Radiocarbon Dating Study of Ancient Iron Artifacts with Accelerator Mass Spectrometry.

4.4 Radiocarbon dating of the Iceman Ötzi with accelerator mass spectrometry

On 19 September 1991 an extraordinary archaeological discovery was made at a high-altitude mountain pass (Tisenjoch, 3210 m) of the Ötztal Alps near the Austrian-Italian border. Two mountain hikers from Nürnberg, Erika and Helmut Simon, after having scaled the Finail Peak (3516 m) that day were on their way back to the Similaun mountain hut (3019 m) located at the lowest part of a mountain ridg...

Introduction to Radiocarbon Determination by the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Method

There are three principal isotopes of carbon which occur naturally C, C (both stable) and C (unstable or radioactive). These isotopes are present in the following amounts C 98.89%, C 1.11%, and C 0.00000000010%. Thus, one carbon-14 atom exists in nature for every 1,000,000,000,000 or (1 in a trillion) carbon-12 atoms in living material. The radiocarbon method is based on the rate of decay of th...

Radiocarbon Dating.

Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Vera

The Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA) is a dedicated facility for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), operated at the University of Vienna since 1996. The principle of AMS with VERA and the advantage of measuring long-lived radioisotopes by atom counting (AMS) rather than decay counting (ß decay) is described. A brief overview on AMS applications is also presented.

Progress in Radiocarbon Dating with the Chalk River Mp Tandem Accelerator

Accelerator-based radioisotope dating is an important development for situations where sample sizes are limited and for isotopes of very long half-life. The technique can also be used for studying isotopic ratios of stable isotopes of possible interest in geochemical or other disciplines. Chalk River work in this field is motivated by its application to ground water dating in connection with nu...