A Radiocarbon Database for Scottish Archaeological Samples

Abstract

For the majority of dating laboratories and their respective user communities, the journal Radiocarbon is no longer regarded as the medium for primary publication of radiocarbon measurements. In compliance with editorial policy, the emphasis has long since moved towards the publication of research papers on technological enhancements and applications of 14C as well as other cosmogenic isotopes and this has left a requirement for an alternative medium for the publication of date lists per se. In the late 1980s, an International Radiocarbon Data Base was proposed by Renee Kra (then the managing editor) but limitations in computer and communications technologies together with the inevitable financial implications meant that this timely concept could not be taken to completion. In the last year, we have taken advantage of the development of the worldwide web to compile a database of 14C age measurements of a Scottish archaeological nature which can be found at the web address http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/.