this.
