| ▲ | Words of warning about radiocarbon dating medieval human bones(nature.com) |
| 59 points by gumby a day ago | 11 comments |
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| ▲ | thisisauserid 23 minutes ago | parent | next [-] |
| Freshwater systems act as reservoirs storing ancient dissolved carbonates lacking radiocarbon; fish absorb this old carbon, artificially aging human bones. |
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| ▲ | 4ndrewl 7 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I thought this was a well known effect - it's certainly filtered down to some paperback popsci archaeology books I've read in the past few years. |
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| ▲ | bcraven 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | This appears to be a comment, highlighting a case study that demonstrates the effect in detail. It is not purporting to show it as 'new'. | |
| ▲ | tengwar2 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Yes. Most of the research on C14 dating since its inception has concentrated on quantifying this for different environments, sample types, and dates, or quantifying other effects that give results other than a smooth exponential decay. I'm not clear why this was published. Any C14 lab is aware of this sort of issue. There are also non-C14 techniques available for human remains, e.g. ESR (electron spin resonance) dating. | |
| ▲ | Legend2440 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I remember reading about it as a kid, in 1990s creationist books that were attempting to argue that carbon dating couldn't be trusted and the world was actually only 6,000 years old. | | |
| ▲ | bmenrigh an hour ago | parent [-] | | Yeah I grew up in a religious household. A reoccurring theme was about how scientists didn't have a clue about most things. Carbon dating was high up on the list of stuff "scientists were wrong about". |
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| ▲ | LorenPechtel 23 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I would have expected it from the sea, I didn't realize it happened meaningfully in fresh water. |
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| ▲ | pvaldes 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yep. I suspected that that arctic shark couldn't be so old. |
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| ▲ | gus_massa 11 hours ago | parent [-] | | I think the age is calculated counting the "rings" in ... [looking at google] ... the vertebrae. |
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| ▲ | archimedes237 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Defiling the dead bodies of monks... |
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| ▲ | tengwar2 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | "He is a grave-robber; you are a treasure hunter; I am an archaeologist." |
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