Sandscaping and C14: the Udal, N. Uist

Antiquity ◽  
1977 ◽  
Vol 51 (202) ◽  
pp. 124-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iain Crawford ◽  
Roy Switsur
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Second Stage ◽  
Research Fellow ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Queen's University ◽  
European Standards

A research campaign into the scarcely known history and prehistoric origins of Scottish West Highland and Island settlement, has located an area of ‘fossil’ landscape at Coileagan an Udail (the Udal), N. Uist. The completion of a first stage of 14 years excavation (155 weeks) has provided detailed evidence of continuous occupation from the Iron Age to the eighteenth century AD. Sampling has shown positive indications of a similar picture back through much of prehistory at least as far as the Beaker period and is the basis for the proposed second stage of excavations. This remarkably long (by European standards) sequence of deposition has had its coherence confirmed by a first series of radiocarbon dates. The calibration of these dates and their relationship to crucial artifacts is considered. This article is by Iain Crawford, who has just completed two years as Senior Visiting Research Fellow at The Queen's University of Belfast, and Dr Roy Switsur, Head of the Radiocarbon Dating Research Laboratory University of Cambridge.

Radiocarbon Dates and New World Chronology

Antiquity ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 35 (140) ◽  
pp. 286-291 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Bushnell
Keyword(s):  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
New World ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Past ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact

It is a commonplace of current archaeology that the publication of radiocarbon dates is revolutionizing our ideas of the past. Dr G. H. S. Bushnell, Curator of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in the University of Cambridge, England, has already published in ANTIQUITY and elsewhere some of his views on the impact of radiocarbon dating on New World chronology. Here he studies the whole problem in detail. He adopts the useful convention of referring to a date already fully published in the Radiocarbon Supplement to the American Journal of Science simply by its laboratory designation and number {thus K-554 is reading no. 554 of the Copenhagen Laboratory), but in some cases, where the date is not fully published, he gives fuller information.

scholarly journals Further Developments in On-Line Computing and Radiocarbon Dating At the British Museum

Radiocarbon ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
A D Hewson ◽  
J A Hall
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Liquid Scintillation ◽  
Full Range ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Scintillation Counting ◽  
Hewlett Packard ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
On Line ◽  
Reporting Procedures

In November 1973 the British Museum Research Laboratory acquired a Hewlett Packard 2100A mini-computer for the storage, calculation and retrieval of scientific measurements made on museum objects. A part of the computer's work is the calculation of radiocarbon dates based on the liquid scintillation counting of 14C activities. A system of programs and files has been developed and has been in daily use since August 1974 (Hall and Hewson, 1977).This paper describes changes and improvements to the system to make it more flexible so that it now provides the full range of facilities required by an active 14C laboratory. The reporting procedures in particular have been restructured in the light of experience. The paper will be of interest to all laboratories that have, or hope to have, access to similar mini- or micro-computers.

The Impact of Radiocarbon Dating on the Establishment of the Prehistoric Chronology of Brittany

1971 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. R. Giot
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
The Real ◽  
De Vries ◽  
The Absolute ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Neolithic Cultures

From their onset, the first radiocarbon dates gave a range of the absolute chronology to come, but in their detail, they opened more problems than they settled, chiefly because of the possible or unsuspected questions in relation to the reliability of the samples themselves (Delibrias and Giot, 1970). It is only with the experience of great numbers of dates, and the possibility of considering them so to speak statistically, that one can evaluate the real implications of the time scales provided by the method.In Brittany, beginning with a few dates provided by the Groningen Laboratory under H. de Vries, we have been afterwards nearly totally supplied by the Centre des Faibles Radioactivités at Gif-sur-Yvette (Giot, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971; Coursaget and Le Run, 1968; Delibrias, Guillier and Labeyrie, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1969, 1970; Coppens, Durand and Guillet, 1968; Vogel and Waterbolk, 1963).We now benefit with more than 200 radiocarbon dates for Brittany alone. We shall consider here about 140 of them, disregarding some duplicates, dates pertaining to periods older than the Neolithic cultures or on the contrary later than the Iron Age, and dates only concerning geological natural sites, though these can be full of interest by their information about the botanical scenery and the effects of cultivation or pasture.

scholarly journals Pretoria Radiocarbon Dates I

Radiocarbon ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 378-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Vogel ◽  
M. Marais
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Neutron Monitor ◽  
Cosmic Radiation ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Physical Research Laboratory ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Physical Research ◽  
Nucleonic Component

In 1969 radiocarbon dating facilities were established at the National Physical Research Laboratory of the C.S.I.R. in Pretoria (25° 43′ S Lat, 28° 21′ E Long; alt 1500 m). The counters are situated in an underground room built of selected concrete and covered by ca. 12 m earth. In this room, the nucleonic component of cosmic radiation is practically absent and the meson flux is reduced by a factor of 3.5 as compared to the surface at sea level in Groningen, Netherlands. A neutron monitor which registers 30 cpm on the surface, counts ca. 0.1 cpm in the underground room.

