Forensic Radiocarbon Dating of Human Remains

Radiocarbon Dating of Human Remains : The past , the present , and the future

Radiocarbon dating is a valuable tool for the forensic examination of human remains in answering questions as to whether the remains are of forensic or medico-legal interest or archaeological in date. The technique is also potentially capable of providing the year of birth and/or death of an individual. Atmospheric radiocarbon levels are currently enhanced relative to the natural level due to t...

Radiocarbon Dating.

Radiocarbon Dating of Ground Water

Radiocarbon dating of ground water is used in combination with the primary measurements of classical hydrological and chemical analyses. Radiocarbon dating will produce the best results when it involves multiple measurements or sequential sampling. The most useful data come from these comparisons and not from absolute ages. In the case of multiple measurements, the apparent ages of the ground w...

Fifty Years of Radiocarbon Dating

The history of radiocarbon dating through the 20th century is presented, focusing on the work of Willard F. Libby, who introduced radiocarbon dating in 1949, and its application during the following 50 years. Topics include an explanation of radiocarbon dating, by which the age of organic matter can be determined; difficulties Libby encountered in developing processes for accurate measurements;...

Radiocarbon Dating: The Continuing Revolution

Radiocarbon (I4C) dating, now in its fifth decade of general use, continues to be the most widely employed method of inferring chronometric age for late Pleistocene and Holocene age materials recovered from archeological contexts. Over the last decade, several technical advances in I4C studies have provided contexts for a number of significant applications in archeology that were previously eit...