scholarly journals University of Cambridge Natural Radiocarbon Measurements XIV

Radiocarbon ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 301-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
V R Switsur ◽  
R G West
Keyword(s):  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Plastic Scintillator ◽  
Environmental Radiation ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Pure Carbon ◽  
Proportional Counters ◽  
Coincidence Mode ◽  
The University ◽  
Pure Carbon Dioxide

The dates presented in this paper comprise results of determinations made at the University Radiocarbon Dating Research Laboratory, mostly during the latter half of 1974. Radioactivity was measured with proportional counters using pure carbon dioxide at 2 atmospheres pressure as filling gas. Effects of cosmic and local environmental radiation on the counters were reduced by surrounding them completely with 1) a plastic scintillator anticoincidence shield, 7.5cm thick, viewed by 2 photomultiplier tubes operating in coincidence mode, the output pulses of which were in anticoincidence with the proportional counters signals, and 2) by a 17.5 ton lead castle.

scholarly journals New Radiocarbon Dates and a Review of the Chronology of Prehistoric Populations from the Minusinsk Basin, Southern Siberia, Russia

Radiocarbon ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svetlana V Svyatko ◽  
James P Mallory ◽  
Eileen M Murphy ◽  
Andrey V Polyakov ◽  
Paula J Reimer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Human Bone ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Southern Siberia ◽  
Minusinsk Basin

The results are presented of a new program of radiocarbon dating undertaken on 88 human skeletons. The individuals derived from Eneolithic to Early Iron Age sites—Afanasievo, Okunevo, Andronovo (Fedorovo), Karasuk, and Tagar cultures—in the Minusinsk Basin of Southern Siberia. All the new dates have been acquired from human bone, which is in contrast to some of the previous dates for this region obtained from wood and thus possibly unreliable due to old-wood effects or re-use of the timber. The new data are compared with the existing14C chronology for the region, thereby enabling a clearer understanding to be gained concerning the chronology of these cultures and their place within the prehistory of the Eurasian steppes.

scholarly journals Radiocarbon Dating of the Crannogs of Loch Tay, Perthshire (Scotland)

Radiocarbon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 673-684 ◽  
Author(s):  
T N Dixon ◽  
G T Cook ◽  
B Andrian ◽  
L S Garety ◽  
N Russell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Iron Age ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Open Water ◽  
Early Iron Age ◽  
Neolithic Period ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Radiocarbon Dates ◽  
Timber Piles ◽  
Hunting And Fishing

Crannogs are ancient artificial islands found in Scotland and Ireland, which typically had some sort of dwelling place constructed on them that served variously as farmers' homesteads, status symbols, refuges in times of trouble, hunting and fishing stations, etc. Substantial research has been carried out for similar sites in mainland Europe, which has demonstrated that they were lakeside settlements, mostly dating to the Neolithic period and not built over open water. In contrast, the Scottish and Irish sites were built in open water, clearly separate from the shore. In Perthshire, some prehistoric crannogs were originally timber-built roundhouses supported on piles or stilts driven into the loch bed. Today, these crannogs appear as tree-covered islands or remain hidden as submerged stony mounds. Until recently, there were few radiocarbon dates for these structures and so the sites appeared as a homogeneous group. Not only did this make it impossible to examine them in sub-groupings but it also inhibited research, as they did not fit into known periods or architecturally distinct sub-groups, except that they were surrounded by water. Recent work in Loch Tay has resulted in 14C dating of the timber piles from 13 of the 18 crannogs in the loch, allowing them to be fitted into different classes. A major group was constructed in the Early Iron Age around 400–800 BC, with smaller groups constructed around 200–300 BC and 0 BC/AD. There is also evidence of repair/reoccupation of some of these crannogs in the 6th–9th centuries AD. A number of the sites were also known to be inhabited into the recent past, with one, Priory Island, occupied until the 17th century. The dates of construction also raise important issues relating to the loch-level changes that have taken place. The 14C results will be discussed in relation to the periods of origin and habitation of the crannogs.

scholarly journals University of Cambridge Natural Radiocarbon Measurements XI

Radiocarbon ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 156-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. R. Switsur ◽  
R. G. West
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
High Pressure ◽  
Research Laboratory ◽  
Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Organic Content ◽  
Wet Oxidation ◽  
High Carbon ◽  
High Carbon Content ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
The University

The measurements presented in this paper were carried out at the University Radiocarbon Dating Research Laboratory during the second half of 1971 using carbon dioxide counting. The counting equipment used was substantially that described by Switsur, Hall, and West (1970). Oxidation of samples of sufficiently high carbon content was performed in a stainless steel high pressure combustion bomb, developed at this laboratory, otherwise by ‘wet’ oxidation using acidified permanganate solutions for lake mud and samples of low organic content.

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